How many people use tap water to start off a reef tank?

[steevareno]

I just bought a 40gal breeder and i'm itching to set it up tonight but i really don't feel like making 40gals of Ro/Di water. How many of you would just start off w tap water and add some declorinator and salt? I will add some live rock and a skimmer next week and then do a water change? Does everyone use RO/Di in the begining? Just curious. Maybe this could be a new poll question.

 

[nunofs]

I wouldn't use tap water, you're going to introduce phosphates, silicates, nitrates, etc that you'll need to remove one way or the other later (water changes, phosphate removers, etc) or you'll have problems...

I know the feeling of wanting so see something working as quickly as possible, but don't rush it... if you're only adding rock next week, you have plenty of time to make 40g of RODI until then.

Nuno

 

[dz6t]

I use Tap water but water in Concord is great. Tap water in Woburn is horrible because I used to live there.

 

[Moe_K]

I used tap water once. I regretted it 4 or 5 months later when I was waging a losing battle against hair algae.

 

[denvig]

Don't do it. Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. Did I say nothing? I meant Absolutely Nothing.

 

[dz6t]

well, 9 month and no hair alge.

Several times I put rocks with hair alge in the tanks and the hair alge just all got eatten by tangs. Never grow back.

Several weeks ago I got some rocks from a member who lost the battle of hair alge and the rocks are full of HA. I put them in the tank and 2 weeks later, all HA gone and showing the purple coraline all over the rock.

Your mileage will be different by using tap water depend on where you live.

 

[steevareno]

yeah, i'll just be patient..Plus, i should be getting to bed to wake up in time for the meeting!

 

[nunofs]

Tap water in Woburn is horrible because I used to live there.

Ah, so it's all your fault? (just kidding, I know what you mean but found it funny...)

Regarding Concord, no matter how good a water supply is by drinking-water standards, there will always be undesirable stuff in the water from a reef tank perspective... if you have, say 200ppm of TDS, that's 200ppm of "stuff" (some irrelevant, some bad) that shouldn't go in the tank.

Nuno

 

[dz6t]

Very funny, LOL

By the way, I keep soft coral and that is why I can get by with "dirty" water. The funny thing is that my SPS tank doesn't have HA problem either, neither cyno. I think the reason is that I have a yellow tang to eat off HA and a Queen whatever snail to eat cyno. Also, pods are reproducing crazy in my tanks. All my tanks are low tech dirty sea soups and soft coral love that.

 

[Aquaman_68]

well, 9 month and no hair alge.

Several times I put rocks with hair alge in the tanks and the hair alge just all got eatten by tangs. Never grow back.

Several weeks ago I got some rocks from a member who lost the battle of hair alge and the rocks are full of HA. I put them in the tank and 2 weeks later, all HA gone and showing the purple coraline all over the rock.

Your mileage will be different by using tap water depend on where you live.

Please don't encourage people to use tap water in a reef. It is a very very bad idea. You may think your water is ok in your area but I'm sure it isn't up to reef caliber. There is no way possible. Just because you don't have a hair algae problem now doesn't really mean beans. You will experience problems in the future from what you are doing. Bar none!!!!

 

[dz6t]

You will experience problems in the future from what you are doing. Bar none!!!!

Please don't be that absolute. There are more than one way to enjoy this hobby besides the way one believe in. Whatever works for you is the way to do it. There is no way you can duplicate the ocean no matter how many gadgets you have (or fail). You will never up to reef caliber anyway. No offense.

 

[dz6t]

By the way, RODI is good if you have it and feel the need to use it. If I have a RODI and if I experiencing problem with tap water, I would use an RODI too.

 

[_Eric_]

Very important lesson when it comes to any Aquarium
Patience is really important.. I have heard this before and still see posts about using tap water.............................My simple answer to any other these post.

TAP WATER IS THE DEVIL<<<<<Phrase from a great reefer that I know.

I will not tell you that you cant use the TAP but I would just like to give my thoughts on the matter....

Would you drink your tap water...(I know I wouldnt) My tap has about 270ppm's TDS
YUCK! Not to mention all the other things like Cl, PO4, NO3, I am sure theres tons more but its a start to a point.

Well with that said, I leave you with this thought.

THE TAP=DEVIL

 

[dz6t]

with that kind of parameter in your tap water, I won't use it either let alone drinking. 270ppm of TDS? Your tap water is evil.

In my tap water, NH3, nitrite and nitrate are below detection limit, phosphate is less than 1ppm. Our tap water is drinkable.

 

[_Eric_]

Ha! Agreed... I also work in Seabrook NH...For the heck of it I brought my my TDS meter to work and tested there water......


580ppm No lie.


Good thing I am not using my Typhoon in that town. Id go broke replacing the filters, Ha! say every month. LOL

 

[dz6t]

We paid a hell of tax to live in the expensive town of Concord and they don't even provide free trash collection. They better give us clean tap water to drink.

580ppm? my god, FDA should start to look into tap water instead of Vioxx.

 

[Piscevore]

Just to for a moment play devil's advocate, a TDS will flip out on your reef water, because the reef has a ton of Ions in solution. The calcium and Carbonate Ions we dump into our tanks like crazy, not to mention Na+ and Cl- etc etc etc....The problem is you can't control the good/bad ions from your tap. So your RO unit is pulling out all those wonderful calciums and sodiums that you are going to add later, but it ALSO pulls out many OTHER undesireable ones like silica and copper lead mercury or whatever. So hypothetically one could have a high TDS, and also have water fantastically suited for a reef tank, in theory. It just so happens, most of us don't have that kind of luck For me, I use my RO because it creates a baseline (often times the quality of local water supplies varies drastically depending upon season/weather/etc) that I can then add supplements to, providing a more stable reef ecosystem..of course, if you aren't changing those filters religiously....

Cheers!

 

[dz6t]

Good thing I am not using my Typhoon in that town. Id go broke replacing the filters, Ha! say every month. LOL

I know Cambridge, MA water is bad. A company I used to work for had a RODI unit that required service every month instead of the usual every six month. You can pull a three-eye fish out of the river in Cambridge.

 

[dz6t]

Just to for a moment play devil's advocate, a TDS will flip out on your reef water, because the reef has a ton of Ions in solution. The calcium and Carbonate Ions we dump into our tanks like crazy, not to mention Na+ and Cl- etc etc etc....The problem is you can't control the good/bad ions from your tap. So your RO unit is pulling out all those wonderful calciums and sodiums that you are going to add later, but it ALSO pulls out many OTHER undesireable ones like silica and copper lead mercury or whatever. So hypothetically one could have a high TDS, and also have water fantastically suited for a reef tank, in theory. It just so happens, most of us don't have that kind of luck For me, I use my RO because it creates a baseline (often times the quality of local water supplies varies drastically depending upon season/weather/etc) that I can then add supplements to, providing a more stable reef ecosystem..of course, if you aren't changing those filters religiously....

Cheers!

Very well said. Totally agree.

Back to the original question by Steve, no, please don't use Woburn's tap water.

 

[Moe_K]

You never know your local water source.
I grew up in Acton, just a stone's throw from West Concord.
When I was a kid, they discovered WR Grace had polluted the local wells with all kinds of nasty chemicals. The pollution had been going on for years before the town shut down the wells.
Other times, growing up, I remember the town would flush the supply lines, and for a few hours the water would come out of the tap bright orange.
One just never knows how much chlorine or chloramine is dumped into the water. How much flouride is in the water? How much nitrate or nitrite?
I'll not make the mistake again.