What problems did you have when using tap water?

[dannyp02908]

Confusing? Ok. Let me clarify. I have a RODI unit. My tank is in wall and the RODI is literally plumbed into the closet behind the tank. I rarely (if ever) use it. My statement basically said that it isn't a matter of money but the time it takes. I used tap to fill my tank and tap to top off all the time. Also, tap for water changes. I do water changes monthly. As for your reference of my husbandry being foolish, I have no issues with growth, health, or polyp extension of any of my live stock. I'm not laughing at anyone who states their personal opinion of tap being no good. I'm laughed at them referring to it as a newb mistake and something that people with low cost livestock do.

 

[STiTCH87]

It is a newb mistake. Just because one member on here has success using tap water, does not make it a correct nor viable method of reef keeping. I am surprised that in Providence your water from tap is clean enough to pull that off, and you are simply lucky. I am not trying to put down your reef keeping skills, I am just simply stating that using RO/DI water as opposed to tap water is barely any difference in price, and the water is cleaner, so there's no reason I (nor many others) could see as to not use it. Also, there have been so many thousands of negative stories of being using tap, that a few people getting away with using it doesn't justify the use.

But again, like everything in this hobby, what works for one guy likely will fail for another.

If it works for you, kudos, but i'd like the peace of mind to know that if my tank ever crashed, it wasn't due to me cutting corners.

Here's a good article for everyone to read:
http://www.melevsreef.com/why_rodi.html

 

[dannyp02908]

You know providence water is some of the cleanest? Its not one member here. There are many many people on reef central that use tap as well. There was recently a similar thread and I wouldn't say that the count leaned heavily to RODI. And as for water being the cheapest part. Do you pay a water and sewage bill? You will quickly change your mind regarding cost unless you are collecting the waste water. I am far too busy to collect grey water for re-use. Its not a newb mistake. Lots of folks who have kept aquariums for years use tap. Myself included.

 

[STiTCH87]

I have a 40g setup with 20g sump and will be doing 20% WC per week which is about 8GPW since neither tank actually has that much water in it.
At 8 gallons per week, plus top off water, I use around 10GPW total. That's two buckets worth. It's also only $5 a week if getting it from my LFS.
If I don't want to lug around buckets every week, they sell RO/DI space saver units at 75gpg on eBay for $60 with good USA filters in them so that I can do it at home.
That's $60 upfront, and then at 50 cents per gallon the LFS charges, after 120 gallons made, it pays off.

Now onto the price of water. It produces one gallon pure for every 2-3 gallons waste. Sound like a lot at first to some.
But when I need 10 gallons a week, it "wastes" 20-30 gallons of water which goes into water containers outside for plants outdoors and indoors (takes no added time to fill them as I don't even have to be home to do it)

Water rate is $3.45 per 100 cubic feet of water.
Sewer rate is $4.70 per 100 cubic feet of water used.

How many gallons are there is a 100 cubic feet?
There are 748 gallons in 100 cubic feet.

Which works out to .005 cents a gallon.

Multiplied by the 40 gallons a week it uses, and you get 20 cents.

And keep in mind, saving all the water that comes out, you eliminate your sewer rate.

Once you actually crunch out the numbers, it's pretty amazing.
I can honestly say that not even I was aware of how inexpensive water really is. I always thought I was paying more than that.

 

[dannyp02908]

I wasn't really arguing. I answered the original question then defended against the idea of it only applying to newbs. But yea, I'm not voting either way, just saying I've had no problems in over 5 years of keeping marine life.

 

[STiTCH87]

I wonder if maybe Providence just has very good filtration in their water plant? I know Fall River gets their water from Watuppa pond and it's fairly clean out of the faucet after being filtered by the city, but tastes like crap. Lol.

 

[dannyp02908]

Providence water uses a sand bed filter. I looked it up before out of curiosity. I would double check your sewage. You aren't eliminating that bill by collecting grey water. There is no meter on your drain pipe. You get charged based on the amount of water you use on the incoming side.

 

[MikeG]

Ih has been said already but I will say it again, biggest reason I don't use tap anymore and haven't for about 8 years is because of uncontrollable fluctuations. Good example being hydrant flushing. My TDS can go from 150-200 on a normal day to as high as 1500ppm when they flush the hydrants. I don't want all that stuff ending up in my tank.

 

[STiTCH87]

My house in Dighton is charged a sewage fee as far as I know. I was told so by the town I thought. I could be wrong though. Regardless, no sure if we use a sand bed filtration or not.

If I can get my hands on a TDS meter i'd love to compare the TDS in my Dighton tap water as opposed to the TDS in my Fall River tap. Regardless, I am still planning a economy RODI eventually.

 

[drunkintimmy]

i use tap water with no issues i do add a small amout of prime in each bucket i mix i did have an issue recently when i added some stuff to my tank i was told was a good idea when starting coral my tank got super cloudy and my fish and anemone are looking kind of ********ty

 

[P-Nut]

i use tap water with no issues i do add a small amout of prime in each bucket i mix i did have an issue recently when i added some stuff to my tank i was told was a good idea when starting coral my tank got super cloudy and my fish and anemone are looking kind of ********ty

what did you add?


back on topic:

A few weeks ago, I was picking up some live rock and we started talking about tap water. the BRS member (will not say his name) was horrified that I used tap water in the past.
That same person had a nice LED set and a nice clam on the bottom of the tank that was doing great. At the same time he had a beautiful low light coral all the way on the top. of course, the low light coral was almsot dead.
the same person that gave me a lecture about tap water couldnt keep his own corals from bleachins out.

anyways, he gave me and my buddy the coral for free. I let my friend keep the coral since my tannk is not ready yet. Now its under power compacts and the pieces that didnt bleach out are growing again.

 

[STiTCH87]

what did you add?


back on topic:

A few weeks ago, I was picking up some live rock and we started talking about tap water. the BRS member (will not say his name) was horrified that I used tap water in the past.
That same person had a nice LED set and a nice clam on the bottom of the tank that was doing great. At the same time he had a beautiful low light coral all the way on the top. of course, the low light coral was almsot dead.
the same person that gave me a lecture about tap water couldnt keep his own corals from bleachins out.

anyways, he gave me and my buddy the coral for free. I let my friend keep the coral since my tannk is not ready yet. Now its under power compacts and the pieces that didnt bleach out are growing again.

Clams are always best grown n the sand bed. So it sounds like he made it lighting strong enough to keep the clam, but had nowhere safe fr the other coral.

Also, LED systems can be tricky depending on optics and layout and odds are he's new to LEDs (well, all of us are technically) and was just having a hard time getting the hang of it. That wasn't necessarily his fault nor him not having reefing knowledge.

 

[Kungfukid]

I have a 40g setup with 20g sump and will be doing 20% WC per week which is about 8GPW since neither tank actually has that much water in it.
At 8 gallons per week, plus top off water, I use around 10GPW total. That's two buckets worth. It's also only $5 a week if getting it from my LFS.
If I don't want to lug around buckets every week, they sell RO/DI space saver units at 75gpg on eBay for $60 with good USA filters in them so that I can do it at home.
That's $60 upfront, and then at 50 cents per gallon the LFS charges, after 120 gallons made, it pays off.

Now onto the price of water. It produces one gallon pure for every 2-3 gallons waste. Sound like a lot at first to some.
But when I need 10 gallons a week, it "wastes" 20-30 gallons of water which goes into water containers outside for plants outdoors and indoors (takes no added time to fill them as I don't even have to be home to do it)

Water rate is $3.45 per 100 cubic feet of water.
Sewer rate is $4.70 per 100 cubic feet of water used.

How many gallons are there is a 100 cubic feet?
There are 748 gallons in 100 cubic feet.

Which works out to .005 cents a gallon.

Multiplied by the 40 gallons a week it uses, and you get 20 cents.

And keep in mind, saving all the water that comes out, you eliminate your sewer rate.

Once you actually crunch out the numbers, it's pretty amazing.
I can honestly say that not even I was aware of how inexpensive water really is. I always thought I was paying more than that.

How to eliminate the sewer rate? is this possible?

 

[joelg]

How to eliminate the sewer rate? is this possible?

Some towns may let you have two meters one for the household water and one for the outside faucets that don't flow down the drain.
But it will cost a few bucks to re-work the plumbing accordingly and its been a while since I have heard of anyone actually doing it

 

[dannyp02908]

I dont think you can eliminate the sewer rate. It is an estimate based on your water use since they have no way of knowing what you did with the water (no meter on your waste lines).

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

The "sewer rate" for single meters (Majority, if not all of Boston residents) is actually an offset, by using 'Grey water' in place of fresh water you may otherwise use and pay for (Washing clothes, watering lawn, plants, etc...). Of course it's minimally reduced by the volume you do throw down the drain during water changes.

 

[STiTCH87]

Oh I was under the impression that if I saved the water rather than letting it go down the drain that I was eliminating that charge, but stupid me not realizing the drain isn't metered lol. Never the less. 20 cents for $5 worth of RODI.

 

[Greg Hiller]

First in the FWIW category I’ve never used anything but highly purified water. Clearly some people do okay with just tap water, but that will depend heavily upon your source of water, and you need to be super careful about variability if you go this route.

IMO and in my calculation it’s generally not the cost of the water to make the water that is the largest cost when making RO/DI water, it’s more the cost of the filters and DI resin that adds up.

I’d like to offer up an alternative that may work for some people, particularly if they are willing to put a little effort into it. You can in some cases use rainwater for topoff and for water changes. If you collect in the middle of a storm after your roof is cleaned off, you can actually get some pretty clean water. Easily in the single digits for TDS. For several years now I’ve been collecting water off my roof and using it in my 400 gallon SPS, as well as all my other tanks. As it’s collected I have it go through a bit of filter floss to keep out any large bits of stuff. Later after the water has had a chance for any particulates to settle out of it I use a small peristaltic pump to pump the water across some activated carbon, and then across some DI resin to take out the last bits of stuff. TDS on the outflow is 0. It probably would be okay to even use this water without the DI treatment (I am curious what the ions are in this water that are removed by the DI). I think to be safe you would always want to leave the carbon treatment in place. When I had freshwater fish as a kid I always used rainwater, without any significant treatment, and had great results.

 

[Flame Angel]

That is some outside the roof box thinking.

 

[SteveDola]

Ih has been said already but I will say it again, biggest reason I don't use tap anymore and haven't for about 8 years is because of uncontrollable fluctuations. Good example being hydrant flushing. My TDS can go from 150-200 on a normal day to as high as 1500ppm when they flush the hydrants. I don't want all that stuff ending up in my tank.

BINGO
use tap water at youre own risk. I filter all my water because Id rather not have to replace 1000s of dollars of corals/fish or deal with a terrible algea outbreak. There is no control with tap water unless you trust the city. I trust my 5 stage RODI unit that I test before every batch of water.