Tap Water Reef Tank

Karen00 · Sep 19, 2020

SaltISlife said:
Yea i just use prime and mix ina bucket and dump right in when i do water changes

Thanks!

Hydrored · Sep 19, 2020

With the amount of chloramines in NTX tap water and the source it terrible water that is a pink in shade of color. I agree it depends on source water.

Karen00 · Sep 19, 2020

Ippyroy said:
Chloramines have ammonia btw.

Thanks for this but can you elaborate? Are you saying ammonia is released when you treat for chloramine or ammonia is released if you don't treat for chloramine? I currently have FW tanks and my city tap water has chloramine. I treat with Prime. I don't have any issues with ammonia (at least not enough that my biological system can't deal with).

Ippyroy · Sep 19, 2020

Karen00 said:
Thanks for this but can you elaborate? Are you saying ammonia is released when you treat for chloramine or ammonia is released if you don't treat for chloramine? I currently have FW tanks and my city tap water has chloramine. I treat with Prime. I don't have any issues with ammonia (at least not enough that my biological system can't deal with).

Here's a great article that can explain it better than me.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rhf/feature/index.php

Karen00 · Sep 19, 2020

Ippyroy said:
Here's a great article that can explain it better than me.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rhf/feature/index.php

Thanks! I'm just starting to read it.

Sleeping Giant · Sep 19, 2020

I've use tap water with prime for 12 years, no issues because of the water, almost every issue I've had is due to no quarantine, or not being a good husband..lol
Im not sure what my tap water is measuring, but it's crystal clear after I mix a bucket, I do 15 gallon WC every week or 2 at the most.
You can check out my build page, enough evidence there to show it can be done.

I'd love to get an RODI system, but I can't for the life of me want to throw the dirty water (which I hear is quite a bit) down the drain, especially when I pay for all the water. Just my opinion

Dark_Knightt · Sep 19, 2020

AquaArtist said:
People who have been very successful running a reef tank just on tap water and water conditioner let’s see you tank or here your story.

I know running a reef tank with an RO water system is the way most people go with obvious advantages, but it was done pretty successfully before they were popular!

Does anyone still go this route today? Did you ever go back and forth? This thread is for the simple and successful with whats supplied to them at the home.

Yeah I went with tap water. Sure it can cause more algae problems but if you can control it the tank can look real nice. Check out my build thread!

Karen00 · Sep 19, 2020

Sleeping Giant said:
I've use tap water with prime for 12 years, no issues because of the water, almost every issue I've had is due to no quarantine, or not being a good husband..lol
Im not sure what my tap water is measuring, but it's crystal clear after I mix a bucket, I do 15 gallon WC every week or 2 at the most.
You can check out my build page, enough evidence there to show it can be done.

I'd love to get an RODI system, but I can't for the life of me want to throw the dirty water (which I hear is quite a bit) down the drain, especially when I pay for all the water. Just my opinion

That is exactly my hesitation with RODI... all the excess waste water. I heard people use it to do laundry, water plants, etc. But I don't have near enough laundry or plants to utilize enough of it and tossing the remainder down the drain sends chills down my spine for the wastage. I'm also trying to find scientific papers that speak to using RODI waste water on plants long term. Afterall it's so concentrated with excess solids and contaminants that I would think this isn't good for your plants whether indoor/outdoor. I thought I also read something about RODI water being hard on drain pipes (but I might be totally wrong about this).

I totally understand people needing RODI if they have abysmal city or well water but for folks with pretty good water it seems like thriving tanks are doable by the examples shown here.

Sleeping Giant · Sep 19, 2020

Karen00 said:
That is exactly my hesitation with RODI... all the excess waste water. I heard people use it to do laundry, water plants, etc. But I don't have near enough laundry or plants to utilize enough of it and tossing the remainder down the drain sends chills down my spine for the wastage. I'm also trying to find scientific papers that speak to using RODI waste water on plants long term. Afterall it's so concentrated with excess solids and contaminants that I would think this isn't good for your plants whether indoor/outdoor. I thought I also read something about RODI water being hard on drain pipes (but I might be totally wrong about this).

I totally understand people needing RODI if they have abysmal city or well water but for folks with pretty good water it seems like thriving tanks are doable by the examples shown here.

This is exactly my thought process lol.
Thank god I have drinkable water from the tap, and don't need to drink bottled water ever.

Karen00 · Sep 19, 2020

Sleeping Giant said:
This is exactly my thought process lol.
Thank god I have drinkable water from the tap, and don't need to drink bottled water ever.

Totally agree!!

SaltISlife · Sep 19, 2020

snorklr said:
in NY freeport had their own deep wells and didnt treat with chlorine or chloramine...so thats what i used...i also had access to real sea water and would bring back 5 gal if we went out on my friends boat...i moved to NC and did the same with my well water and the tank turned into a mass of brown slime....the water test we paid for said everything was great but phospates and nitrates werent things that were tested...so i sprung for a ro/di and i'm about to do a massive clean and reboot

How long did you let the tank mature for though ? Most algae goes away it has phazes. I went through that hair brown algae phaze but it went away once the tank matured like fully matured.. i controlled it with alot of clean up crew and tangs.

My nitrates in my tank reach 40ppm sometimes.. with how often i feed..

Tiger Brown · Sep 19, 2020

My two pet peeves, 1. You can't run a reef using a canister. Yup, you can. 2. You can't run a reef using tap water. Yup, you can. I do both.

Now, do I think a sump is superior? Yes, I do. Do I think RO water is typically better? Yes, I do.
My tank runs with tap and a canister. My full tank pictures are terrible due to glare and mirrored images, I have to upgrade my 5 year old Samsung, lol.

Sleeping Giant · Sep 19, 2020

Tiger Brown said:
My two pet peeves, 1. You can't run a reef using a canister. Yup, you can. 2. You can't run a reef using tap water. Yup, you can. I do both.

Now, do I think a sump is superior? Yes, I do. Do I think RO water is typically better? Yes, I do.
My tank runs with tap and a canister. My full tank pictures are terrible due to glare and mirrored images, I have to upgrade my 5 year old Samsung, lol.

Same here, canister and tap water.

SaltISlife · Sep 19, 2020

Hydrored said:
With the amount of chloramines in NTX tap water and the source it terrible water that is a pink in shade of color. I agree it depends on source water.

Note i can smell the chlorine in the water. We have heavy chlorine and Chloramines in our water.. thats what prime is for.

Karen00 · Sep 19, 2020

Tiger Brown said:
My two pet peeves, 1. You can't run a reef using a canister. Yup, you can. 2. You can't run a reef using tap water. Yup, you can. I do both.

Now, do I think a sump is superior? Yes, I do. Do I think RO water is typically better? Yes, I do.
My tank runs with tap and a canister. My full tank pictures are terrible due to glare and mirrored images, I have to upgrade my 5 year old Samsung, lol.

Very nice! I'm glad the OP put up this thread because it's great to see so many successful reefs with tap water (and a canister... Haha).

anthonygf · Sep 19, 2020

Rjukan said:
I agree with @Devaji the water source quality can vary dramatically depending on where you live. Ive read some areas have upwards of 500ppm TDS!! Luckily here in NYC I'm seeing around 42ppm tops out of the tap, but still use RODI.

Try 700+ here in Las Vegas

AquaArtist · Sep 19, 2020

Dr. Dendrostein said:
October 2017 I started with tap water and of course you condition it and I would put an air stone and aerate it for 3 days before using.I used tap water for like a year , year and a half.

No issues. Right now I don't have the space but after using tap water I went to real saltwater which was cheap for me to buy and I love that even more, but my corals were not affected by tap water. Because of the preparation

1 of 48 carnation corals aka dendronephthya sp

AquaArtist · Sep 19, 2020

Absolutely fantastic to read!!
Way to go!!!

AquaArtist · Sep 19, 2020

My reef tank has been running tap water for 6 years now “the pictures displayed”
Same, I mix 5 gallon batches by hand.
Make sure temp and salinity match and ready to go.
I do large frequent water changes.
40-60 percent.
I have always had fast growth.
My current tank now is pretty high tech compared to my last reef tank.
My last reef tank was a 90 gallon DAS acro dominated tank.
No sump, no protein skimmer, modified maxi jetts.
It ran for 9 years until I lost in to a Tornado.
Large water changes and powerful lighting worked very well for me.
I had to prune very regularly kept all sorts of acros and sps with very nice color.
I use to sell a bunch of frags on DFWMAS.
It was also my first reef tank I stepped right into the deep end.
Also I want to note both tanks have been moved to different cities in DFW with no down turn switching from one water company to the next.
The only time the tank did not look it’s best was due to me, not the water or salt or any other excuses I could peg it to.
I respect the simple and non complex approach to reefing.
I also nerd out on the tech these days.
Currently I am applying my work ethic from the good old days and combining it with the new tech that’s become very refined.
Maybe I’ll get even better results.

Thanks for all the great feed back so far!!

AquaArtist · Sep 19, 2020

Hydrored said:
With the amount of chloramines in NTX tap water and the source it terrible water that is a pink in shade of color. I agree it depends on source water.

Absolutely I agree with this.
I have been fairly lucky to have good enough water quality to support healthy coral and fish growth.