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How many use tap water for their tank?
- Thread starter davidrupe
- Start date
NateHanson
Non-member
I began with tap water when I set up, but I switched to RODI after the first week or so. It's just scary what's in our water around here. Since then I've added a whole-house water filter, and the ammount of rust and crap that collects in that filter in a week is truly frightening.
I get RODI for $0.20/gallon from AA. Pretty hard to find excuses for not doing that in my opinion. My total water costs are about $75/year. If I had a bigger tank it would be worth an RO maker, but this is working well for now.
Nate
I get RODI for $0.20/gallon from AA. Pretty hard to find excuses for not doing that in my opinion. My total water costs are about $75/year. If I had a bigger tank it would be worth an RO maker, but this is working well for now.
Nate
Matt L.
Non-member
Using tap water is close to catastrophic for reef keeping, albeit depending on where you live.
The water is safe for us to drink, but disasterous in a closed system such as a fish tank. I think a quality RO/DI unit is one of the first investments everyone should make.
Here in the Boston area, tap water is not even remotely acceptable for use. Chloramines (and their degradation daughter products) in particular are dangerous to fish and reef inhabitants.
So count me as a 'no' vote on that one,
Matt
The water is safe for us to drink, but disasterous in a closed system such as a fish tank. I think a quality RO/DI unit is one of the first investments everyone should make.
Here in the Boston area, tap water is not even remotely acceptable for use. Chloramines (and their degradation daughter products) in particular are dangerous to fish and reef inhabitants.
So count me as a 'no' vote on that one,
Matt
Scuba_Dave
Non-member
Started my 1st 60g hex tank w/tapwater & chlorine removers. Started to switch to a Reef after finding RC. An Air Water Ice 100gpd RO/DI was one of my 1st purchases
Do they make a 250gpd unit? I may need another one
Do they make a 250gpd unit? I may need another one
Moe_K said:
Umm, I second this question. I don't understand why so many people have so many opinions but very little facts on whether it is or isn't bad. They just repeat what they were told...prolly by a RO/DI manufacturer...
Chloarmines/clorine, gone with chemicals. Let me rephrase the question.
How many have had problems because of tap water and what were the problems? How did you know it was the water and what did you do to fix it?
Scuba_Dave
Non-member
I think it would be very hard to specifically "blame" tap water for a problem. I switched to RO/DI because in the long term I wanted filtered water for my tank, filtered water for drinking (RO). I had an out break of cyano. Was it due to tapwater? I don't know. Did it go away because I switched to RO/DI? I don't know.
Nate, I can understand. My house has pipes that are less than 6 months old and they are all PVC. Rust isn't a problem. I do understand why you had to switch.
Starfish, how did you know it was the water creating your brown algea? Good reason to switch.
Matt - That was just an opinion...plus I can kill the chloramines.
Scott - so what problems did the nitrates you measure and the phosephates cause? In a FOwLR tank, is it a problem?
reefsmurf - seems ok with tap. Some phosphate removers every so often but he is ok with that. No fish died.
scuba - Didn't have any problems with tap did you?
Ba19 - Why did you go to RO/DI?
Starfish, how did you know it was the water creating your brown algea? Good reason to switch.
Matt - That was just an opinion...plus I can kill the chloramines.
Scott - so what problems did the nitrates you measure and the phosephates cause? In a FOwLR tank, is it a problem?
reefsmurf - seems ok with tap. Some phosphate removers every so often but he is ok with that. No fish died.
scuba - Didn't have any problems with tap did you?
Ba19 - Why did you go to RO/DI?
scuba, did the outbreak go away at about the same time you switched? I would say that is pretty good explanation for the outbreak going away.
Basically, I have been using tap water. I have a bunch of green and brown algea right now. It doesn't bother me, I kinda like the way it adds color to my tank. Until I get some corals or something that can't live with the algea, why should I switch? That is what I am trying to figure out.
Basically, I have been using tap water. I have a bunch of green and brown algea right now. It doesn't bother me, I kinda like the way it adds color to my tank. Until I get some corals or something that can't live with the algea, why should I switch? That is what I am trying to figure out.
I've been using tap water tho I must admit I think about getting a RO/DI unit often. I just hate the waste water to produce each gallon of "pure" water. I do treat my tap with a chemical that removes chlorine, chlorimines and other chemicals. I know that I have some phosphates in my water but everything else checks out after treatment. I haven't figured out a good way to recycle the waste water yet so....
Wrassfan, I feel the same way about wasting water. I use the Kent DEION on my tank water, it has a carbon block, anion exchange bed and a cation exchange bed. Since the anion and cation exchange resins are separated, they can be regenerated by either stong acids or bases. You can also change out just one when the color changes. My town water is high in phosphates and silicates and I change one resin at 4x the rate.The only time I have problems is when I forget to check the color indicators for a while.
i have been using RO/DI (though i dont have a unit) from the time i started in this hobby until this past winter when my buddy's pipes froze.i started using tap i had a huge cyano outbreak then i started getting RO/DI again.it took a while but it wnet away after about a month....
~Flighty~
Now with more baby
I cycled my tank with tap and switched to ro/di once I put livestock in. I was concerned about variability of phos and niterates in our water as it is well water, but I was mostly concerned about trace metals. Who knows what percipitates out and causes a long term problem years down the line? Check in the bottom of your watter heater and see what you think.
Try some macro alge in your tank for an interesting look while reducing the slimy and hairy stuff. I have a ton if you need any.
Try some macro alge in your tank for an interesting look while reducing the slimy and hairy stuff. I have a ton if you need any.
Cindy, I would love to get some macro algea from you. Maybe Eliot could bring some in for me on Monday?
Now, I think Cindy has said something that does strike a chord with me. Metals that precipitate out with evaporation. I put in close to 1 gallon of water a day. That is what is evaporating. You can kill the chlorine/etc, live with the phosphate/nitrate if algea blooms or remove that some other way. Fish are still safe and healthy. What can you do about the iron and other metals that don't evaporate and build up? Is that a problem 3+ years down the line? Anybody have experience in that area?
Now, I think Cindy has said something that does strike a chord with me. Metals that precipitate out with evaporation. I put in close to 1 gallon of water a day. That is what is evaporating. You can kill the chlorine/etc, live with the phosphate/nitrate if algea blooms or remove that some other way. Fish are still safe and healthy. What can you do about the iron and other metals that don't evaporate and build up? Is that a problem 3+ years down the line? Anybody have experience in that area?
Silvio
Non-member
I have been using well water for 2 years. People think I'm nuts, but my 2 reef tanks seem to be doing well. I did have a cyano outbreak at the beginning of the summer, but that was only in one of the tanks, so I don't think it was the makeup water. I have a used RO/DI which I plan to set up just because everyone says it's better.
NateHanson
Non-member
David, The rust and sediment in our water isn't from the house pipes. It comes in with the city water. We filter it out right after it goes through our meter. You should get an annual tap water quality report in the mail from your town. That tells you all the crap that's in your tap water.
I use RODI because my tank evaporates it's entire volume in about 2 months, so every two months anything that came in with my tap water would be doubled. If the water had 3 ppm copper in it, after a year my tank would measure 98 ppm copper! The same goes for every other impurity that's in the tap water. (Water changes will only reduce that accumulation by a small fraction.)
Nate
I use RODI because my tank evaporates it's entire volume in about 2 months, so every two months anything that came in with my tap water would be doubled. If the water had 3 ppm copper in it, after a year my tank would measure 98 ppm copper! The same goes for every other impurity that's in the tap water. (Water changes will only reduce that accumulation by a small fraction.)
Nate
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