meter on RODI tricked me what should i do now?????

[turbotone]

im new to this hobby and like everyone ive done my share of mistakes and also learned from others. my tank is 8 months old and i try to buy quality items when it comes to my tank.... i inherited this tank with alot of ruble pieces and knowing what i know now i would of done things way different as far as rock forming and purchasing rocks... anyways its too much to start all over and im working with what i got till my next build lol..

ok guys heres the situation...

ive been getting alot of brown algae on my sand the last couple of months and not understanding how... usually from high phosphates which my elos test have been reading very low... nitrates are almost zero as well... the next thing people ask is if im using tap water? my immediate response is no.. im using an RODI by aquaFX barracuda with pressure gauge and TDS meter going in/out... water going in reads around 175 ppm and going out zero so i thought... this is going to a 40 gallon bucket with float valve that stays constantly filled just in case i need to do an emergency water change etc..
now i am a person who wants simplicity so whatever makes my job easier the better.. i have a 10 gallon on the side of my tank running a ATO by JBJ (which one of the two sensors have gone bad smh) now every time i take out the 8 to 9 gallons i need to fill my top off water.. when i do this my float valve drops and lets my RODI water drop in the bucket until it fills up again... life was simple.. i would check the in/out in my TDS and again 175 in 0 out.. now i seen in youtube how your suppose to let the water drain out that has been sitting there before you start collecting it and i havent bc in those videos the tds meter creeps up to about 2 or 3 then zeros out... mines stays at zero always... anyways my bucket of "fresh" water had this smell when i would take off the airtight lid and it smelled like cat squirt lol no lie... anyways i would disregard it put the lid on... soo im gonna do a 20 gallon water change so i disconnect the connection to the bucket take the 20 gallons of water top off my ATO filled an extra jug with another 5 gallons and disperse the rest of the water to my plants and my kids beta fish tanks... let the bucket air dry then rinsed it out and drained my RODI the right way and filled the bucket up... cool

so today im at my boys house and were talking about a water change he wants to do to his tank and how much he should do bc he hasnt done one in like two months... so we buy the salt and hes like "yo do you think these filters are good?" and i start laughing bc they looked horrible! so hes like but check this out my tds meter still reads zero coming out?" so im like no way give me some water and ill test it with my hand held.. so i get home and test his water and its like 376ppm! i test the water in my bucket that i just made and it was 0ppm.. but heres the kicker... i tested my ATO water and it read 496ppm! so im buggin out bc i just changed all my filters in january just to do it and they werent dirty like that so these are still pretty new...


so my question is why? could it be bc i never ran the water out prior to filling my bucket?

why did my TDS meter on my barracuda read 0ppm?

is there anyway to calibrate the TDS meter on my aquaFX?

now that im running worst water then tap water in my tank how should i go about doing the water changes?

i need advice! please

 

[Tonyscoots84]

did you ever mix salt in that bucket that your rodi water goes into...

 

[turbotone]

never.... whats even more strange now is.. the 5 gallon jug that had my old bucket water had a lil bit of water in it enough to test and it read 2 ppm... smh

 

[turbotone]

do u think its the hose i use to cypher the water from the bucket to the 5 gallon? i use that same hose to do the water changes going in and out my display... i just took water out my bucket and put it in my ato and in my bucket it reads 0ppm but in my ato it reads 17ppm? wtf smh

 

[Widdy]

What kind of container is the ATO reservoir?

 

[turbotone]

What kind of container is the ATO reservoir?

its in a standard 10 gallon tank...

 

[Widdy]

Try cleaning it out. This happened to me with my Brute container. Wipe it down with vinegar and let it airdry.

 

[turbotone]

Try cleaning it out. This happened to me with my Brute container. Wipe it down with vinegar and let it airdry.

ok i dont mean to sound stupid but explain to me how? a sponge with water/vinegar? or just straight up vinegar? any preference in vinegar i got white and gold? lol

 

[Widdy]

Nah not stupid. Yea, clean sponge/rag and distilled white vinegar. Rinse with RODI water and let it airdry. I do this every few months when I see the reservoir low, I use a 29g brute.

 

[turbotone]

Nah not stupid. Yea, clean sponge/rag and distilled white vinegar. Rinse with RODI water and let it airdry. I do this every few months when I see the reservoir low, I use a 29g brute.

cool bro thanks... ima gonna try that with my ato hopefully thatll do the trick.. what do you think about water change to get all that water out? i was thinking about 6 weeks of weekly 20 gallon water change till that my water gets better... or should i do bigger water changes?

 

[duke62]

Try and reverse the hoses that go into the tds meter and see what you get

 

[turbotone]

Try and reverse the hoses that go into the tds meter and see what you get

do you mean the dual inputs on both ends of the tds meter? you want me to flip them?

 

[duke62]

Yeah try flipping them and see what you get...my tds has the quick connect i can take the hoses out whenever i need to

 

[Tonyscoots84]

have you tried making rodi in a clean plastic cup and then testing the water from that...

 

[turbotone]

have you tried making rodi in a clean plastic cup and then testing the water from that...

yes it reads out 0ppm just in my ATO it spikes up im gonna wipe everything down with water/vinegar rinse with RO then let everything air dry....

i got worst problems now..smh i just bought a powder blue tang and a lipstick tank and i seen like one spot on the both and caught the powder blue scratching.... i tore down my whole tank to catch my three tangs (yellow tang) smh and setup a hospital tank but dont know how im gonna treat this and for how long... issues bro... my tank looks so crazy so tomorrow is going to be a dedicated day to that... any advice on that would be appreciated as well im gonna see if i find any threads on it for help..

 

[turbotone]

Just reporting in... Pump on my ATO had a filter and i was un aware of and cleaned it out with hot tap and vinegar as well as the 10 gallon tank it was sitting in.. Then rinsed with rodi and then air dryed.. Same with my 40 gallon bucket and it was dirty.. Everything is at 0ppm also cleaned out the five gallon poll and springs bottle I use to transfer water from the 40 gallon to the 10 gallon... I still don't think my tds meter on my rodi is exact so I still use my handheld till I can fiqure out how to zero it out...