Tap water and Prime for initial fill

R6REEFER · Sep 3, 2015

Hey guys and gals,

I will finally be adding water to my 125 SPS dominant as soon as my Vectra comes in the mail! My previous tank (55g) I started with tap and Prime and eventually started using rodi after collecting a few corals. Now I have my own rodi system set up but with a 4 to one production rate, that's a waste of alot of water for the initial setup. Would you say the initial fill can be tap and Prime and from then on out use rodi? I had great success on the last tank so I wouldn't see why not. Thanks for any suggestions.

Reef_a_holiks · Sep 3, 2015

Ive never used tap water with prime, but would love to know this as well, as I am also in the same boat of setting up a new tank.

R6REEFER · Sep 3, 2015

I would figure it wouldn't beings as alot of the impurities will die off or disapate by the time the cycle is over and way before livestock. Like I said I had good luck with it last time but this is 3x the tank. Plus I can fill my tank and sump the same day, my rodi unit would take 3 days or so.

backpack · Sep 4, 2015

Take the membrane off line and run it through the first three stages. At least it will be filtered. But starting with 0 tds water is the way to go.

ermartin · Sep 4, 2015

I have started plenty of tanks that way... i keep a bottle of prime if i have a tank emergency as well

R6REEFER · Sep 4, 2015

So far 2 votes tap and prime, 1 vote RO/DI. Whichever has the highest amount of votes by the time the Vectra gets here is the route I'll go. I'm on the fence too much!

rogerrgr · Sep 4, 2015

I started my 150g tank with RO/DI water, and would recommend that. It will take out any questions if future problems arise.

redfishbluefish · Sep 4, 2015

Without question, RO/DI....get use to the waste water.....I use it for the first fill on the washing machine or to water the plants in the yard. With the near drought conditions in NJ, I can't make waste water fast enough.

Clownman727 · Sep 4, 2015

RO/DI. No question. The most important thing in reef keeping is your freshwater. 0 tds.

thehammer1985 · Sep 4, 2015

Whoa can't believe I'm reading this. Rodi the prime will remove chlorine and chloramine but will not drop it down to 0 tds. You may end up with higher levels of phosphate nitrates than you would like that may continue to be of issues causing large water changes and defeating the purpose. I would vote for ro di nothing else ever touches my tank or equipment

thehammer1985 · Sep 4, 2015

http://www.mrsaltwatertank.com/the-tap-water-plus-conditioner-myth-debunked/

rogerrgr · Sep 4, 2015

I also added a second RO membrane and a booster pump to my setup, this increased the production rate and cut down on waste water.

MTWiley · Sep 4, 2015

Rodi, think of how much money you're pouring into the tank, (your vectors alone is a few hundred bucks) are you really going to skimp because of a few bucks worth of water is going to be wasted(could still be used for watering plants/washing clothes if you're really that concerned about wasting water)

ReeferBob · Sep 4, 2015

Chlorine will dissipate by itself. You are foolish to go with tap when you have an RO/DI system. This is not an area to try to save some money. It will take you a year to rid all the impurities introduced by tap water.

787will · Sep 4, 2015

RODI

MTWiley said:
Rodi, think of how much money you're pouring into the tank, (your vectors alone is a few hundred bucks) are you really going to skimp because of a few bucks worth of water is going to be wasted(could still be used for watering plants/washing clothes if you're really that concerned about wasting water)

Exactly what he said!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 4, 2015

FWIW, there's no way to tell if this is OK or not without knowing what is in the tap water. For some people it may be fine, and for others not. IMO, the biggest concern is copper, followed by silicate (which will spur diatom growth but be time limited in that it will deplete rapidly) and phosphate.

If you go the tap water route, run the water for a few minutes before collecting any to get out all water that has been sitting on copper pipes for any significant period.

Reefrookie220 · Sep 4, 2015

You can also call your water provider and inquire about your tds. If you do it dint mix salt for a day or so, it'll allow stuff to dissipate like chlorine.

R6REEFER · Sep 4, 2015

I'm just going to go with the RODI, yeah I use the waste to water the garden as well then fill buckets for future use. The TDS reading on my tab is around 245 ppm last time I checked. The water bill isn't an issue I was just curious how many people have done that. RODI it is!

ermartin · Sep 4, 2015

R6REEFER said:
I'm just going to go with the RODI, yeah I use the waste to water the garden as well then fill buckets for future use. The TDS reading on my tab is around 245 ppm last time I checked. The water bill isn't an issue I was just curious how many people have done that. RODI it is!

I have the waste line running outside into a couple water fountain/water plant fixtures i have... works great