I went to visit a pet shop and I was told

[pclittlereefcreations]

by the owner that he dose not use a RO to clean his water and his tanks look GREAT including his reef tank. Boy that has me thinking, some people just are so lucky when it comes to things like that. I bet if was to try something like that nothing good would happend in my tank. Anybody out there just use tap water? And is it true that you can use the water from the RO vending machines in the superstores to do your 10% water change and to top off your tank? Are they pulling the leg or legs. These leg were made for walking and if not true, I am going to walk all you Mr.Bull.

 

[DontXtripNfall]

lol RO vending machines? ive never heard of that b4 ... hahaha

 

[Killerdrgn]

lol RO vending machines? ive never heard of that b4 ... hahaha

Yeah they have them outside of NY, you usually find them outside places like home depot or major supermarkets. Not really a vending machine, more like the machines you get hot coffee and hot chocolate out of, but much much bigger like a gazebo. Bring your own bucket pay $5.00 and get 5 gallons of RO/DI water. But you should just buy your own RODI unit as the cost savings of one as opposed to buying and lugging containers home is much greater. In Boston it was about 50 cents a gallon, for a good $200 RODI unit if you made 400 gallons of water you would about break even, minus the nominal cost increase of water bills you already pay.

 

[jhale]

here's what Randy Holmes Farley has to say about tap water:

"The use of tap water itself entails a number of concerns besides the presence of chlorine. First is chloramine, which does not dissipate after sitting around, the way many aquarists have done in the past for chlorine. It is now being added to many water supplies, and is much longer lived than chlorine. It also requires special treatments, not just the standard dechlorinating agents. Other concerns with tap water are copper (which often comes from your home's plumbing), nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) and alkalinity (which is not per se a problem, but can boost levels too high in some cases). In general, I recommend avoiding tap water. Sure, some folks use it and have fine aquaria. That does not, however, prove that any other tap water, even from a neighboring home, is suitable."

I personally would never use tap water in my tank

 

[ReefnQueens]

i dont have an ro....i was just never up to buying one even though i would like to buy one soon to improve my tank......ive been using about 4 feet of 2 inch pvc layered with activated carbon , polypads ,carbon ,poly and so on ....nothing in my tank is bleached ,colors are beautiful and plenty of reproduction ..... id still like to get an ro because i want to hook it up to my tank for automatic top off and just having cleaner water

 

[nanoreefer22]

He may not be using RO but it doesn't mean he's still not using DI.

EDIT: Talking about the guy at the pet shop

 

[ReefnQueens]

no di-tap right through my active carbon pvc, not that im reccomending that but i dont think my tap is di

 

[marki24]

:hmmm:

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I went to a pet store once and they had a 3 foot nurse shark in a 125g tank.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

If your tap water is high quality, you can use it to set up your tank...the problems come in the top off. Chemicals that are only found in trace amounts will accumulate as water is added to replace evaporation. When I first set up my tank, 12 years ago, I just used tap water. I felt that NYC tap water is so pure that there would be no problem. I went through the usual algae cycles that a tank goes through as it matures...first diatoms, then red cyano, then things improved....but after a year or so the hair algae arrived (stimulated by an atrocity called Coral Vital....oh, those ignorant years!). I was surprised to see how much phosphate was in my water, and even more surprised to find phosphate in my tap water...only the smallest reading on my crappy test kit, but that was enough to accumulate over time. ( I have since learned that NYC adds orthophosphate to the water.) I immediately bought a tap water purifier, which is good enough for my needs. Our water is still so pure that I only go through 3 cartridges a year...and my tank is great. I can see how an LFS could get by with high quality tap water, as they are probably (hopefully?) making frequent water changes...its not in the water changes, but in the top off.

 

[ReefnQueens]

u convinced me.....next step ....RO/DI

 

[spacenyc]

do i need di

i use ro water from my culligan whole house set up. do i need di also? right now i have fowlr but will be getting some easy corals soon?

 

[pclittlereefcreations]

Thanks for all the replies, and keep them going it's nice to know stuff like this and the stories of the things that happened to some of the MR people. This is good information for the new people that think they can use tap water without checking it from a test kit or from there local tap water plant report and even then who can trust the report lots of time things go wrong and we are not told. SO LETS TEST THE WATERS OURSELFS, TO KEEP OUR LITTLE OCEAN SAFE.

Tell us your story

Thank Again

 

[tommy818]

cant even imagine using tap water i run my water 6 stage spectrapure ro di start off right in the long run you we be a lot happier no algaeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[KathyC]

This is good information for the new people that think they can use tap water without checking it from a test kit or from there local tap water plant report and even then who can trust the report lots of time things go wrong and we are not told.

Aren't you one of the new people?

If you're using ro/di water..the only thing you need to do is test it with your TDS meter. As long as that reads zero..you're golden.
Tap water, from wherever shouldn't be used in a reef tank as eventually it will lead to issues with the tank. It would probably be cheaper to buy a rodi unit than to buy all of the test kits for all the nonsense that could be in your tap water..and that's if they even make test kits for all that stuff!! lol

 

[tommy818]

in this hobby theres some things u must have and a ro is one of them

 

[dre82584]

it depends on your water . different places produce more $hit in tap water but yea u could go to the store n buy the r/o water in the gallon's i used to do that before i got a r/o unit

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

the problems come in the top off. Chemicals that are only found in trace amounts will accumulate as water is added to replace evaporation.

That's a pretty good observation and analysis.

BTW, one of my doctor told me that the NYC water is not that great comparing to other cities of the world. In fact, the NY State DEP has always found NYC DEP in violation of the State guild lines including hiding potential issues in water quality.

 

[jejton]

Thats interesting, Wingo, because most of the things I have read have stated that NYC has one of the best municpal water supplies in the country. Many problems originate from old piping in the many very old buildings we have. That being said, a recent NYTimes report revealed that most municipal water systems in the country have trace amounts of many many different pharmaceuticals ( Prozac was one of, if not the, top ). After giving everyone a good scare, though, they went on to say that even though the levels are detectable, they are far below those known to produce any effects.

 

[wxl14]

Aren't you one of the new people?

If you're using ro/di water..the only thing you need to do is test it with your TDS meter. As long as that reads zero..you're golden.
Tap water, from wherever shouldn't be used in a reef tank as eventually it will lead to issues with the tank. It would probably be cheaper to buy a rodi unit than to buy all of the test kits for all the nonsense that could be in your tap water..and that's if they even make test kits for all that stuff!! lol

Not actually, You should still test your water from and RO DI TDS do not measure everything they are simply a measurment of conductivity. If you had some pesticides and some chemicals in your water and your RO is not working properly a TDS meter would not detect it.