bautin2 Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 You guys may think of me as a complete moron after this thread, but here goes: I've been using tap water, just 'treated' with liquid conditioner, for my 56 gallon salt water tank since it's inception around 4 months ago. Nothing has died so far. I'm trying to setup a 10 gallon nano now. I'm sure tap water won't cut it. Although, that's what I heard for the 56 gallon, and, as I said, things are looking ok in there so far. So, my question is, will tap water cut it in a 10 gallon nano? If not, what sorta filtration (RO, etc) do you recommend? and how much will this filter setup cost? Thanks... Link to comment
Mnesarchus Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 Most reefs do fine with tapwater but will do much better with RO or RO/DO. Check out www.aquaticreefsystems.com or www.puresoftwater.com. for filters and prices. Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 Keep in mind also that not all tap water is created equal. You might be lucky to live in an area with very good tap water. However, that still doesn't mean your at risk. I used to use tap water in my 90 gallon reef for about the first 6 months I had it. What brought be to change was when the city water added chloramines to the water, as they do periodically, and it killed some of my fish right after a water change. Link to comment
Strife Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 like what chris marks said....YOUR JUST LUCKY RIGHT NOW just 4 months? thats not long enough to see the effects that tap water can do to your tank... cuz, see..most water company's do it by season..when they add more chemicals. chlorine etc.. specially on hot/dry season to elimanate the bacteria that can develop... and one more thing..just hope that construction workers doesnt work on roads, houses.etc..that you waterpipe is under... a lil shake here and there...can get rust and other stuff right to your home faucet...and straight to your tank... good luck... Link to comment
chufa Posted September 23, 2002 Share Posted September 23, 2002 It depends where your tap water is from. Our local water is good; alkaline and hard; good calcium content. I use it for my FW tank with a good water conditioner (i.e. Prime). But I stopped using it for my nano because it contains undesirable amounts of phosphates and silicates, which can promote the growth of algae and diatoms. Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted September 23, 2002 Share Posted September 23, 2002 If you are fortunate to live IN the city of San Francisco, or a city that has an equal quality tap water, go for it! -believe it or not SF is KNOWN for their quality of tap water (I used to work in a water plant in the area, everyone used to complain that they wanted to work for SF... ironically we had sold our water rights to SF, and now the plant has to treat really crappy water that requires a ton of chems!). -sorry for the tangent... Anyway, you might be surprised to find that a LFS will probably sell RO/DI water for $0.25-$0.50 a gallon! My local grocery store sells it for about $1 a gallon (I still treat it with a small amount of prime... but that is just because I have trust issues when it come to water quality -probably comes from working at the water plant... ). Link to comment
badpacket Posted September 23, 2002 Share Posted September 23, 2002 Well, I live in SF East Bay (Alameda) and was hoping to hear that. However, not sure if EBMud is quite as good. However, the Longs near me has an RO vending machine. $0.30/gallon. If my tap water isn't good enough, then RO is cheap. Link to comment
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