Sump and starting water cycling

walter84 · Jan 17, 2016

Tomorrow I plan to start building my sump, right now its just an empty 55gallon tank. My big bucket of salt is coming Monday.
Here is my BIG question. IF I get my sump done Sunday, can i fill it initially with tap water? I plan to run it a week and then I am getting live sand from another local and eventually live rock as he is down sizing. He mentioned he had corals on some of the rocks. I wasn't planning to do corals right away but he is giving me a great deal. If I cycle the water for a week and add live sand and rock after that week will the corals be ok? Or would there likely still be harmful minerals in the water?

Any help with this would be GREAT. BTW I plan to get an RO unit in the coming months and there are several LFS I can get salt water from for my water changes until then. So this is JUST for getting started.

Thanks for your advice

Waters · Jan 17, 2016

A lot depends on what your tap water contains. I personally would not start any reef tank with tap water, just because I would rather start off knowing exactly what I was putting into my tank. Another issue is putting coral into an uncycled tank.....even though you are using established live rock, that doesn't mean you won't experience a mini cycle which can kill off anything that you are trying to keep (unless you plan on doing constant water changes). If possible, I would try and stabilize you tank before adding coral.

walter84 · Jan 21, 2016

Waters,
I have joined a local forum and been trying to figure out a way to get the water RO and they have given me some ideas as to how I might be able to do it pretty cheap so I will know I have a stable starting point.
I do wonder when a water conditioner says it removes metals what metals is it referencing? Does it depend on the brand? Is there a brand that actually conditions water to what corals need?

Waters · Jan 22, 2016

walter84 said:
Waters,
I have joined a local forum and been trying to figure out a way to get the water RO and they have given me some ideas as to how I might be able to do it pretty cheap so I will know I have a stable starting point.
I do wonder when a water conditioner says it removes metals what metals is it referencing? Does it depend on the brand? Is there a brand that actually conditions water to what corals need?

I personally do not know of a water conditioner that can match 0 TDS RO/DI water (although I have not really researched it either). Having pure water isn't just about the coral though...high TDS water can also cause major issues with trying to keep nuisance algae under control. It depends on what your tap water contains. Tap water can (not always) contain high levels of chlorine, chloramine, phosphates, nitrates, silicas, copper, lead, chromium, etc....all stuff you normally want to keep out of a reef tank. Running water through a properly set up RO/DI unit, removes all of those.

walter84 · Jan 26, 2016

Picked up water for my little Fluval cube yesterday night. 5gallons for $1.95, so I think for the big one until i get an RO that I can make this work just gotta pick up a few more big jugs. I'll even get a little work out in at the same time lol