question kinda urgent

[Danieltanay]

hey guys so i have a pico reef and i am running dangerously low on water conditioner so i have a huge bottle of pond conditioner is that just in larger quantities so will i be able to use it for the reef?

 

[TheEngineer]

I'd suggest you go buy some distilled water.

 

[Danieltanay]

Would i need to pur anything in that water?

I'd suggest you go buy some distilled water.[/QUOTE

 

[steve&mari]

Distilled water is good to use right from jug

 

[TheEngineer]

Since you have a pico, buying distilled water shouldn't be prohibitively expensive for you. Make sure it says "distilled". Don't get spring water or purified drinking water.

 

[brandon429]

i have used in my pico for both changewater and topoff water if i was out of the norm:

distilled
dasani
spring water
drinking water
conditioned tap water
water from wal mart but not flouridated water for baby forumula
water from convenience stores
water from the passing water stations you see off the road in the windmill huts


the reason its ok to vary is because you can just do a full water change any time you want after you get the right stuff, this just gets your through until

 

[Justiful]

Reverse osmosis water is sold at most stores. It will say right on the 1 gallon jug. I buy mine at walmart for like a 1.50 or something a gallon. Get the jug that says reverse osmosis. Though I have also used bottled water from the gas station in a pinch lol. I use for BETTA fish though. I am new to salt water and currently get my salt water and reverse osmosis water for it from a service.

Here are two of my small tanks I use it in. Fish been alive 3-4 months so far, I rescued them from petco. The elephant ear I got for $5 because it was very sick, and I asked it I could get a discount feeling I could save it.

Oh and before you say anything about the elephant ear in the small 1/2 gallon tank. I saved that fish from death, and it is very happy in there. I do water change every 3 days. It is way bigger than the death trap he was in at pet store.

 

[TheEngineer]

Walmart's distilled water tested at 0tds for me. Same thing for Acme and Giant store branded distilled water.

 

[Justiful]

Walmart's distilled water tested at 0tds for me. Same thing for Acme and Giant store branded distilled water.

Sorry I don't know what that means? Is that good or bad? Should I get it somewhere else?

 

[TheEngineer]

Ah, sorry, I'll explain....

TDS = total dissolved solids. You want this to be zero, ideally. When it is anything but zero there are other things being added to your tank that your biological filtration will have to remove. High TDS water is one culprit in algae outbreaks.

 

[Justiful]

Thanks ICE.

I have only been freshwater before 6-7 weeks ago when I got saltwater tank. In fresh water I just added fish, water, bubbles, and cleaned tank. Never had to learn much about water quality, big learning curve saltwater.

 

[TheEngineer]

Yup, it is a bit of a different beast. Once you get the hang of it, you'll find it isn't much extra work. Since you have a small tank, you can avoid the expense of a water purification system (RO/DI short for reverse osmosis/deionized) and just pick up bottled. There's a great "newbie" section on here and a few articles that will help you off on the right foot.