Another Tap water question /debate

[riche]

My local saltwater fish store uses nothing but tap water and prime on all there tanks and even there frag tank(s)

I have 2 friends that is all they use and there with in a few miles of me.

So how can these people/places have success with tap water?


I'm cycling a tank in a few days and its filled with tap water so I can do a "Dry run"

I'm thinking of just adding rock, salt and sand and running the cycle and by that time I should have my ro/di Plumbed to the storage tank for my top off water. And I would just do water changes and top offs with ro/di water

So thats why I'm confused is they have great success

 

[Porpoise Hork]

It is likely that the only way they are able to pull this off is if their source water is relatively clean to start with. Or they have been doing it so long or have a very slow drip acclimation method that allows the livestock to adjust to the mineral content in the water.

Still asking for all sorts of problems as you have no way to control/monitor what is going in the tanks.

 

[WVNed]

I use tap water. I have been here 25 years and always have once we moved here. My water comes from a lake that has restricted access. 2 miles away you would be on another water system that uses the river as it's source. I had a hard time keeping freshwater fish alive with that water. They are under suit for poisoning hundreds of people after a chemical spill on the river entered their intakes and made it all the way to peoples houses.
Where does your water come from? The utility should have info on file to tell you what is in it.

So the answer is maybe. You would have to do a little research to find out.

Don't you want to know? Do you drink it?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Tap is fine, but only if you are certain of what's in it at any give time.

Here's the rub, if you have been successful with tap and even for years, if your local water company just once changes it's procedure on how it processes it's water, your tank can crash. Even if you have a report from them. Not worth the risk.

I have very good low TDS water supplied to our subdivision. It's very clean (004). Am I going to risk thousands of dollars to save a buck using tap. No way. Never.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

So how can these people/places have success with tap water?

The reason almost everyone serious about the hobby uses RO/DI is because it's very cheap insurance. Sure, you might pay $150 for an RO/DI system. You might waste a bit of water (although the cost of water is usually less than four dollar per every 100 gallons produced). You might have to spend $20 on filters every year. But, most people in this hobby don't bat an eye at spending $400 on a top-of-the-line DC controllable pump. Many people don't mind at all spending literally thousands of dollars on lighting. Many people will pay several hundred dollars for less than an inch of stony coral. If you're going to spend literally thousands of dollars on a typical reef aquarium setup, gambling on using tap water to simply avoid paying the $150 for an RO/DI system does not make economic sense to most reefers.

Can tap water work? Sure. Do some people use tap water and have really exemplary aquariums? All the time. This is far from a guarantee though. If you're going to use tap water, you really need to do your homework and make sure the water is clean. You also need to keep on top of the annual reports and make sure that nothing changes with the source water. You also need to make sure that no building projects are taking place down stream of your water source, as some users here have reported problems with their water when construction is going on near by.

I personally don't want to have to worry about all that. I'd rather know for sure that my water is clean. If you want to go through the trouble, you certainly can. I like to be thrifty, probably more than most. But I will absolutely not cut corners on water quality. At the end of the day, really aquarium keeping is all about keeping water, not keeping fish or corals.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Also, your location says Metro Detroit.. your state knows better than most how quickly and silently water quality can change for the worse.

 

[WVNed]

I have a cat and you do. Are they identical, not likely. The same with tap water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My local saltwater fish store uses nothing but tap water and prime on all there tanks and even there frag tank(s)

I have 2 friends that is all they use and there with in a few miles of me.

So how can these people/places have success with tap water?


I'm cycling a tank in a few days and its filled with tap water so I can do a "Dry run"

I'm thinking of just adding rock, salt and sand and running the cycle and by that time I should have my ro/di Plumbed to the storage tank for my top off water. And I would just do water changes and top offs with ro/di water

So thats why I'm confused is they have great success

There’s zero uncertainty that some tap water is fine. There is also zero uncertainty that some is not.

If you got a detailed test of the water, found it to be ok, and knew it wouldn’t change for the worse, then it’s obviously ok to use.

Without that sort of justification, it’s a gamble. Are you a gambling man? [emoji23][emoji23]

 

[HB AL]

Using rodi water just makes reef keeping simpler and less worrisome than guessing what might be in the tap at any given time that could be even a little detrimental to the tank inhabitants. It's kinda of a no brainer for something as important as the water you pour into the tank.

 

[samnaz]

I have used only tap with prime for two years, no issues. We have very clean water round these parts.

 

[samnaz]

Oh you’re in MI? Here in Ann Arbor we have very great quality drinking water, safe for the reef. Most cities don’t, and I’m not saying mine will always be good enough but for now it is...

I have an rodi system, have for years, just never even hooked it up. No need as I see it.

 

[riche]

Well it’s a mute point now as my wife rearranged the living room so I have to drain the tank(it’s filled with tap water for a test run)

So I will be setting it up in a different spot and setting up the RODI unit and filling it with RODI.

I just don’t want to take a chance

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I use tap water... after it has gone through my 4 stage RODI. There is no way I would ever use tap water from anywhere on my reef tanks. I dont care if its coming out of the tap at under 5 ppm. You just don't know 100% what the ppm of tds is made up of. Could be harmless minerals or could be somthing not so harmless. I have really bad tap water here in Phoenix AZ, 475 ppm last I tested at my sink. Every tank I have seen locally that used tap water had major algae issues and most corals would not survive. I did use it on all my freshwater tanks and never had an issue. In fact my fresh water tanks and plants did very well but I had the live plants to help clean the hard tap water.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have well water but use a softener and whole house filter unit. Below is pic of my 360 and 93 cube- no issues. I DO have an RO/DI unit and use it occasionally when I have time to watch it

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Oh you’re in MI? Here in Ann Arbor we have very great quality drinking water, safe for the reef. Most cities don’t, and I’m not saying mine will always be good enough but for now it is...

I have an rodi system, have for years, just never even hooked it up. No need as I see it.

Unfortunately, Ann Arbor, like many cities, does not report actual copper results, only the number of homes measured to have copper over 1.3 ppm (none out of 62 homes tested, but values below this level are still too high for a reef,).

Your water does have a substantial amount of calcum (34 ppm) , alkalinity (3.5 dKH), phosphate (0.75 ppm), magneisum (11 ppm) etc. Those are not necessarily a problem, but may change the values in the tank over time.

https://www.a2gov.org/departments/water-treatment/Documents/2017 A2 Water Quality Report.pdf