WoNg$ta Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 So i am going to start my 10 gallon tank tomm... You guys tihnk its alright to use Tap water to start off the tank? Opinions plz on what i sohuld use Link to comment
birdman204 Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 nope. use RO/DI all the time. Link to comment
theclearblue Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 don't mean to hijack here, but this is kind of related to this question. All of the water I've found at grocery stores/wal-mart has been labeled as distilled, is this not as good as ro/di? Link to comment
Reefmaniac Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 No...distilled will still have some contaminants (phosphates, possibly nitrates among others) in it that RO or RO/DI will remove. Link to comment
pandabehr Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 Tap water is not a good Idea. You are just asking for problems. I have used distilled water in a pinch for top off, I would never use it for my entire water content. I really don't trust the RO/DI filter machines in the Grocery stores. Unless you can find out how often they maintain the machine. I recommend that you invest in a small ro/di filter for home use. It will save you tons of money over time. I live next to a LFS that sells ro/di water and ro/di saltwater mixed. $0.89 for Fresh per gallon $1.15 for Salt per gallon I get 14 gallons of each every two weeks and 7 gallons of Salt per month. thats $24.92 per month for fresh and $$8.05 per month for Salt Thats a little less tht $400.00 a year on quality water. A 35 gpd ro/di averages $170.00, 200 gallons worth of Instant Ocean is $30.00..... That is $200.00. Replace the filters that are $50.00 or so a year..... argh too much math...... my point is the RO?DI filter will save you tons of time, money and grief in the long run. Link to comment
Angel Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 I agree with the others. I use only RO/DI water also. IMO using tap for salt water is just asking for numerous problems. The biggest that I have seen is the numerous algae problems that it causes. Angel Link to comment
Iphantom Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 I have been using distilled on my 7 gallon for over a year with no problems -Matt Link to comment
JohnnyMTB Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 I always use RO/DI, if you can find a LFS around you that carries it I would go that route. I bought a nice 50gpd unit from Aquatic Reef Systems for around $150.00, if you can afford your own go for it. I do think distilled can be used in a pinch, just get a copper test kit to make sure it wasn't distilled with copper tubing, even though this is rare now among distillers. I would never use tap in a reef tank. Link to comment
cookiemn Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 But I have found that with new tanks it is OK to use tap water baecause you will do so many water changes that youe will eventually replace your original water. I have only done this with tanks up to 65 gallons and I would definitely re-think this when going to a tank larger than 100 gallons. Link to comment
nanocat Posted February 2, 2004 Share Posted February 2, 2004 I wouldn't use tap water. No matter how many water changes you do, you may still encourage algae in your sand bed. I used distalled as top off water with no problems. pandabehr, you folks in Virginia are paying a fortune for salt water. It's .39 to .59/gal here. Link to comment
theclearblue Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 How's this water sound, bought from wal-mart for 58 cents a gallon. I couldn't find any de-ionized. Sodium Free Drinking Water Processed By: Carbon Filtration, UV Treatment, Reverse Osmosis, Microfiltration, Ozonation. Link to comment
Perpetual98 Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 I used tap water on my 10g and my 20g. I've got a simple filter on the kitchen, and I used that faucet to fill my 10g. I had pretty decent results with a minimal algae bloom. My 20g upstairs I used unfiltered water from the bathtub. HUGE outbreak of brown algae. I'm going to invest in a RO filter soon, but for now, it's buying bottled water. Link to comment
hameen40 Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Originally posted by theclearblue How's this water sound, bought from wal-mart for 58 cents a gallon. I couldn't find any de-ionized. I've used this water before. I have had no problems with it. Link to comment
daFrimpster Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Originally posted by theclearblue How's this water sound, bought from wal-mart for 58 cents a gallon. I couldn't find any de-ionized. Sodium Free Drinking Water Processed By: Carbon Filtration, UV Treatment, Reverse Osmosis, Microfiltration, Ozonation. I have been using that very water from Wally world in my 10gal for about 3weeks. So far so good. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.