sae647 Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 I'm setting up a 12 gallon nanocube dx (149.99 w/free stand from bigalsonline, go buy one!), and because last year I gave away all my fish stuff, i dont have an ro/di unit. I also really want to use tap water because of convenience: I'm sharing an apartment and i dont think my roommates want to deal with an RO unit connected to the sink. What EXACTLY is wrong with tap water? Obviously high nitrates and phosphates, but is that all? Maybe some other things in small concentrations, but is there anything else some filter carbon wouldn't remove? I ask because it seems like if those are the only problems, it may be less trouble for me to just use chaeto or even some nitrate and phosphate removing chemical media. I know tap water is always recommended against, but I think in 12 gallon FOWLR it could work, as long as a knew what i had to test for and remove. dont get me wrong, im not trying to give my fish the short end of the stick. if you guys convince me this is a bad idea, i'll buy some water from the grocery store (no lfs sells water). thanks a lot! Link to comment
Mr. Fosi Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Obviously high nitrates and phosphates, but is that all? Maybe some other things in small concentrations, but is there anything else some filter carbon wouldn't remove? Not all tapwater has high NO3 and high PO4 and those ions are not removed by carbon. One of the main problems is inconsistancy and your inability to control the quality. Link to comment
subielover Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 The unknown. Get a mightmite from airwaterice, it is very convenient and very small. It is also portable and easy to take off. Link to comment
Rocket Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Its existence. No but seriously it IS possible to do tap water. But is much harder to maintain a good looking and stable tank. If you are going to use tap water consider a massive fuge with different macro algaes that specialize in nitrate and phosphate removal. Like mangroves for nitrate and chaeto or culpra for phosphate. I'd skim and chemi-pure elite the hell out of it. Link to comment
StevieT Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 http://www.nano-reef.com/search/q.php?cx=p...;sa=Search#1084 Link to comment
BLoCkCliMbeR Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Not all tapwater has high NO3 and high PO4 and those ions are not removed by carbon. One of the main problems is inconsistancy and your inability to control the quality. metals Link to comment
sae647 Posted July 17, 2009 Author Share Posted July 17, 2009 ok well to be clear, i know carbon does not remove nitrate and phosphate. however you meant it, thanks for the link to the google site search. i used the forum search feature and it did not work nearly as well, just gave me a bunch of crap. anyway, the mighty mite looks really good! thanks for the idea. I'll have to decide between that and just buying distilled water. it seems pretty unanimous that using tap water is never worth it. Link to comment
StevieT Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Go with getting the RO machine. It saves on the trouble of trips to the store, which get to be a HUGE pain. I love making my own water. try using "tap water" with the quote marks, filters out the junk Link to comment
cptbjorn Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Where do you live? The differences in PPM values among different areas can be multiple orders of magnitude different from each other. I use tap water to top off occasionally if I'm in a hurry or something which is fine here but in some places could cause major issues. Link to comment
Whacked Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 complete inconsistency. Never know what you are getting. Take a look at your water quality report available from your munincipal district. You will see the numbers vary. Take a look at the one for my city and see what I mean http://www.stocktongov.com/mud/General/wat...inpdfformat.pdf Pay attention to the Range part of the table. That is where the trouble is. Link to comment
MillerLite Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Well phosphate and nitrates are an issue..but an even bigger issue would be the chlorines and chloramines, as well as silica and other chemicals found in tap that can be harmful to your tank inhabitants. Sure you can add some chemicals to try and get rid of the chlorines, but how much is enough and how much is too much. Plus the silica in tap water will most likely promote diatomaceous growth and the phosphates and ntrates, brown and green algae growth. Bottom line, I think with such a small tank, the small amount of water needed to do the initial startup and future water changes are minimal. One thing to consider, IO salt claims to have chemicals that chelate out the chlorine and chloramines. How true this is and if these are in an adequate amount is anyones guess. Everyone's water is most likely different, but I know when I run my tap in the tub, all I ever smell is a the large amounts of chlorine. Link to comment
sae647 Posted July 17, 2009 Author Share Posted July 17, 2009 thanks for the water quality report idea! my city's nitrates range from .88 to 2.36 ppm. Thats not bad at all for a FOWLR. No phosphate numbers are given, but there's plenty of very effective phosphate removers available. I hate to say it, but I may have to give tap water a shot. As long as I'm not keeping anything super fragile, whats the worst that could happen? (thats question is not rhetorical btw, let me know what you think) Link to comment
Rocket Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 if you are not on well water then you have chlorine (most likely) in your water. at least let the water sit overnight to expel chlorine. Link to comment
sae647 Posted July 17, 2009 Author Share Posted July 17, 2009 millerlite i didnt see your post until now. I am planning on using Seachem Prime, like i always have. it detoxifies chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals. also claims to detoxify ammonia and nitrite but i dont know about that. as far as dosing, i think it would be very hard to hit "too much" by accident. Link to comment
vangvace Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Sae, Prime does alot but it won't fix everything in tap. The way I look at it is that RO or distilled water is a blank slate and removes many variables of things that can go wrong. That said I tend to use tap for the initial fill up, but that's because I'm too impatient for the RO unit. Link to comment
shon982 Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 maybe rainwater? edit- scratch that, just googled it Link to comment
azzah Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 rainwater is bad, if you live in the city ou get everyone's car exhaust fumes, if you live in the sticks you get the soot from the neighbour's fireplaces. Leaves in the gutters add DOCs. Would be better with tap water. Link to comment
FiRsT-aNd-LaSt Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 I've always used tap water in a fresh water environment and never had problems, so I thought I'd give it a try with saltwater when I first started out, big mistake, even with conditioners and others removers/absorbers, I had a major algae outbreak and my nitrates shot up to about 40ppm and nothing would bring them down, no ro/di water changes of any sort, ultimately I had to completely tear that setup down. Safe yourself the trouble and avoid tap water, since it's only 12 gallons it should be very easy to maintain, get yourself a mighty might for $99 bucks like the others said and be trouble and worry free. Link to comment
shon982 Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 rainwater is bad, if you live in the city ou get everyone's car exhaust fumes, if you live in the sticks you get the soot from the neighbour's fireplaces. Leaves in the gutters add DOCs. Would be better with tap water. dont live in the city and nobody has fire places (dont think most modern places do) but yeah im using tap water and have no problems with it Link to comment
Mr. Fosi Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 ... but yeah im using tap water and have no problems with it It's a try-it-for-yourself thing, IMO, but you need to be aware of the risks. For every "tap water works for me" story, there are a thousand "tap water covered my tank in algae" stories. Not everyone's tap water is "bad". Tashayar also uses tap and has no issues she can attribute to it. Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 This is a good article on using tap water: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2004/chem.htm I used to use tap water in a FOWLR setup, and I never could control algae problems. Link to comment
corallineadam Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 ive used tap in the past and it depends entirely on your local water source(s)... water is different in EVERY area, some come from wells some come from municipal water supplies, etc... you should contact your water provider and get a list of analyzed chemicals in the water (this is usually released once a year with ranges)... Link to comment
Phixion Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 It's a try-it-for-yourself thing, IMO, but you need to be aware of the risks. For every "tap water works for me" story, there are a thousand "tap water covered my tank in algae" stories. Not everyone's tap water is "bad". Tashayar also uses tap and has no issues she can attribute to it. Another aspect of this, especially in like California where water is scarce, sources are changing and shifting around. So places that relied on well water, can't so much anymore as the water tables and aquafers deminish, thus they need to be bosted by MWD, and well even they are having their share of issues aquiring water for the masses. The point of that is that if tap has worked for you, it may not continute to always depending on where the source is from and if it changes. Where I currently live in San Bernardino, I've heard and sort of read about how my tap water is pre-treated using RO filtering before point of delivery through the water system (think massive RO systems at the purification delivery plants) but yet my tap TDS is still around 170 right now. Yes that's good compared to many others around the So. Cali area, but I'd also think it would be lower too with RO being employed... That all said, I know a former fellow reefer that exclusively used tap water and had one of the most amazing tanks I've ever seen, NO algae in his tank ever!! Link to comment
BLoCkCliMbeR Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 im gonna get me a tasty glass of tap right now... Link to comment
SPS20 Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 The con to 99% of tap water sources is the unknown. If you are lucky enough to have an artesian well, or other extremely rare source of very pure water, go ahead and use it after testing the crap out of it. Most people don't have access to that kind of water source, so the stock advice is to invest in an RO/DI system and eliminate the unknowns. Link to comment
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