Tap water

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Saltwatertaylor

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I know the general consensus is to not use tap water as top off water. If you were going to get your tap water tested to see if it is reef safe, what levels do you get checked? Where would you suggest getting this tested?
 
Tidal Gardens
To be honest, I don't know where you would get it tested. Plus, the tap water would need to be tested (( with results )) each time you were going to use it for your tank. You won't be able to know when the city "spiked" the water system to deal with any issues.
There are so many things that could be harmful for a reef tank in tap water that it would seem to be more expensive to get it tested all the time, compared to the price of an RO/DI unit.
 
Funny I used tap water in my old 55g. but that just had "easy" corals.

basically what I did was balance the tank with macro algaes and they used straight untreated tap water for top offs and did not do water changes.

The idea is and was the macros actually filtered out the bad stuff (like copper) from tap while with maintaining unmeasureable ammonia/nitrates and phosphates. then by harvesting the macros you epxort those things.

my .02
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
I think it depends on where you live.

In Florida, tap water is generally terrible. TDS is in the mid 250's. However, back in the day, we used tap water to fish only salt systems with pretty good success.

In Seattle, the water was much better. Mid 20's TDS.

However, it is still important to know what is in your water (besides TDS).

You could post on your local forum to see if anyone else has had success.
 
BRS
Hmm. Allright well I live in east lansing if anyone knows the water quality over there. I am going to get the water checked for nitrates, nitrites, and Ph. Can you buy distilled water from a grocery store or something?
 
Tidal Gardens
The only measurement you need is total dissolved solids, TDS. If its anything other than 0, which I guarantee you it will be then it is not reef quality. The other issue is tap water changes so is not a stable reliable product.

Chloramine filters are a waste of money. Any good 1 micron or less will remove the chlorine portion of chloramines and a good full size vertical 20 oz DI with fresh nuclear or semiconductor grade mixed bed resin gets the ammonia the RO membrane misses.
 
Saltwatertaylor said:
Hmm. Allright well I live in east lansing if anyone knows the water quality over there. I am going to get the water checked for nitrates, nitrites, and Ph. Can you buy distilled water from a grocery store or something?
Click to expand...
You can check with your municipality to get a water quality report. However, you want to be careful with tap water. It can spike at any given time. I have heard horror stories (just stories have not seen it first hand) in the water and issues with salt used on the roadways getting into the water supply.

Yes, I buy distilled water for my tank. I am tight on space in my apartment and do not have room for a RO/DI unit. I still test the water for TDS. I am looking to making the space for the RO/DI unit since it is a hassle to trek the jugs into the house. Also, the store I frequent has limited me to 4 gallons at a time. LOL
 
I have posted many many times that a wate rquality report is not a very reliable tool for our uses. It is a "snapshot in time" meaning it is only representative of the water that was tested and on that particular date. They are published once a year, usually in September and for the previous calendar year so is already a year old by the time you receive it. Use it as a rough guide only.
 
ReefBot Lab, Automated Water Tester
If I wanted an algae farm I might go this route. Being into corals and fish I'd avoid it. :wink:
 
Deltec
AZDesertRat said:
Again, read up on chloramines and how to treat them. Carbon is not the issue, good DI resin and contact time are.

You waste money on catalytic carbons when any good carbon is more than sufficient, its the ammonia that is the killer and it takes a good DI to solve that.
Chloramine and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
Click to expand...

I've tried it both ways, my water system uses DI up quicker when I run regular carbon blocks compared to Catalytic Activated Carbon & ChlorPlus 10 Carbon Blocks. The $5 extra for them, I feel its worth it.
 
Saltwatertaylor said:
I know the general consensus is to not use tap water as top off water. If you were going to get your tap water tested to see if it is reef safe, what levels do you get checked? Where would you suggest getting this tested?
Click to expand...

AZDesertRat said:
The only measurement you need is total dissolved solids, TDS. If its anything other than 0, which I guarantee you it will be then it is not reef quality. The other issue is tap water changes so is not a stable reliable product.

Chloramine filters are a waste of money. Any good 1 micron or less will remove the chlorine portion of chloramines and a good full size vertical 20 oz DI with fresh nuclear or semiconductor grade mixed bed resin gets the ammonia the RO membrane misses.
Click to expand...

Don't test the water, just Google for your East Lansing water report:
http://www.lbwl.com/WaterReport/

There you find out (Spoiler Alert!!) that the city uses Chloramines (see the many links already provided in the thread) which kills your municipal water as a candidate for raw usage. "Naked" Chlorine is another story and in some scenarios can be a non-factor.....but this is not your case.

In theory you can still use a dechloraminator (many many examples on the market) and get "OK" water, but then there's the rest of the water report (Nitrates? Phosphates? Unfortunately unreported...you may call to their office and ask for these numbers.) and the possible side-effects of using a dechloraminator. Should be minimal to no side-effects, but there aren't all that many reefers out there "experimenting" with this. (Raise your hand if you're using treated tap water!)

While far from free to buy and operate, an RO/DI water purification system really is a good investment. In the long run, water should end up costing about $0.05-$0.10 per gallon, which is still a lot cheaper than any other pure water source.

-Matt
 
robf said:
If I wanted an algae farm I might go this route. Being into corals and fish I'd avoid it. :wink:
Click to expand...


lol..... I went from usin tap (w/ tds 450-550 accordin to the inline meter on my ro/di now...) and never had algae of any kind... now that I use RO/DI the **** wont go away lol
 
The biggest problem w/ tap water is that occasionally water departments have to "flush" the main w/ some very nasty chemical. Twice a year @ my house. My city even provides a acid base cleaner for the laundry and sinks to remove the staining the "flush" causes. Does not sound coral friendly to me.
SE Michigan has the cleanest city water in the country (only some chlorine and fluoride)...except twice a year, or when main supply needs servicing.
 
BRS

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

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