Water Quality

[Quincyman]

OK I made the cardinal mistake of using tap water ( I used the neccessary chemicals to treat the water ) to start my tank it has been cycling for almost a week. My question is how often should I do water changes once or twice a week/month. Also when I do my water changes I will be using RO or distilled water to replace the old water. Is this any good will my tank benefit from that type of water. Also which is best to use ro or distilled?

[dickwayne]

RO is def. better than tap water. I used tap at first, but had horrable algae problems. Even with the use of conditioners, tap water contains heavy metals, phosphates, siliticates, and other bad things that will not precipitate out. This will cause you many problems.

I do water changes once a week, sometimes every other week if I get lazy. If you do it every week, it doesn't need to be much, just 10-20%.

[seabass]

Remember, test your water.

 

Not all RO systems filter Nitrates. It's also possible for distilled water to contain copper from pipes.

[Quincyman]

Thanks. I am actually going to do a water change later tonight 10 - 20 % I am going to use ro water most likely since I can get from my lfs cheap $.69 a gallon.