Re: long list of problems

[Paul Evans <pm_evans@yahoo.com>]

---Jay Cohen <jakeowen@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Hello everybody,
> 
> Sorry to bring this up again,
> I know the list recently just went through a whole water chemistry
> thread, and I'm doing my best to understand, but, I'm a carpenter
not a
> chemist, and some of this is over my head.

I thought I would chime in since I have been responsible for some of
those threads and have
been through similar problems.

> Everything I have ever put in my tap water has died shortly
afterwards.
> Everything I have tested it for, it has plenty of, I really do not
trust
> it. 

Just curious, how bad is it?  You might think about
using small amounts of it to reconsititute your RO.
I would be a lot cheaper, and probably a lot safer.
Is it "city" water or do you have your own well?

> Lots of plants, 
> 1 piece of store bought driftwood, some of those "Rainbow rocks"
(orange
> and white striped rocks) and a couple of terra cota flower pots.
> 

I have struggled with my pH for nearly a year!  About
two months ago I did extensive tests on my substrate
and decorations.  Last night, I decided to retest
some of my rocks because I still have problems.  I 
squirted Ph Down on the rock and nothing happened.
After a few moments the acid ran down the side of the
rock and hit some 'crust' on the side of the rock and
started fizzing like crazy.  All of my previous tests
had missed this crust.  I removed all of the rocks of
that type.  I hope I finally solved by ph problem.  The
moral of the story, is test everything thoroughly.  By the way, I long
suspected my "rainbow rocks" as the
source of my problem.  The have probed to be quite 
inert though.  

> Nitrate - 100!
> Phosphate -  10.0 or over!
> 

> My plants are all slowly dying, (I just bought the new light to try to
> help this.)
> there is green algae everywhere. I try to clean it off every few days,
> but I don't always have the time. I recently added the Ottos to help
me
> out.

You might consider letting your plants go for now
and holding off on the light.  The Nitrate (I assume
that is 100ppm) and phosphate are very high.  You might 
try stepping up the amount and frequency of your 
water changes (e.g. 10 gallons every week) until your
nitrate and phosphate fall back to lower levels before
you try to rescue your plants with the additional 
light.  It would probably only take three or four weeks.

> Maybe the easiest thing would be if someone could tell me the products
> they use to add back to their Ro, and I will try to get them, 

Again, think about your tap water in small amounts (e.g. 5:1 RO to tap
or even 10:1 or more depending on the properties of your tap water.) 
It is probably
less destructive than a soup of products.  

With that
said I have a whole pile of products under my main 
tank. It is my experience with these products that
causes me to advise their use only in moderation rather
than desperation which is how they are most commonly
used (I am guilty of this too.)  Water chemestry can
be very frustrating.  It would be nice to have a 
silver bullet.


Paul Evans
  
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