Clouding cont / water quality / Ro units

[Karlsbad]

OK well I'm really starting to suspect my tap water, because I know a couple of times previously I noticed it looked kind of cloudy and I threw the big mixing bowl(I know, mixing bowls :rolleyes: goofy but its been working great till now, a different thread I've been wondering about is how do you dechlorinate during water changes using a python, anyway)full of it out thinking I hadn't let it run long enough which did seem to do the trick, but most recently I noticed a lot of bubbles on the sides of said bowl after letting it sit for maybe a half hour, though the water was clear.

It's also occurred to me that there has recently been a big shift in average temperatures here with sub freezing temps occuring fairly regularly(Chicago suburbs), so the city may be doing something different to the water or the temps are causing something different to occur, but the standard test kit results on the tap water haven't changed, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites 0 nitrates, 120 hardness, 120 bufferning 8.0 ph, though I'm thinking there's all kinds of stuff I'm not testing for, obviously.

I'm going to try to call the water dept. tomorrow and see what they have to say.

So I just filled up a bowl and dechlorinated it and I'm going to watch it. But how would I know if I need an RO unit, and how much of an RO unit would I need for a 90g? Can I put it in my stand or does it have to go in/on/over/under my sink? The answer to this is probably 'they're worthless', but what's the deal with those cheapy 'tap water purifiers' I see at bigals and from tetra? I think there's probably no chance they would help me. The thing is I've always heard that the water quality here is great(lake michigan water), and I haven't had any problems like this before now, and I don't really need another expense I don't need, though if my fish need it they'll get it. I'm setting up this 90g and waffling between an eheim pro II 2028 or a 2217, if I do need an RO I guess I'll go with 2217, though the pro II would be really sweet.

Don't you have to run only cold water through RO units? If that's the case how do you get it up to the temperature in your aquarium?

After 6 hours the bowl with tap water and dechlorinator standing in it has small bubbles covering the sides of the bowl, but the water looks clear.

I see posts from people saying they let water sit for 24-48 hours before adding it for changes. How exactly do you go about that, just leave it in a bucket somewhere?

[OrionGirl]

Okay--have you tested your water after letting it sit for 24 hours? I suspect that the bubbles and high pH are the result of it being pressuredized, and gassing off after it sits (that's what the bubbles are from). Using this water for your tank can cause sudden pH shifts in your tank, which will stress your fish.

For filters--an RO filter probably isn't needed. They are great, but they create a lot of waste water, and unless you suspect a specific compound in your water, RO would be overkill. For most FW uses, you must condition RO water before using it, making it a bit more complicated. For some fish, you would need to heat it for changes. My water can is usually around 65, and this is fine for most of my fish. I do heat it up for the puffers, though. A 20% change on my 55 that is normally at 70 will drop it to 68, not a big deal for the fish, but the puffers are kept at 78, and a drop to 74 might stress them.

I have a trash can that I fill with water and let sit. I use water out of it as needed for top offs, and water changes. This allows any gas off, and allows for other treatment as well for chlorine/chloramine. It's in a closet, and out of the way.

[Karlsbad]

I've tested it straight out of the tap and after sitting and it's fine, but I'm wondering if it contains things I'm not testing it for with my aquarium test kit. I've definitely had what seems like a high susceptibility to algae to the extent that 4 hours of indirect sunlight seems guaranteed to cause an outbreak. It looks clear in both cases straight out of the tap and after sitting, the results are 120 ppm Hardness 120 Alkalinity, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, so I guess if it had high TDS hardness would be off the chart. PH has always been on the high end like 8.0. Alkalinity in my tank and out of the tap underwent a distinct drop from a consistent 180 about the time I started getting this clouding (which hasn't gone away after 4 days of 0 sunlight and not more than an hour of indirect incandescent light, I'm still not showing any ammonia or nitrites in the tank).

[OrionGirl]

TDS is related to much more than just hardness, and you're right, there are many things that will impact TDS. So, what I would do is go buy several gallons of RO water (Walmart sells it, read the labels) and use it for changes for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference. Doesn't have to be 100%, but even a 25% change with the RO should show a difference if it is your water that's causing the problem. If this clears it up, then it will be worth it to buy an RO unit--just be prepared for mixing tap with the RO for a happy medium. Straight RO is prone to pH crashes, wince it doesn't contain enough buffer to counter the normal bio-processes in a tank.

For other tap water filters--I'm not sure. I don't use RO, instead we have a DIY filter with several different levels of filtration and membranes. It reduces the hardness by about 2 degrees, but it removes most other contaminants and I've never had a problem with any of my tanks. I'm not the one who assembled it, though, so don't know what all filtering it does or what components were used--sorry!

[Karlsbad]

Wow a DIY filter. That's pretty cool. It took me like a week to decide I didn't want to try a DIY center brace :)

[OrionGirl]

It's fairly simple. They sell the inline filter canisters, and a variety of filter cartridges, and we plumbed them together and use increasing filters--the first one pulls the large items, and it gets progressively finer as it goes down the line. It's slow, but there's no waste water like there is with RO. It's worked very well so far, for both FW and SW tanks. Not cheap--costs about $200 to replace all the filters, but it runs for several thousand gallons before we have to replace them.