Boomerblaster Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Hey everyone! I need your help. Just finished ripping down my tank from previous mistake (long story). Now i set everything up again and filled it with tap water. I dechlorinated it, and then i added salt. My TBS package is coming this weekend,,, do i need to drain the whole thing and get RO water? Distilled water? Or RO/DI water??? If i must is it expensive? I can't shell out the money for a RO system. Please help! Is it possible to keep a reef with tap water?? What do you think? THanks!! -Jonathan (hmmm... my wallet is empty?):x Link to comment
40oz casualtie Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 well my reef tank water is tap but if you use tap water you have to let it sit for a month before putting any fish or corals Link to comment
40oz casualtie Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 fishstore water costs 1$ a gallon Link to comment
Fant Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 using tap water is a gamble. There is no garuntee on the quality/purity. I honestly would recomend switching over to Ro or distilled water. You could do a couple 25% changes or do a 100% change before your rock gets in. Letting tap water sit does nothing but let the chlorine dissolve out. There is nothing that can be added to tap water to make it useable. RO or distilled water is the best option. You can get bottled distilled at almost any grocery store for under a dollar a gallon. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan...an2004/chem.htm Link to comment
DLeAnnM Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Walmart has distilled in my area for $.32 a gallon which would at least be better than tap. I have an RO unit that I got for $106 with shipping off ebay. Link to comment
matt the fiddler Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 "You could do a couple 25% changes or do a 100% change before your rock gets in." ehh only way to do a 100% WC is to do it all at once-- the new and old water "combine" --- why it is best to pull out all the water before putting any in- it will be more potent coming out... start 100 % tap.. 25% WC#1= 75% tap 25% WC #2= 58% 25% WC#3= 43% original 25% WC #4= 32% original so even after 4 you still have over 1/4 of the original water left.. now this is a major reduction of phosphates or what ever migrates in in your water.. but not 100% Link to comment
40oz casualtie Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 wait so tap water is bad? if the clorine and chloromines r out it should be fine Link to comment
SeaSide Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Your tapwater usually contains something more than just chloride and chloramine. My tap water contains 10 ppm of nitrite and other impurities, so I won't pour my tap water in my SW tank unless I want see nice algae bloom. You should check the quality of your tap water with your local water authority before adding it into your tank. Using RO/Di water is safe bet. Link to comment
Boomerblaster Posted February 17, 2004 Author Share Posted February 17, 2004 Hey guys! Thanks for the help... you really helped me out. I have decided that i am going to purchase the RO/DI water from my LFS. The cost will rack up a bit, but its better than buying an RO unit right now for me. Hah, my dad figured that this wouldn't be too expensive... but little did he know ! I am just going to have to empty alll of that out! But i guess it will be worth it in the end. I'm going to try to post some pics after i get my TBS package!! Thanks everyone! -Jonathan Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Lots of places on Ebay sell RODI kits pretty cheap. Check out: http://www.stores.ebay.com/theaquasafepure...sotimedisplay=2 100 GPD units for $100 + shipping. Link to comment
FlyGTI Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Trust me. If you've got the option now and you don't have anything in the tank, then dump the tank, get RO water and chalk up the extra salt to a learning experience. I started up a reef several years ago with tap. Everything was fine for a while. I didn't have the scratch to shell out for an RO/DI system at the time, so I stuck with what came out of my faucet. I paid the price. I'm still fighting hair algae. My tank looks like *&$@. I've done the 25% water changes, rinsed the sand, all that. Never been able to fully remove the phosphates. I'm pretty much destined to deal with this until I pitch EVERYTHING in the tank and start from scratch. Don't make the same mistake I did. Link to comment
KrackerG Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 i did the same on my 20L. LOL! i would change ALL 100% since your just beginning...consider the 100% WC a practice run... Link to comment
AnthonyNguyen Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 More Tap water, more alage, Distill water at H-E-B Pantry Food, cost .58 cent a gallon, i being using that for the past year. if you think its too much, than dont even start out SW.! Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 an ro/di unit doesnt make a whole lot of sense if youre doing a nano (less than 10g) since it will be producing more water than you can really use. Id suggest just going to safeway and getting Glacier Water, its .29/gallon and is ro/di and filtered. Works for me and its cheap. Link to comment
1fish2fish Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 If you live in an appartment building or even an older house with copper pipes the water can be high in copper. At my old university we tested the tap water for copper just to see what it was at and found that it was 0.14 ppm. That's high enough to treat for amyloodinum and other parasites. Needless to say most of use stopped drinking from the fountain. Link to comment
wisoot Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Hello there. Does anybody here live in Scotland? I am about to start my first nano and was told by my LFS that tap water in Glasgow is good enough to fill up the tank. He did not try to sell RO unit to me and told me i can just get rid of the chroline from the tap water. He has been keeping sw tank for more than 20 years now. Any comments? I don't mind getting RO water but all i saw in the super market is still 'spring water' or 'mineral water'. thanks. Link to comment
397honda Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 This might be a stupid question, but what's the difference between distilled and spring water? Can you buy the spring water to use? I've been using tap. 20g 25lbs caribean lr 15 lbs arag. sand snails and hermit crabs 2 months old Link to comment
KrackerG Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 distilled water is sold at Walmart for .58 with the purple top. it has NOTHING in it...measured in w a TDS meter at 0 (zero) ppm. spring water like Poland Spring came in at 156 ppm which is mostly minerals but not desirable in a reef tank. Deer Park came in at 20ppm. my RO is around 5ppm but I also have the DI filter which makes it 0. When you start out w/ 0 ppm, you add what necessary elements are needed for the tank, which is in the salts, etc. Think of it like a piece of paper...isn't it easier/nicer to write a letter on a BLANK piece of paper opposed to one that has doodle all over it??! (sorry for the weird analogy) Link to comment
397honda Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 That was perfect krackerG. Thanks for taking the time to explain. Link to comment
DSparks Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 ReeferMonkey, are you using any of those RODI Units? They look like they would be good, and at a great price. I'd be interested in getting some feedback on them. Link to comment
Boomerblaster Posted February 17, 2004 Author Share Posted February 17, 2004 Thanks KrackerG! I will definately be heading over to WalMart tonight to get like 30 gallons of the purple topped jugs lol! I think people will look at me funny... but its worth it! Thanks to all who gave their opinions and replied! Whooo!! TBS package coming soon!! -Jonathan Link to comment
KrackerG Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 no prob, 397honda. HTH! boomer--- just tell them your thirsty! LOL...shopping cart FULL of jugs of water..been there!! BTW, at walmart, they have other bottled water...make sure you get the purple top (distilled), not the blue, not the red, not the green. Also, Target has it, Safeway grocery stores has it... so you have lots of sources. DSparks-- that's the same brand RO/DI I am using...Aqua Safe Canada. Nice unit...good water. My only complaint is the instructions... they were emailed to me 3 day later and didn't do a good job of explaining the hookups. Wasted pages of the instructions talk about how leaks can occur, how to mount the spigot to marble counter tops...drilling holes in counters, what to tell your wife and how to climb up under the sink, etc. I could of used more straight forward, to the point, instructions w/ more photos and more diagrams. Other than that, it's awesome! The replacment filters are industry standards so finding them locally shouldn't be a prob. Link to comment
nano-nemo Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Originally posted by 40oz casualtie well my reef tank water is tap but if you use tap water you have to let it sit for a month before putting any fish or corals wow, our pet store is only 50 cents a gallon for ro water, its half what distilled water costs locally. for that price i will pay the 50 cents a gallon oops, quoted the wrong post, meant to quote the one where it cost 1.00 a gallon Link to comment
PetPeople Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 I live in Alberta Canada and everyone I know and the LFS all use our tap water. I use Prime by Seachem to dechlorinate the water in my reservoir prior to adding to the tank. I am also very new at doing this so I am just going off of what the more experienced people are telling me. If you want to follow my experiences and see how my tank is going please visit me at www.crookshideaway.com Link to comment
matt the fiddler Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 so does anybody do tap , and a ton of hair eatign snails? a good way to have a species only "snail tank" LOL Link to comment
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