so i bought an RODI unit...now what?

So i have had the RODI system hooked up to the sink and let it run for 15 min to kind of "flush" or get its stuff going...i bought a tds meter and that should come to day but anyways i did what i could do and tested the water...no alk and very very low ph...now my question is what do i do now? in regards to adding this to my reef tank? do i have to add baking soda to raise the PH? what i was told and planned on doing was to do a 100% water change and add the RO water (i used tap before). As long as the Ph/temp/salinity are the same i should be fine...i was also told...so now the big question is how should i go about doing this? temp and salinity are not an issue but does the alk have to be the same too? its a 29G Reef tank btw...i have almost 30G mixed as of now.

 

once you mix in the salt the ph and alk should be fine.(for a water change).
if your using the ro/di water to top off then you just put it in without adding anything.

 

Don't do a 100% water change!!

Use the RO water to top off for evaporation. Don't add anything to it. Only pure water evaporates from the tank so you want to add pure water back in.

Do 10 - 20% water changes using the RO water with your salt mix. Unless you are having major problems just do them weekly. Doing a 100% change would stress everything. If you are trying to rapidly reduce nitrate or phosphate, etc... you can do a wayer change every day. Just don't change your entire tank at once.

As far as alkalinity and pH go, you want to measure the water in the established tank and dose according to the tank parameters.

 

Don't do a 100% water change. I would do 10% a week or 20% percent every two weeks. You don,t want to do too much too soon.

 

I agree with that also doing a 100% water change would cause allot of stress and could even start a cycle, best to do what pgreef and djbonney suggested.

 

lol ok thanks for the rapid responses...was told to do the 100% change by a very reliable source but had doubts about it...glad to see im sane and that i didn't pone my tank

 

Yeah I'm surprisedsomeone told u that. Just work it into your normal water change routine. Congrats on the new purchase. RO is the only way to go.

 

thank you...had a clam die in my tank...first loss that was really my fault (not enough research, not prepared water chemistry) and that def hurt the most...bought new lighting system (T5 HO...fricken awesome btw) and the seachem pinnacle RODI 100gpd...pretty much paying for all the shortcuts i took in the beginning...but aside from that...what is this i hear about calibrating a TDS meter? can someone help me a bit on that?

 

My TDS meter didn't need to be calibrated. What kind did you get?

 

TDS-3 by HM digital...i thought it was hannah or something but maybe im wrong or they are the same thing...anyways it actually was already calibrated so i guess that question doesn't really need an answer...except do they have to be calibrated more than once?