starting a new tank

[Tacoyaki]

Hey guys I've been doing alot of reading and i was wondering what water i should use for my first tank. I've heard some use tap water and alot of people are against it at the same time. I'm doing a FOWLR tank that will stay at way for say 1-2 months, so I'm not exactly sure on what type of water. Thanks in advance

[Aquattro]

Welcome to the board! Most people recommend RO water as it is guaranteed to be pure water, vs. tap water, which while probably fine on a good day in Vancouver, may have levels of undesirable compounds. Run off, broken main lines, etc, all introduce risk of adding things to your tank that may impact your success. But, lots of people use tap water, so if you have RO, great, if not, maybe plan on it down the road and use tap water for now...

[Tacoyaki]

oh okay, thanks you

[RuGlu6]

If you dont want bad pests like Bobbit/unice worms make shure you start with Dry rock not the live rock.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...t=77266&page=2
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http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=cs-rrock2

[Tacoyaki]

would it be fine to use rock that's been sitting in a bucket for a while? or from a tear down?

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by Tacoyaki

would it be fine to use rock that's been sitting in a bucket for a while? or from a tear down?

If you nuke the rocks you may be safe, however if it is wet you never know what survived and these guys can be very resilient. They can go with out food for months.
After what i had to go thrugh catching the bobbit worm, i will never buy a live rocks.

If you want to be sure just get the rocks to dry out and wait for a month os so.
BUT then there will be a lot of die off from these rocks and you will have to wash it and soak it and wash it again. So may as well boil the rocks, but it will stink up your kitchen unless you do it outside. For the above stated reasons i recomend dry rock.