If you buy your water, buy a TDS meter!

Fish tank has been running for two years. I bought my top-off water and saltwater from the LFS and did 10% changes weekly. Now my SPS started to brown (I have some good LED lights, so I figured it probably wasnt a low light situation), which leaves an excess nutrient situation. My params have always been a little high and I couldn't ever figure out why. So I finally purchased an RO/DI system that came with a TDS-3 meter.

After reading the following readings you can probably figure out why I have been fighting algae growth this entire time. One of the readings I recorded ticked me off so much that I started to go around the house measuring many different things:

Fresh batch of RO/DI Water - Reading 0 TDS
Waste water from batch - 326 TDS
My house tap water - 286 TDS
Filtered water through the fridge - 218 TDS
My beer I was drinking - 541 TDS
Wine my wife was drinking - 977 TDS
Water I was buying from the LFS - 1,330 TDS! I had to look up why there was a x10 light blinking on the thing.

So I've been going to the same store for over a year. The store owner and I know each other fairly well. Should I say something or just quit going to it?

 

The ro water from the lfs was reading 1300+?It seems real high and they are prob on the same water line as you being in orlando.

 

I know. I took the reading numerous times because either I didn't believe it or didn't want to believe it.

There is a small x10 light that blinks when you go over 1000. I didn't even know it was on the TDS meter. I had to look up what it meant just to be sure.

 

I would take my tds meter to the shop and talk to the lfs owner.Let him/her know what you found and ask him/her to test the water.If they give you a hard time it is prob time to find a new lfs.