Tap water
 

Can I fill my tank with tap water if so what should I add to it?

Re: Tap water
 

I would at least use distilled water. Or some saltwater stores sell RO/DI water. I filled up my 70 gallon tank with ozonized distilled water (bought from the grocery store in 5 gallon jugs)

Michael

Re: Tap water
 

An algae eater :D
Seriously, you may want to check with local reefers to see what the tap water quality is like. It could give you a big algae problem.
Stephane may be able to help, although he's in Laval. Not sure if you have the same water supply...

I don't think it's the same water supply but I have a friend who workes for a water distilling companie I guess I should use that instead?

That would be best to use alternate sources of water. I'm not sure about distilled...maybe do a search on RC about distilled water

I'll admit that I cheated when I first set up my tank. I got impatient with my DI unit and filled half my 120gal with straight tap water. Maybe it's because the water at the time was pretty clean, but I never really experienced anything out of the ordinary in terms of algae outbreaks or anything.

"Don't try this at home folks" :wink:

50% of my water changes is straight from the tap. I use straight tap water to do mid week fills and when I do my monthly 25% water change. The other times I use my filter. I am not as worried about our water vs. people in larger cities. I was in Chicago a few years ago. The water was so awful I used bottle water to brush my teeth.

I have had only 1 algae bloom when I screwed up on my Kalk and killed off my Xenia, actually i thought I killed it off. Pretty soon the Xenia will take over my tank. Andrew - I think it is time to learn how to transplant Xenia. Well that is for another thread.

Anyways, I don't always use a filter and I have a 33G tank so if anything will happen it should happen to me.