Errrr muh freakin gerdddddddd

My TDS meter came in the mail today. Apparently, I had put the ro filter in wrong and the water I filled my tank with????? Oh it was a TDS of 80. EIGHTY :-[:-[......Everything is looking pretty vibrant so I don't think the world is going to end but wow. I'm now filling up a barrel so I can do a water change tomorrow. (I noticed the tank filled up pretty quickly when I did the initial fill) I adjusted the filter and now I have a TDS of 1. Looking much better.

 

Definitely better, TDS should be 0 unless you have very hard water.

 

Bummer man, i've done plenty of dumb things like that too... just remember- don't change all the water at once unless you just started the tank.

 

I think it probably is. I think that may have just been some stuff left in the line. I'll test again later and if it's still not 0, I'm going to order a new RO unit.

 

It's good that you caught it now while you're still new with the tank!

 

Just look at the bright side- with a TDS reading of 80, you still had 999,920 PPM water. Seriously though, while I do agree with the zero TDS push since the technology is available and affordable, reality is, back in the early days of SW aquaria, there were many, many beautiful tanks using tap (private well or dechlorinated municipal) water; it was the smaller percentage that had serious problems that necessitated better water filtration.

Exactly. Your tank is living proof that the 80TDS in your water is mostly harmless; however, changing the chemistry too quickly might not be. Id suggest running GAC (which I highly recommend, anyway), and just do normal routine WCs as necessary.

 

Thanks for the input. I guess I'm just more frustrated that I tried to do it the right way and it didn't work. I'm sure this tank will be fine since the diatoms just went away. I will just carry on as usual. Everything is happy and healthy.