TheSaltwaterGuy's 29 Gallon

Well I mean like getting ro/di water and mixing it with saltwater..... Wow I didn't think that adding water to a tank was so difficult lol

 

Top off should be done with RODI. The whole point of top-off is to make up for evaporation. When SW evaporates, salinity(aka SG) rises. Adding in RODI dilutes it, back to where you want it at.

 

Umm what are you talking about??? I just have my LR in the bucket, I have like 2 inches of sand, so what are you trying to say? I'm not trying to be mean and sorry if I am, but I really don't get what you're trying to say. I'm just thinking of getting the ro/di unit, mixing it with reef crystals to make saltwater, and add it back to the main tank. The nitrates I just get rid of with a water change evry week, and the main reason I'm doing this is because I've had A LOT of algae problems: red, brown, green, and even some weird orange stuff on my rock; you name the color and I've got it lol. So instead of using tap water with phosphates and the like, I'm getting an RO unit. My tap water actually does have some nitrates, so this big water change was to get rid of nitrates and replace most of the water with ro/di.

 

then I might have said it wrong or something; I'm just gonna replace the water I took out with RO/DI water. I honestly don't see what's so complicated about that......:-/

 

Pickupman is simply advising against the idea of a DSB..he realizes you do not have one, but said something about it because the topic was brought up.

 

Wait, I think you are confusing things. Auto top off(ATO) is RODI water added to make up for lost evaporation. But this is not the same as a water change.

A WC, like what you are currently trying to do, is taking out old/bad/waste water(whatever you want to call it) & replacing it with new water...replenishing it basically. For a WC, new salt should be mixed in water accordingly.(1/2c salt per gallon of RODI in most cases, should make a SG level of about 1.023-04)

 

How old is your tank anyway?, the algae seems normal if it's a just cycle tank. Your tank doesn't fully cycle till it's at least a year old.

 

Oh well I thought they were basically the same lol. So yes, I'm going going to replenish the water that I took out with RO/DI mixed with reef crystals.

 

About 4 months, but you haven't seen my tank when it had tons of algae. like i said, i've had red, green, brown, and even some weird orange stuff lol. Red hair algae on all my rocks, red slime algae on the sides mixed with brown and green, brown algae on my sand, ALGAE EVERYWHERE!!!!

 

Sounds like a plan.