Blue Barrel source of phosphates?

[Luke_L]

Looking for a source of my p04, as lately I noticed i seem to have some unexplained p04. Yesterday I thought I would test a fresh batch of saltmix,
From experience I know there is no point in inserting that into the hanna, blue is over scale... lol
So I checked tds of source water, 0.00,
Then i questioned I.O. salt, so I made 1 gallon of I.O., and 1 gallon of H2o, tested them both


So now I'm left with, perhaps the barrel wasnt througherly mixed... so I waited 24 hours, and tested again this am...
I'm thinking now that the barrel is leaching...

Any thoughts?

 

[Andrew D]

Sounds like that's the issue, can't fault your logic. ONly other thing you may want to try is to leave RO water in the bin for a while and test, see if that also results in elevating PO4

 

[Luke_L]

Sounds like that's the issue, can't fault your logic. ONly other thing you may want to try is to leave RO water in the bin for a while and test, see if that also results in elevating PO4

according to hanna, the po4 checker won't work for ro water, according to randy holmes farley 0 tds ro water will not contain phosphates....

you are thinking to let ro water sit in barrel for 48 hours and see if po4 elevates (thats what i think you mean) what i could do is fill my barrel, then test tds, wait 48 hours and check tds again... think that would work?
unless you know of a po4 test kit that will work on R.O. water...

 

[Cliff]

You may be onto something Luke. I also wonder if egg crate leach phosphate also. It seems like every time I put a new frag rack in or put in any substantial amount of egg crate in the system it seems like I fight phosphates for months afterwards

 

[Andrew D]

Yeah Luke, that's what I was thinking, let the RO sit for a while and see if phosphate leaches in from the barrel.

 

[Luigi]

Well make sure that the walls of the barrel are cleaned because with time they get accumulation of everything it's in the water and salt, have you tested the salt?
the barrel it's solid plastic not porous , and if its acid resistant it should be fine,
Here and there I clean the bucket for water change were salt has been mixing for a few days , and the paper towels are coming out brown
That might contain your po4
Test a batch of salt,

 

[Luke_L]

Well make sure that the walls of the barrel are cleaned because with time they get accumulation of everything it's in the water and salt, have you tested the salt?
the barrel it's solid plastic not porous , and if its acid resistant it should be fine,
Here and there I clean the bucket for water change were salt has been mixing for a few days , and the paper towels are coming out brown
That might contain your po4
Test a batch of salt,

Yes I made a small sample of salt in a clean glass bowl using salt from the same bag it tested 0.015 parts per million, so salt is not the cause... source water was o.oo TDS. I'm going to throughly wash the barrel out and try a test again... blue barrels are the standard barrel for food grade so they are supposed to be good?

 

[Luigi]

They are and they shouldnt
Leach anything

 

[Luigi]

Are you using a pump to mix the water? If yes.. Check the pump for crack in the body or in the magnet
The water that you tested should have been 1025, same amount of salt that used in the tank

 

[Luke_L]

Are you using a pump to mix the water? If yes.. Check the pump for crack in the body or in the magnet
The water that you tested should have been 1025, same amount of salt that used in the tank

Luigi that didn't even cross my mind I will check that as soon as I get home tonight

 

[Luke_L]

Pump checks out..

 

[Luigi]

Nice, what about casing? , what pump is that?

 

[Luke_L]

Nice, what about casing? , what pump is that?

Housing is good, it's a jebao dc 15000,

I pressure washed the barrel out thoroughly today now I'm rinsing it in Rodi water so I'm going to try and make another small batch to test

 

[Luigi]

Keep us posted

 

[Luke_L]

barrel has 8 inches of fresh rodi in it right now... after washing and rinsing...
calibrated my tds meter (it was 30 points off reading 970 in 1000 calibration solution....)


if you look close the meeter sais 100 X 10

water in the barrel is bouncing from 0 to 001. so the test begins... (barrel is lidded to prevent contamination)

 

[Luigi]

Nice

 

[Limey]

Following this closely

 

[Luigi]

Are you going to test the pump in a separate bucket?
Why not?

 

[Luke_L]

Are you going to test the pump in a separate bucket?
Why not?

never thought about it.... but perhaps i should...

meanwhile... 24 hours later... tds is up to 007.

 

[Luigi]

Is this the 55 gallons bin?