RO/DI - yes. Sorry Bob, but I'm on the other side. I also agree that Calgary has good water for reef purposes yet agree with Canadian Man about fluctuations. Our water source is affected by seasonal runnoff. One can taste a difference in a glass of tap water as the seasons change. I haven't spend the effort to prove it though. (might even be some cow droppings
:crazyeye:
I prefer to have some control.

I heard there will be pre-cured Fiji rock at Gold available this Friday. Probably good bang for the buck.

kari

I just watched the opening scene to I Spy where the deer was taking a leak in the river up stream from the spring water bottling plant. This scene was very well done.

kari

As I said before "each to their own choice" just don't be anal. You look at the evidence, then you make a choice. You are neither a better person for it, or worse :wink:

The place where the rock comes from is FIJI. How is that for anal. :silly:

Thanks again for the discussion- I always find these sorts of debates interesting.
As for the RO unit, I'm still undecided. Thinking I might let the tank mature some what before I decide if I need one or not. For the price tag this seems like a tough call.

Jonathan, you mentioned that you didn't use RO for the first .5 year- what differences if any did you notice in the tank when you started using one?

Bob- I know that Danny at Wai's agrees with you on this- he has told me he doesn't use RO water either.

Thanks again- after this first thread I am confident that this board will be a great place to get some good advice- I know I'm going to need it.

Chris :D

And arguably the best corals. I have asked, and Ocean, Pisces, and Gold do not use RO/DI either. That is all just for information. :wink:

Welcome to the jungle... :confused:
Danny and Bob agree on anything...? :eek:

How nice to see your unique sense of humour back. :drinking:

Well Maybe the stores don't use RO/DI because of the cost they would have to deal with to make the good water, as well as the time? :rolleyes: I think this may have something to do with the stores opinion.
Chris I noticed no diffrence between the first .5 years and the last 1.5 years. Now with that being said I also don't have the corals that I did back then as well :confused: So I believe the tap water issue to be an issue when you are using tap water for a long time, don't do many waterchanges. As well if you are keeping easier/less sensitive corals then I think it may not matter as much as if your keeping more sensitive corals.

Just an idea for you. Contact the water treatment facitility in Calgary and ask them to fax a discription sheet of what's in calgary's water at the current time. It's about 3 pages long and contains many things that will shock you :eek: Heck I don't even drink our tap water :lol:

Hi Chris, welcome to the nuttiest chapter on Canreef... myself included, I guess. :razz: I'm sure you'll what you're looking for here.

Regarding the current debate, I have yet to buy into the RO/DI camp (BUY INTO being the operative phrase). Not only is it expensive for the filtering unit, but David Suzuki will have us all flogged in the village square for wasting 4 gallons of precious fresh water for every 1 that we produce for our extravagant and environmentally disastrous hobby. :eek:

If there is a way to limit our "footprint" on nature, we should look into it. If we can save some money, so much the better, but good luck. There are many successful reef tanks run on many different methods. We all adapt one that fits our own requirements and consciences.

I've taken a slower route into this hobby, partly because of my own early challenges with a larger system (tank, sump, etc) and partly due to the litany of disaster-posts that I read from many enthusiastic reef keepers who learned largely by trial and error. For example:

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2510

My advice would be to visit as many people as will have you, and see which tanks and setups seem to fit what you want to do for yourself. I wish I had done more of that, instead of deciding then jumping...

It is often a very different thing, what you think you might want versus what you really have the patience and money and time for...

The interesting thing here is that Wai's has nicer corals than you and I put together.

As to sensitive corals. I have one piece of Acropora I got from Tony. It has doubled in size. Why heck for a long time it had no purple tips. Well lo and behold it now has purple tips and under PC lighting too. Aside from that the only stony corals I have are some Digitata, and Candycane. They too are doing well. I think I might have to get a lawnmower to control the Tubipora musica. Well actually everything else I have grows well.

But that is it for me, I will argue no more. I agree more and more with what Alan so eloquently said. :agrue: