Tap water for a reef tank?

[JeanR]

I was chatting with a well known member this weekend and the topic of water quality came up. This member has several incredible tanks dominated by hard-to-grow SPS. I was shocked when he told me he thinks RO/DI water is nonsense, a gimmick to get more money out of reefers. He uses tap water conditioned with Instant Ocean Marine Conditioner has his only water source, and has for many years. Again, this member has several incredible systems full of acropora, etc... and has never used RODI.

I would love to follow his advise and throw out my RODI unit but don't quite have the nerve. Does anyone else have experience (good or bad) with conditioned tap water in a reef tank??

 

[Bao]

You can just shut down your RoDi for a few months and try out Tap water.

 

[gurumasta]

I'm pretty sure that most of us have a guess on who you are talking about... He is impressive for sure.

And yes it is possible to be very successful but the quality of your town water and your maintenance routine will also be a factor.

 

[Chris A.]

It all depends on the source water, I couldn’t do that at my place since I can smell the chlorine coming from the tap and my tds is around 500 lol

 

[Aros]

In Lowell my tds meter reads 1-5 on the incoming side of my rodi.


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[Chris A.]

You must never change anything on that ro unit lol

 

[cilyjr]

As posted, it depends on what's in the water. I've seen people on wells with tds well over 800 (excuse the pun). In Warwick I see about 80 tds and would use in an emergency, after a dechlorinator. It also depends on what the dissolved solids are. If your tds is 20 but it's all copper that would likely be bad for invertebrates.

 

[JeanR]

This member mentioned that his tap water TDS is usually around 280, which is the same ballpark as many of us.

Soooo....are we a bunch of suckers wasting time/money on RO/DI systems??

 

[Abrooks12376]

Well sh**... (no pun hehe)... my water in West Roxbury was so tasty out the tap, I had wc apistogramma spawning at the wrong temp. It was really good! Tds was about 150-200. It was very soft. So... tds=total dissolved solids, what could they possibly be?? Maybe there's a chemist in the bunch that would be willing to break it down? Tds is fun and all but it really means nothing unless you find out what the solids are.. when I moved to Dedham the tds went up to 500, found out the Charles river was my source and road salts make a big deal in those readings.. I got ro to cut the tap with, didn't lose any soft water cichlids in the move. Towns issue detailed water reports, should show you exactly what's causing what readings.
Not all tap water is equal. If you have Poland spring flowing into your backyard? Awesome.. Charles river??not so much.

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[Fudsey]

In Lowell my tds meter reads 1-5 on the incoming side of my rodi.


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If that is on a BRS RO/DI unit, it is after the membrane not what is tap water. I highly doubt Lowell tap is 1-5 TDS. My well is 55 and I used to only use tap water on a FOWLR tank for many years. I had extremely high Nitrates and fought cyano for years too

 

[Aros]

If that is on a BRS RO/DI unit, it is after the membrane not what is tap water. I highly doubt Lowell tap is 1-5 TDS. My well is 55 and I used to only use tap water on a FOWLR tank for many years. I had extremely high Nitrates and fought cyano for years too

Oh yeah you right. Even if it were that I wouldn’t just use tap. Just doesn’t feel right to me.


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[showard]

I just downloaded my towns water report... I think I'm stuck with my rodi lol

 

[Jbotelho85]

I only use tap water and I have not had any issues either, I also don’t use a protein skimmer, but so far so good.

 

[JeanR]

I only use tap water and I have not had any issues either, I also don’t use a protein skimmer, but so far so good.

Nice! Thanks for sharing. I hope you don't mind but I have a few more questions.
Sounds like you have a reef tank? What size? What kind of corals do you keep? Do you know what your total dissolved solids (TSDs) are? Any persistent issues with your tank? Any advice on keeping an reef tank using tap water?

 

[nemodan]

When I was living in Pembroke (south shore) on my mix 90 G tank I used for 4 years only tap water from the town. TANK was full of LPS, Soft and some SPS. I sold the house, moved and never tried again because I decided to do mainly SPS , and got a RODI system.

Tank did GREAT all those years. Don't ask me about parameters because I wasn't measuring them. I just didn't change anything in 4 years. I used IO salt.

Cheers

 

[Jbotelho85]

I have mostly soft corals, with one lps, I haven’t had any real issues. I don’t know what my TDS is as I don’t have a meter. The only issue I have are diatoms, but I also used regular play sand and it was fine until I got a new power head which blew most of the sand away and probably uncovered some silicate from the sand? Advice on using tap water? I don’t know, I run a Refugio with chaeto and it grows pretty quickly, that’s the only thing I really do. Although, I am going to be using natural local seawater soon, but will most likely top off with tap water. I do use the marine conditioner too.

 

[JeanR]

Well for what it's worth I did an experiment with my tap water. I live in Belmont which is part of a larger metro west municipal water system. I tested my salt water mixed from tap water and all looked good except ammonia which was almost 1ppm. I checked and sure enough my tap water was registering 1ppm. My RODI water was registering 0ppm. I checked my municipal water quality report and saw that ammonia readings of 0.42ppm are pretty standard, though other parameters are much lower and not problematic. Definitely not using my tap water in my my tank.

I'll just repeat from this learning what others have said. Using tap water in your tank is possible, but depends highly on the local quality. The member I mentioned in the first posting who uses tap water is in the general metro west area but his town is on a different water system that does not have high ammonia.

Keep on experimenting!


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[Syntax]

This member you are talking about has a "green" thumb for growing coral, and also said he never doses anything besides whats going on in his calcium reactor.... I did see a bottle of Acro Power and something else on a shelf behind the tanks on one visit. I think there's more than meets the eye going on there.

I watched him use a garden hose to fill up a five gallon bucket and mix up a few gallons of salt and dump it into his tanks... I was shocked when it happened, a couple year ago. It is inspiring and head scratching at the same time.

This same person also said that my lights were junk and were a gimmick.... I have several acro colonies the size of melons...... so.... who knows.

try it and see if it works for you.... if things go south then go back to RO/DI.

 

[RyReef]

I filled my 90 gallons tank with sink water with tds around 200-250 time to time no prob. I let it sit in a 5 gallons bucket for few days and slowly add into my 90 tank for evaporation. same with wen i change 5 gallons every two weeks just add salt. tank is mostly solftie and i have a skimmer