Tap Water
- Thread starter dhyder54
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Like mentioned above, it all depends on your tap water.. An individuals husbandry also plays an important role in the overall health of a reef aquarium too though. There's plenty of threads on this site and others where people are using RO/DI water yet there still having some of the same problems that tend to accompany bad tap water. The link below might help. GL.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/1/chemistry
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/1/chemistry
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Never put tap water in a reef if you can avoid it. Get a couple gallons of distilled water from the grocery store or WalMart to use in an emergency if you don't have a RO/DI unit or access to a trusted source of RO/DI.
I agree with the above, but just because you are using RO/DI water don't think that your destined to avoid some of the same problems that tend to accompany bad tap water. Phosphate threads are a dime a dozen, heavy metal and copper threads, not so much. JMO, GL. 
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Water is the single largest ingredient in a reef system and everything depends on its quality and its stability. Start out from the very beginning with RO/DI and use only RO/DI from then on and you will have a much more stable and successful system and eliminate that nagging doubt from your mind if something down the road may be water related. RO/DI is very cheap insurance at about 5 cents a gallon on average to produce which includes replacement filters, resins and water and sewer rates. Using tap water isn't worth the risk. I am a municipal water treatment supervisor by profession and while I won't hesitate to drink it I would never think of putting it in my reefs again. I started with treated tap water 35 years ago, switched tp water & ice store purchased RO water 25 years ago and my own RO/DI system for the last 20 years and would never go back to depending on someone else for water quality. I have way too much invested in both time and money in my tanks and inhabitants to make that mistake.
I've been using tap water for about 17 years now without any problems. Go figure... I agree with what your saying, but this is a hobby, and just like every other hobby out there some people are just better at certain ones than others. Tap water and algae is understandable. RO/DI water and algae is just, well,,, you can deal with those threads... 
I also used tap water for many years but the change to RO/DI was the best thing I ever did. No more fighting algaes, cloudy water, changes in the tank when the local treatment plant changed their chemical dosages and pH etc. I now have total control over my water quality.
The biggest issue with tap water is you have zero control over its quality and it can change at any time with no notice. Even though it may leave the deep well or treatment plant as "potable water" what is to say Joe Contractor doesn't dig into the water main up the street from you and cause a backflow incident when the sewer main 4 feet away gets washed out? Or when the neighbor next door fertilized his garden and has his hose laying in a pool of water and it gets sucked back in? You have no control over what happens and the water utility is not at fault since the water was drinking water quality when it left their facility. I have dozens of photos and stories documenting all of these instances and more from my 40 years in the municipal water industry and most are not pretty. It happens every day all over the world. A RO/DI costs about $125 and is extremely cheap insurance against all of this. We worry and fret about lighting, live rock, substrate, the glass our tank is built out of but none matters if your water is high quality.
The biggest issue with tap water is you have zero control over its quality and it can change at any time with no notice. Even though it may leave the deep well or treatment plant as "potable water" what is to say Joe Contractor doesn't dig into the water main up the street from you and cause a backflow incident when the sewer main 4 feet away gets washed out? Or when the neighbor next door fertilized his garden and has his hose laying in a pool of water and it gets sucked back in? You have no control over what happens and the water utility is not at fault since the water was drinking water quality when it left their facility. I have dozens of photos and stories documenting all of these instances and more from my 40 years in the municipal water industry and most are not pretty. It happens every day all over the world. A RO/DI costs about $125 and is extremely cheap insurance against all of this. We worry and fret about lighting, live rock, substrate, the glass our tank is built out of but none matters if your water is high quality.
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Just out of curiosity, is your tank built like a "house of cards" so to say? Being that you are using the purest water you can find, are you running GFO, GAC, perhaps an ATS? If I'm using tap water and have to incorporate these things as well, what's the difference? (which I am not) Like I said before, you can deal with all those problems with RO/DI... Saying that tap water is bad is a no brainer, dealing with it might require some work on your part. Some of us just have a blue thumb, pure & simple.
Any pics of your system?
Do you happen to have he latest water quality report from your water utility or even know its quality?
How much do you have invested in corals and inhabitants? Is it worth the risk? Not for me as I have been there and learned from the experience.
Do you happen to have he latest water quality report from your water utility or even know its quality?
How much do you have invested in corals and inhabitants? Is it worth the risk? Not for me as I have been there and learned from the experience.
There are way to many people out there using Tap Water in their tanks. Im sure we can get a few to chime in and give tales of how their tanks are doing.
You just have to work harder at keeping the crap out of the tank. I used it for years in my FOWLR when I was running one, I never had any nasty problems with it, I ran a filter, and huge amounts of phosphate remover to keep it clean. And I'm talking abbout nasty Arizona water.
And just to use it as a one time top off, your not going to run into any issues if you have all the protocols in place for a Reef Tank. I'd not worry about it.
You just have to work harder at keeping the crap out of the tank. I used it for years in my FOWLR when I was running one, I never had any nasty problems with it, I ran a filter, and huge amounts of phosphate remover to keep it clean. And I'm talking abbout nasty Arizona water.
And just to use it as a one time top off, your not going to run into any issues if you have all the protocols in place for a Reef Tank. I'd not worry about it.
Which one?
No water quality report, but the last time I checked the TDS is was 46. This was about 6 years ago.60 breeder (~7 years) It was about 9 years old when it cracked though. Right down the center of the tank.
Here's my 10 gallon at about 7 months or so. I lost my job and had to take it down though.
Here's a few pictures of my current 20 gallon tank.
(~1 year)
(maybe 3 years old?)
(~6 years old) Sorry about the micro bubbles. Let me see if I can take a better picture later on today when my lights come on. All tap water, no GFO, no GAC, no refugium, no ATS etc. Just a little elbow grease and some dedication.
Don't get me wrong, I know tap water can be awful sometimes, but usually when people use it and see a little algae growth they just assume it's poison right from the start. Maybe some of these tanks could have "survived" so to say . Like I said before, algae growth and RO/DI units are never going to go out of style. With such an abundance of threads like that out there it just makes you think sometimes...
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Nice. Taking pictures of the tank is a pain, they never come out looking the way the tank really looks for some reason.
Here are a couple of my systems:
6 months old:
3 years old:
4 years old:
Nano:
Neither have an GFO in them and no mechanical filtration, floss, socks, sponges or foams other than a protein skimmer on the 100G.
Here are a couple of my systems:
6 months old:
3 years old:
4 years old:
Nano:
Neither have an GFO in them and no mechanical filtration, floss, socks, sponges or foams other than a protein skimmer on the 100G.
Very nice!
I'm in the same boat too. No mechanical filtration either. Just a skimmer and regular water changes. The MH just came on at 11, so here's kind of a side view of the tank.
I'm in the same boat too. No mechanical filtration either. Just a skimmer and regular water changes. The MH just came on at 11, so here's kind of a side view of the tank.
