Started with Tap...

[gulf]

Hi there.

I'm a beginner in saltwater tanks and just started a 50g tank. While rushing, i have started the tank with TAP water thinking it withg be OK.
Just recently, after a few dead corals, found out my tapwater TDS was around 220ppm and i believe that was the culprit.

I'm getting a RODI unit now, however, can you please help me regarding on the amount of water i should remove from the tank, to have a safe environment?
Or should i just start all over with the RODI water?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Quietman]

Hi there.

I'm a beginner in saltwater tanks and just started a 50g tank. While rushing, i have started the tank with TAP water thinking it withg be OK.
Just recently, after a few dead corals, found out my tapwater TDS was around 220ppm and i believe that was the culprit.

I'm getting a RODI unit now, however, can you please help me regarding on the amount of water i should remove from the tank, to have a safe environment?
Or should i just start all over with the RODI water?

Thanks in advance.

If it's this early and easy for you to accomplish I would start over just for piece of mind. There could also be other chemicals in your tap water that aren't compatible with reef/fish. You'd have to test to be sure. Without that testing, it's safest to start over, in my opinion.

 

[Quietman]

Oh and welcome to the community!

 

[tehmadreefer]

Start over

 

[Gaspipe]

I agree with @Quietman and start over with 100% RODI water.

 

[Cell]

I'd do as close to 100% water change as I could.

 

[dedragon]

I would drain all water and replace, then buy some chemipure elite or blue and some cuprisorb just to remove any leftover heavy metals. You should be fine going forward

 

[Cell]

Run a polyfilter after you change out the water too.

 

[Quietman]

Polyfilter - the 'break glass in case of emergency' solution. Always have some lying around.

 

[Alaeriel]

Welcome to the hobby! Sorry for the rocky start, but you'll overcome! I'd recommend waiting until your tank has been established for several months with stable parameters before adding corals to give them their best chance of survival, though you hadn't mentioned how long your tank was set up for. Best of luck on the reboot!

 

[gulf]

Thank you all for your very quick support!

I will for sure follow your advice and replace all the water in the tank as soon as my RODI unit arrives and it is up and running.

I will just run some cuprisorb for a couple of weeks instead of poly filter because I cannot find it on several lfs around me.

My tank has been running for around 3 months. Parameters are the following:

- salinity: 1.025
- pH: 8.1
- temp: 77°f
- alk: 11
- ammonia: 0
- nitrite: 0
- nitrate: 1 (I do run siporax in the filter media)

Calc and magnesium still don't have testing kits.

Tank photo attached.

Once again thanks for the support.