water quality

tom reilly · May 14, 2016

Is anyone involved here from the San Antonio area? I have some questions about water quality. Our water comes from a limestone aquifer. Clorine is added. Water tests 0 phosphates 0 nitrates. I have a water softener. Do I need to go RO/DI? I plan to have soft corals and Macro algae in the main tank.
LFS says no need or start up local water and then partial changes with O/DI.

glb · May 15, 2016

tom reilly said:
Is anyone involved here from the San Antonio area? I have some questions about water quality. Our water comes from a limestone aquifer. Clorine is added. Water tests 0 phosphates 0 nitrates. I have a water softener. Do I need to go RO/DI? I plan to have soft corals and Macro algae in the main tank.
LFS says no need or start up local water and then partial changes with O/DI.

. I'd get a local water report to see what else is in there. I'd also get a TDS (total dissolved solids) monitor and test it. If there are other things in the water, a RODI would take them out. Good luck!

tom reilly · May 15, 2016

I ordered a TDS and a PH meter. I will go from there.

AZDesertRat · May 15, 2016

Absolutely you need RO/DI from the start. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right from the start. You are off to a good start with the wate rsoftener, RO membranes love softened water since it does much of the work for them.
http://www.saws.org/Your_Water/WaterQuality/Report/archive.cfm

RO/DI gives you pure water so you start out with zero contaminants and only have what your salt mix gives you at the proper levels. Even if the water utility changes sources, blends or treatment methods you have no worries since your water will remain the same.

edinphilly · May 15, 2016

AZDesertRat said:
Absolutely you need RO/DI from the start. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right from the start. You are off to a good start with the wate rsoftener, RO membranes love softened water since it does much of the work for them.
http://www.saws.org/Your_Water/WaterQuality/Report/archive.cfm

RO/DI gives you pure water so you start out with zero contaminants and only have what your salt mix gives you at the proper levels. Even if the water utility changes sources, blends or treatment methods you have no worries since your water will remain the same.

I agree. And I started my first tank with tap and it was awful. Even once I switched to 0 TDS water for top offs and water changes it still took forever to fight nuisance algae.

Also, what tests are you using to say you have 0 nitrates and phosphates? If they're not sensitive enough there may be some present that is enough to impact a reef.

tom reilly · May 15, 2016

edinphilly said:
I agree. And I started my first tank with tap and it was awful. Even once I switched to 0 TDS water for top offs and water changes it still took forever to fight nuisance algae.

Also, what tests are you using to say you have 0 nitrates and phosphates? If they're not sensitive enough there may be some present that is enough to impact a reef.

Both tests were Salifert. Ordered those based on advice found here.

PatW · May 15, 2016

Tap water can have all sorts of things in it. Remember, you use this stuff for top off, so over time, what ever is in the tap water will accumulate in your tank. Nitrates and phosphates are common in tap water and I bet their levels can change over time. I would think that copper can be in the water. It is not much of a problem for us, but even low levels will wipe out marine invertebrates. Also, all sorts of things can get into tap water: pesticides, traces of drugs and so on. It is not that expensive to set up an RODI and eliminate this potential hazard. Using tap water is a bit like playing Russian roulette with your system. You an do it. You can even get away with it.

Diesel · May 15, 2016

As mentioned RODI is a must.
If your well or city water is already clean your filters last only longer in that case so a money saver is always welcome.
A handhelp TDS meter can save you a lot of trouble to find out.

dbl · May 15, 2016

As others have already said, get yourself a RO/DI unit. Afterall, this is a hobby where we can debate about a lot of equipment, but one thing we all need is quality water.

Check out the system below. It's a great system and actually comes with a set of replacement filters and a TDS meter. Just a suggestion.

http://spectrapure.com/Aquarium-RO-...ement-Filter Kit-TDS Meters-Chlorine-Test-Kit

glb · May 15, 2016

tom reilly said:
Both tests were Salifert. Ordered those based on advice found here.

Those are great tests. I use them for almost everything.

FishOfHex · May 16, 2016

tom reilly said:
Is anyone involved here from the San Antonio area? I have some questions about water quality. Our water comes from a limestone aquifer. Clorine is added. Water tests 0 phosphates 0 nitrates. I have a water softener. Do I need to go RO/DI? I plan to have soft corals and Macro algae in the main tank.
LFS says no need or start up local water and then partial changes with O/DI.

I recommend you always use an ro/di unit regardless if you can pick anything up on a test kit. You can never test for everything and better then trying to figure out what is causing the algae or coral death later on just fix the issue from the start and use a unit.

tom reilly · May 21, 2016

Big day today. RO/DI unit arrived. All i need is the sand and im ready to go. Im moving the cichlids from the 125 to the other tanks to get the show on the road. My most outstanding wife walks in and says "you bought that tank and stand used and i think we should have somthing nicer in the entry hall". Im shopping.

AZDesertRat · May 22, 2016

Make sure you set up and flush the RO/DI properly before using it. Do a search with my username and disinfection or RO/DI start up and it should bring up hundreds of posts with the method.