What water should I use

Tidal Gardens
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RODI is the preferred water source. If you are unable to get RODI, look into getting an RODI filter to make your own at home.

A secondary option is distilled water. Although this can get quite expensive very quickly depending on your evaporation rate.

Filtered tap water has too many unknowns that can lead to algae outbreaks and sometimes even a full tank crash. When water is the main thing in our aquariums, it is best to make sure it id done right from the start.
 
First choice is RO/DI, second is distilled, third would be RO only without DI.
Most tap water filters are only for taste and odors and do noting for removing the TDS or dissolved solids in the water that could potentially be a problem for a reef system. Since many things in tap water are cumulative in nature they would continue to build up with time and no amount or water changes will ever get rid of them.

You can probably find bottled distilled water at a grocery store and it is reasonably priced if you only have a small reef system. For larger reef systems a RO/DI system pays for itself pretty quickly.
 
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I've seen some tanks run just fine using tap water, especially fish only tanks.. The more hardier corals would do fine in tap water but it all depends, i'd get a TDS meter to see where your TDS stands... But RO/DI is always preferred, it'll keep your corals much more happy!
 
AS
A good RO/DI system in the US is between $125 and $300, with several good ones under $200. Not sure about there or if any of the merchants ship overseas.
 
you may want to call local water company and make sure that there are no chloramines added to water supply before you look at RO/DI water systems, as that will affect your options... ours does not use chloramines, so we installed a BRS 5-stage plus RO/DI system under our sink a couple of months ago and it has been an EXCELLENT investment (we have a 75g tank and have been doing 15g water changes on a weekly/ bi-weekly basis)... BRS currently has them listed for 199, but I think we caught ours on sale...
 
Ro water only. If you have a water fill station in your area far better than investing in a ro system. You don't have to worry about changing filters and all that stuff. They normally have more treatment than a home ro system has.
 
BRS
For a 15 gallon tank i would use distilled for top off and water changes, if you by any chance have access to the base you can pick it up at the commissary fairly cheap. Of course RODI IS preferred but with a system that size it would be a while before it would start to pay for itself.
 
When using distilled water do I need to add anything to it before it GoS in my tank


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Last edited:
Tidal Gardens
No, you would not add anything to distilled water for top offs, it is pure water.



Stay far away from the ebay type systems. Almost always they are imported low end drinking water systems with a little horizontal tube with some outdated resin bobbing around in them, some stack two or three little tubes of resin on and call them 7 stages like that is something special. It isn't and don't fall for it.

You will not find a better system than the $125 system at the top of the page here:
SpectraPure Water Purification Products

4 stages which is all you want or need in 90% of all situations, a 1 micron absolute rated sediment filter, a 1 micron 12,000 gallon carbon block, a 90 GPD specially treated and batch tested high rejection rate RO membrane and a full size vertical 20 oz refilllable DI canister and cartridge full of fresh custom blended reef specific DI resin developed based on thousands of hours of real world beta testing, a capillary tube flow restrictor you yourself trim for an exact waste ratio with no guessing or ball park figures and an inline pressure gauge. You will not find all that anywhere else at any price guaranteed.
 
AZDesertRat said:
No, you would not add anything to distilled water for top offs, it is pure water.



Stay far away from the ebay type systems. Almost always they are imported low end drinking water systems with a little horizontal tube with some outdated resin bobbing around in them, some stack two or three little tubes of resin on and call them 7 stages like that is something special. It isn't and don't fall for it.

You will not find a better system than the $125 system at the top of the page here:
SpectraPure Water Purification Products

4 stages which is all you want or need in 90% of all situations, a 1 micron absolute rated sediment filter, a 1 micron 12,000 gallon carbon block, a 90 GPD specially treated and batch tested high rejection rate RO membrane and a full size vertical 20 oz refilllable DI canister and cartridge full of fresh custom blended reef specific DI resin developed based on thousands of hours of real world beta testing, a capillary tube flow restrictor you yourself trim for an exact waste ratio with no guessing or ball park figures and an inline pressure gauge. You will not find all that anywhere else at any price guaranteed.
Click to expand...

+++1


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Deltec
I purchased an ebay RO/Di unit and it works great and after 6 months my TDS meter still reads 0. Before my purchase I went o my local dominics and used their RO water machine, cost me about $3.50 per 10 gallons.
 
You can go to the filtered drinking water machines. There is an ro unit in them. .25 a gallon usually. But in the long run, you are better off to buy an rodi. We use the ro half of it for drinking water.
 
Tidal Gardens

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