Testing Top Off Water

[Brian S]

Thanks for your time!

I'm curious as to the quality of my top off water - can I use the same tests I use for my tank water on top off water? I use Red Sea for nitrate and hanna for phosphate.

 

[Randomwhiteguy89]

Thanks for your time!

I'm curious as to the quality of my top off water - can I use the same tests I use for my tank water on top off water? I use Red Sea for nitrate and hanna for phosphate.

 

[Randomwhiteguy89]

As long as your using rodi water and getting a reading of 0 tds you shouldn’t have to

 

[Brian S]

As long as your using rodi water and getting a reading of 0 tds you shouldn’t have to

Thanks for the quick response!

I am using rodi water - never been able to get to 0 tds, lowest I've achieved is 3.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you are suggesting suitability of tap water, my biggest concern would be copper.

i discuss tap water issues here:

Aquarium Chemistry: Tap Water in Reef Aquaria

As will become clear in this article, using tap water is risky business. Short of testing your own water, there is no way to be certain that your water is acceptable.

reefs.com

 

[Brian S]

If you are suggesting suitability of tap water, my biggest concern would be copper.

i discuss tap water issues here:

Aquarium Chemistry: Tap Water in Reef Aquaria

As will become clear in this article, using tap water is risky business. Short of testing your own water, there is no way to be certain that your water is acceptable.

reefs.com

I'm using water from my private well.

 

[Randomwhiteguy89]

What type of rodi do you use you may want to look into adding an expansion on it and maybe running an additional carbon and do resin

 

[Brian S]

I have a Typhoon 3 from air water and ice

 

[Randomwhiteguy89]

That’s a nice unit your well water must be a harder water I would look into gettin the additional 2 chambers to add on they have them fairly cheap on bulk reef supply but as for your original question I don’t believe you can use the salt water master test kit on tap water I believe you will need the fresh water kit

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm using water from my private well.

Concern is still copper from your pipes. Do you have a water report?

I'm not understanding why you cannot get to 0 ppm TDS. A DI alone can do that, although it depletes rapidly.

 

[ThePickeledReef]

Depending on how you test and fill top off
container you could be getting TDS creep also, and actually have lower overall TDS

 

[kecked]

Don’t forget some tests require seawater so you might have to add salt to the water to get a valid test