Please Help!!!

[bucky56477]

I need help. I have a 125g FOWLR that has been set up for almost 2 years now. When I first set it up I used tap water that had been conditioned with Aquasafe by TetraAqua and the tank was fine for about 4 months. Then I started using Prime instead b/c it was cheaper. After about a month and a half of using Prime to condition tap water for top offs all of my fish started looking really bad. Their looked torn at the ends and there were many other signs of stress. They all died within a week and a half. the only things that lived were my snails. So I drained the tank and put all new water in the tank (tap with Prime). then a month and a half later the same thing started to happen. So I decided to use enough AquaSafe to treat the whole tank, I only lost a few fishes. but the rest of them got better. Then I began only using RO water from the fish store. and everything in the tank is great. Sorry, if this is kinda long.

Then I decided to buy my own RO/DI water filter (typhoon 3). Set it up about a month and a half ago. My TDS meter measured my tap water at 128ppm, and the RO/DI water I was making at 0ppm.

After using that water for a month and a half the same thing started to happen again. I realized what it was and added enough AquaSafe to treat the whole tank. I lost one fish, my Sohal . But a week later everything has gotten better and looks great again.

Has anyone ever heard of something like this before. Or does anyone know what could be in my tap water that the RO/DI is not removing. Or could someone point me in the direction of where I could figure out how to fix this. I really dont want to keep adding AquaSafe b/c it makes my skimmer go so crazy i have to turn it off. Oh and my water parameters are
Ph-8.2
NH3/NH4-0
NO2-0
NO3-30
kh-8

Sorry this is so long but I am really frustrated. Thanks

[Mike O'Brien]

Possibly chlorine or chloramine. I believe they can make it through the RO membrane, but i'm not sure about the DI. I'd test for it before and after the filter.

[bertoni]

http://www.tetra-fish.com/catalog/product.aspx?id=73

Is that what you're using? That sounds like a dechlorinator like Prime, basically. If the problem was ammonia, I'm not sure why Prime didn't help. Perhaps there's an infection of some sort?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If the DI of the RO gets depleted (did it?) then the effluent may contain a lot of ammonia if the tap water itself contains chloramine.