Don’t lie

[Saaqib_Ansari]

Is anyone out there really running there tank on tap water? I’ve heard somes people do!

 

[Salps]

Not successfully long term that I'm aware of. I'm sure some had BUT, Most people eventually realize they want the pure water with absolutely no nitrates or phosphate among other things. It's already hard enough to keep good water quality, the cost & trouble of making water seen like a no brainer.

 

[F i s h y]

I suppose it's possible but if you want to be able to control your parameters then it isn't advisable.

 

[Mikeltee]

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

This is 8"

 

[blasterman]

My city water is so full of silicates and phosphates you can strain it with your teeth. Even a small amount for top off devastates a tank with algae blooms.

Funnily enough, my step dad had a really nice looking 30gal that he used well water and kept plenty of nice LPS and softies. Coraline grew in crazy thick patches.

 

[Waters]

I am not but it is definitely possible....just depends on the quality of your city water.

 

[homer1475]

I know someone in my town that keeps a reef on tap water. Of course our water is pretty clean for TAP. 15TDS out of the tap, and most of that is the added fluoride.

 

[Timfish]

Me.

90 Gallon Mixed Reef (tapwater treated with dechlorinator, attached are ICP test results for it).


220 Mixed Reef (tapwater run through a water softener)

240 Mixed Reef (tapwater run through a carbon filter only)

 

[Rybren]

I did for a few years but stopped when the city treated the water with something to kill off something else that was in the supply water. (it was quite a few years ago and I don't remember the details) The bottom line is that quite a few FW and SW tanks in the area were wiped out. I was lucky in that I didn't use any of the contaminated water, but it was a bad enough situation that I went out and bought a RODI.

 

[WVNed]

What you get out of a tap is different for everyone. So someone being able to means nothing unless they live where you do and are on the same water system as you.

I have done it in the past but have had better long term success once I stopped.

 

[ca1ore]

Is anyone out there really running their tank on tap water?

Not all tap water is created equally …. so the question isn't really a useful guide frankly. In my current house, well water averages 550 TDS and I use a RODI system. In my prior house, TDS was 125 and I did not use a RODI system. Even TDS does not tell you the entire 'story' though. My tanks are much nicer now than then ….. but a lot of other things have changed.

If your question is really about whether you can skip a RODI system, then the answer is probably yes in the short term, no in the long term.

 

[AndyinAtlanta]

One thing I always harp on is this forum is geared towards people who take the hobby very seriously. I mean, the information you get here makes going to your LFS sometimes eye-opening. Now assume how many people actually have saltwater aquariums. Even going into my LFS it is at least 50-50 of people that look like serious hobbyists and people looking like they just want a tank because they either need it as an interior design element, saw a show on TV and did no research, or their child wants one so they are interested in spending as little money as possible.

That second group, unless they are paying for maintenance, probably aren't investing in an ROID system when the bathroom sink is more convenient.

 

[AlexG]

I have run past tanks on tap water without any issue but it really depends on the water source. Water supplies can vary widely so while one person might be successful with tap water another can fail due to what is in their water supply.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I did for a year or so when I first started and the tank was great. That being said we had pretty good water already.

 

[Patrick.S]

I’ve used my well water once and a while. I think we sometimes get to caught up in taking everything out of water just to try to put it back in again. All depends on what your water is like.

 

[JohnGP]

Believe it or not it wasn't too long ago that most of us used tap water-and were successful.

 

[Bpb]

Everybody that runs tap water successfully tends to be blessed with good tap water and will (sometimes obnoxiously) ignore the fact that tap isn’t great everywhere in the world. You even see people going to absolutely absurd convoluted links to treat their tap water with various holding systems and algae filters that end up taking up more time, space, and cost than an Rodi filter will. I feel like using tap water is a choice people consciously make and stick to, just on principle alone. Not necessarily to make the keeping of the tank easier

 

[DeniseAndy]

I used to run my FO systems on tap water way back like 20+ years ago. Then I moved and the water could not even support them treated. Weird.
With my reef, I use RO/DI. Although, I did use the runoff (waste) to make my FO observation tank. I treated it with lots of Prime. So far so good.

 

[BZOFIQ]

In NYC the water is at 40 TDS, you can without any issues run at least a softies tank.

 

[Fezbearer]

I'm considering login it with my initial fill, and then switching over to RODI with my water changes.