Can I use tap water?

[Fishnut]

I have been in this hobby for 55 years and have always used treated tap water for my FOWLR tanks. My city water averages 80 ppm for TDS. I have algae but nothing serious. I raised a Majestic Angel & Powder Blue Tang to age 16. It wasn't until I got into keeping corals that I started using a RODI unit for the coral tanks. IMO Will a RODI units make it easier to maintain a reef tank-yes, but don't let the lack of one keep you from enjoying this hobby.

 

[Jon Fishman]

I have been in this hobby for 55 years and have always used treated tap water for my FOWLR tanks. My city water averages 80 ppm for TDS. I have algae but nothing serious. I raised a Majestic Angel & Powder Blue Tang to age 16. It wasn't until I got into keeping corals that I started using a RODI unit for the coral tanks. IMO Will a RODI units make it easier to maintain a reef tank-yes, but don't let the lack of one keep you from enjoying this hobby.

He has an anemone I believe.

 

[Gvirgoan]

I used to get RO water all the time but I saw no differences than using my tap with prime. So I stopped buying water and my tank is doing very well

 

[json216]

Can I use tap water to make my saltwater for my aquarium if I boil it first? If so, how long should I let it sit before I do my next water change??

Dont believe the hype..I've had a 4 thriving reef tanks...125,100,90..and now a 30 gallon cube...all over growing with coral...I dont test or do anything but top off..WITH TAP WATER CONDITIONED WITH PRIME!!
I will admit I could never keep sps..but zoas leathers and all the softies thrive and need groomed every few months..the longer you have the tank the easier it is...hell I haven't even did a water change in 6 months..and it still grows like crazy..just a sock and a skimmer...and it's only 30 gal and a 10 gal sump

 

[mattfish]

Can I use tap water to make my saltwater for my aquarium if I boil it first? If so, how long should I let it sit before I do my next water change??

Sound like algae food to me.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Dont believe the hype..I've had a 4 thriving reef tanks...125,100,90..and now a 30 gallon cube...all over growing with coral...I dont test or do anything but top off..WITH TAP WATER CONDITIONED WITH PRIME!!
I will admit I could never keep sps..but zoas leathers and all the softies thrive and need groomed every few months..the longer you have the tank the easier it is...hell I haven't even did a water change in 6 months..and it still grows like crazy..just a sock and a skimmer...and it's only 30 gal and a 10 gal sump

Nice tank


But it’s not “hype”. Not all tap water is created equal

 

[Bbfishb81]

I bought a RODI unit, that I ended up having to leave at my last place. I have been using tap water for well over a year now, and besides a small algae bloom initially, no issues. Also recently found out my lfs uses tsp water in all their tanks, and no major issues. But that's just my two cents.

 

[tony'stank]

I used tap water for many years and had major algae problems. I then used distilled water for many years with better success. This was all before the importance of low TDS water was recognized and the ready availability of reasonably priced RO/DI units. My best advice would be to use distilled water or store-bought RO/DI water until you can get your ownunit

 

[Cuzuco]

If you're willing to boil that water then you better capture the evaporated one and somehow condense the vapor, that would be a much better choice than boiled tap water...

 

[Carter's Reef]

Do not do that! It may still contain chlorine and/or other harmful chemicals.

 

[burningbaal]

There's a lot of misinformation here. boiling the water will remove all volatile contaminants and sterilize the water from bacteria/viruses/protozoans/etc, assuming it's fully boiling for long enough (probably 15 minutes is fine in most cases). Anyone saying it only removes bacteria/etc are wrong. it absolutely removes chlorine (in fact, leaving tap water out in an open top vessel for 24 hours will probably remove 99% of the chlorine, it's very volatile). There are plenty of other volatile things we don't want in our reef and the boiling would help with.

The problem (and why everyone is kinda right even though they're wrong) is that the most critical things to take out aren't impacted. We are really trying to make sure we're removing the metals, iodine, (less-volatile) organics, nitrogen-based and phophorus-based anions, etc.

So sure, if you're going to use tap water, it'd help slightly to boil it, but using prime is almost as good, both boiling then using prime is probably marginally better than either alone. But you're kinda putting lipstick on a pig, what you really want to do is remove the dissolved solids (measured as total dissolved solids, or TDS, usually via a measurement of the electrical resistance of the water).

Anyways, you can probably get a way with it, at least for a small amount of time, but I'd plan to do a few big water changes once you get good water. three 30% water changes a few days apart will remove about 2/3rds of all the 'problems'.

 

[burningbaal]

If you're willing to boil that water then you better capture the evaporated one and somehow condense the vapor, that would be a much better choice than boiled tap water...

this is what distilling is, but almost nobody can properly distill at home. The closest we can probably get is to leave it open top for a couple minutes to let the volatiles boil out before the water all boils. if it's open top while heating and the first couple minutes of boiling, then collecting the rest would be a great distillation and actually come pretty close to RODI water as the ions are left behind as the H2O boils out, and the volatiles were boiled out before it started. Even in biology labs, distilled is good for a lot of purposes where purified water is needed. Only under very particular conditions is RODI needed in most biology labs, usually in molecular biology (and obviously analytical chemistry).

 

[burningbaal]

Do not do that! It may still contain chlorine and/or other harmful chemicals.

it definitely won't contain chlorine, but it will contain problematic ions (especially metals) that we want to avoid

 

[living_tribunal]

Can I use tap water to make my saltwater for my aquarium if I boil it first? If so, how long should I let it sit before I do my next water change??

No.

 

[Arthurfarris]

You can comfortably use tap water in your aquarium if you know how to make tap water safe for use in aquariums. To handle harmful substances in tap water, you must first check a number of factors such as pH, calcium carbonate, heavy metals, etc. in tap water and proceed to remove them. Reverse osmosis can be used to remove chlorine as well as heavy metals from tap water.

 

[Km4qpd]

I currently use a zero water brand water filter I got from walmart It seems to do the job, granted I only have fish at this time, but it puts out 0 on my tds tester. Straight out of tap is 35-40. I have not seen any adverse effects. It cost 20 dollars for two new filter.

 

[BrianAnthony]

SIMPLE ANSWER IS NO, NO, NO

The main focus of this hobby is knowing what's in your water. When you start with an unknown or an ever changing unknown, you will fail!!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Adding to this and the Many no's- NO
This time of the year, many municipalities and cities add phosphate, chlorine, chloramines, zinc and other elements to the treatment system.
Its simply not worth it and risks outweigh the benefits not to mention promotion of algae-diatoms and cyano from tap systems.
Years ago, we boiled water for our safety in consumption, but this simply reduces risk - Not eliminate them. Too many horror stories from Tap too say maybe.
The ONLY reason I would use tap would be in an emergency where no other water source is available. A safer step is to get a couple 5 gallon jugs and go to walmart and fill them through their refill system which water is deionized and under $2 for each jug

 

[Rmckoy]

Before considering using tap water , measure the TDS

some water can … have low or zero tds but it’s unlikely
What the dissolved solid is , could be the issue and introducing such elements could cause more bad than it’s worth .

boiling doesn’t change anything .
distilled is the process of boiling and collecting the steam . Natural spring water can potentially have higher tds as it’s filtered through the ground collecting what ever it comes in contact with

rodi is the safest and best quality

 

[WVNed]

Those people that use tap water. You can too as long as they are your next door neighbor.

Otherwise tap water describes nothing more than it came from the tap. What is in it depends on where you live.
Everybodies is different.