tds question.

[the20tonknuckler]

Hi. I've been searching through this section looking for an answer to this queation with no success and am wondering if anyone can shed some insight into this.
Quick background. i have 6 tanks set up in the basement of my house dedicated to trying to breed my fish. 4 pairs each in 29 gallon bb tanks. a 10 gal qt. and a 47 gal grow tank. I have a storage tank for aging water that i do all my wc's with. Aged, airated, and heated for 24 hours. UV filter in the storage tank. I do the same ammount and frequency for wc's in all the breeders. 40 to 50% daily. TDS reading for the aged water mixed with RO is right around 100. 5 of the 6 tanks are right in line with this.
My 1 breeder tank is always much higher. Today tds reading was just over 600 before the water change. It always lowers after wc is done, but then climbs back up. The set up on all the tanks are the same. Same type of chamber filter that hooks up to an air line filled with media stone and sponge. Nothing is added to the water. No chemicals.

Why is the one tank doing this? What could be causing it? And how can I stop it? The eggs for this pair of fish always go white.

[the20tonknuckler]

No takers yet. Lol. I'm puzzled by it. A bit more background. This tank was bought brand new 6 months ago. My pair in there were acting funny in januaruy and got a round of metro. I've only had my tds meter for about 3 weeks. In that time I've tested the tank about a dozen times before and after wc's. Each time it's been the same thing.

Will the shift in the tds negatively effect my fish? If so what do you recommend I do?

[Chad Hughes]

Take the filter out the next time you do a water change. See if the TDS creeps up. The "media stone" you mentioned sounds suspect.

[the20tonknuckler]

Worth a shot. The stone is some fluval ceramic and aquaclear biomax stones. We have 8 tanks in the house. Use them in all but the qt. With the daily waterchanges the filter shouldn't matter. Will try that today.
The 125 creeps up over time too, but I figured it was because it is heavily planted, minimal wc's, and I add fertilizers.

[pastry]

This thread has my attention... definitely curious as to what it is

[the20tonknuckler]

I own a double. My fish room is in the basement. It turns out there was a small leak from the water heater for the upstairs that only dripped when my tenet ran the shower. This drip lined up perfectly to the back of the tank, dripping rusty pipe water into my tank. I repaired the leak on monday. With each wc my tds levels in the tank have gone down. I believe this was the problem, but I will continue to test daily.

[a volar]

I own a double. My fish room is in the basement. It turns out there was a small leak from the water heater for the upstairs that only dripped when my tenet ran the shower. This drip lined up perfectly to the back of the tank, dripping rusty pipe water into my tank. I repaired the leak on monday. With each wc my tds levels in the tank have gone down. I believe this was the problem, but I will continue to test daily.

What a find!

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Good catch. I am surprised with the TDS starting at 100 and going to 600 that you did not lose the pair. Stong resistance on them for sure. Can you cover the tanks?

[Chad Hughes]

I guess we need to ask for pictures of everything when attempting to troubleshoot problems. Lol! Good find! I'm curious how you have rust on a copper pipe though.

[the20tonknuckler]

I don't think all my pipes are copper. The house isover 100years old with a lot of original stuff still. It's probably not rust as much as just dirt and grime. It was a drip drip drip of brownish water down a 100 year old pipe. Anyway I replaced it with pvc and used shark bites to tie it together nice and easy. I got lucky that it was accessible and there was no real damage to be done to the house. Just a hole cut into the wall that was patched but still needs paint. 3 days of partial wc now and tds is down to the 250 range. A couple more and they will be back to a more suitable range for mating.

[Chad Hughes]

Good catch! You could have had some serious water damage had this not happened!

[Keith Perkins]

Was your tank overflowing out the back or something? I'd think you'd need a bit of water dripping into it to raise the TDS 500 points.