steelerfan's 30 Gallon Breeder Journal/Build

[steelerfan67]

thanks greech,

on a side not, i use the gray brute container to store my ro/di water.

today i filled up my gallon jug for top off and i noticed the really funky heavy plastic smell coming from the brute.

never smelled it before on the water.

could the brute be leaching into the water?

 

[greech]

Shouldn't be. Do you keep the water in your garage. Is it hot in there?

 

[steelerfan67]

Shouldn't be. Do you keep the water in your garage. Is it hot in there?

we had our first hot day the other day where it was like 87 or so out.

i do keep the brute in the garage.

i should say it is a heavy rubber smell and not plastic.

it is strong enoght that i can smell the rubber smell from the water that is now in my plastic 1 gallon water jug.

it is not the normal plastic container smell but that of rubber.

 

[greech]

I really think your fine. Just did a search on RC and there are a few threads on the subject of leeching and the general consensus seems to be as long as the can is washed well first you shouldn't have an issue. All plastics and rubbers are going to give off a smell when they get warm. They are largely made from petroleum products after all. The brutes are food grade though (not sure if they all are) so other than a teflon container I don't really what else you could realistically get that is better. One idea I did see was to put a bag of carbon in the storage water if you had any concerns.

 

[steelerfan67]

thanks man,

i just am kind of rainman with this and last thing i want to do is kill God's little sea creatures

if it is leaching even a little i hope the fact that since i run real polyfilter and carbon that it would be grabbed b4 doing harm.

i am a paranoid and i don't even have a fish in there yet....

glad i already am bald as it would't be long b4 i was anyway

 

[greech]

I know the feeling but you should know that you have done more research and planning than a lot of people do so try not to sweat things too bad.

 

[steelerfan67]

I know the feeling but you should know that you have done more research and planning than a lot of people do so try not to sweat things too bad.

think i am gonna just run a powerhead in there to keep water moving and be done with it.

wife said it didn't smell all that bad to her, so i guess i am just a freak.

 

[steelerfan67]

well, my diatoms from the sandbed have been running their course as they are only about 20% of what they were a few days ago.

with that said, i pretty much know i have a bacterial bloom as i still have that stuff blowing around in tank.

i do notice some very small pieces of hair algae now, so on greech's advice ordered my rowa-phos to get working on my phosphates.

water testing today as follows:

ph 8.4 i think it has leveled out now beause i am now testing between that and 8 which is good from the 7.8 i had been fighting.

0/0/0 for the big 3
alk-8
sg 1.024
temp-76

BTW- the wife did not like the name "slippery pete" for our cleaner, so he is now officialy "melvin".

 

[steelerfan67]

so it's been 1 month today since i started with the haze/bacterial bloom/unknown.

tank got better but never fully lost the cloudy haze and this morning it looked like it started to get worse again.

not as bad as the above pic, but bad enough.

wondering if it is normal for it to be this long?

i got rid of the cheato and am running a 4x8 real polyfilter, 1/2 cup seashems matrix carbon i just switched to today from the BRS stuff and 1/8 cup rowa phos.

it's funny because at midnight the tank is crystal clear, but come morning the issue starts and lasts.

 

[greech]

I'm stumped. Are you dosing anything at all? 2-part?

Are you still seeing bubbles on the rocks, sand?

Did anything ever get into the tank?

Do you think this is a byproduct of having zero bacteria in the tank to start with? You never really saw a spike and now this? Maybe add a really nice piece of well cured live rock?