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Originally Posted by Simmy
Thank you for all the Replies and suggestions...I should note that I have a RSM250 so I don't have a sump underneath my tank. If I don't use RO water (live in GVRD) is it advisable to use a water conditioner still or should the water be fine if its sits for a day circulating in a bucket/container (with or without salt) before being added to the tank?
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I think that depends on what your area adds to the water. I'm pretty sure you can check. If it's just straight chlorine then it will all have off-gassed after 24 hours so long as the container you keep it in is open to the air and being agitated. If they add chloramines then you definitely need a water conditioner, if you can't find out for sure what they always do, then a water conditioner is a good idea just to be safe.
I would probably just use it either way. There's very little harm to using it. It converts chlorine gas (what they add to kill things) into chloride ions, which are in such abundance in your aquarium that I bet an analytical chemistry lab would have a hard time measuring the increase. When it's exposed to chloramine, it breaks off the chloride ion, and irreversibly binds to the ammonia in a non-toxic form that is still available to your nitrifying bacteria. Unless you've got copper in your tap water that Prime could reduce to an even more toxic ionic form (a huge problem that would require an RO unit anyway), I think adding a water conditioner can only reduce the risk associated with using tap water. Seachem even claims that it does something to reduce the levels/effect of nitrate in water, and since Canadian regulations allow up to 10ppm Nitrate reported as N in tap water, which is about 44 or 43ppm of actual Nitrate, to me that would make it worth using it. The amount of nitrate will vary over the course of the year, but the allowable limit for it is still many times higher than you want in your tank if you'd rather grow corals than algae.