Tap water! Bad idea????

[TheReefGeek]

wow, 17! Some reefers in the US have 10ppm coming out of their RO units!

[Willow]

i wouldnt use the tap water if the tds was 0. i have to much invested in my corals and setup to risk a tank crash on shitty water.

[Psyire]

especially for the $200 an RO Unit costs..

[G1GY]

This is a tank with just $h!tty tap water!

http://totm.aquariumpros.ca/index.shtml

[Snoop Dog]

I agree with DirtyReefer. TDS is about 17, and on 3 start ups in my aquarist Career , all have lead to hair algea and or cyno when I used tap water. RODI I had vertually none.

I guess it just depends on your tolerence level for algae.

[Buddyboy]

Thanks all for you comments and suggestions! I think I will just have to make the time and make the RO water. I think it can probably be done with tap water, but this is my first saltwater tank and don't want to push my luck! hehe

Bud

[seashells]

Well tapwater in Surrey runs about 10-50 ppm TDS, Alkalinity 30ppm Calcium 30 ppm and the pH runs 7.2-7.5 when we test water for people. We use the AP tapwater filter and get a TDS of 0-2ppm. Have had no problems to date. Also making 38 gallons of water goes pretty quick - like coming to the kitchen for a snack only to step in a puddle.

Doug

[Cap'n]

Originally Posted by TheReefGeek

God doesn't frequent the board too often.

Neither do baby elephants, but when they do you should see the sparks fly!

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by Buddyboy

Hi All,

Just wanted to know your opinion on using tap water for an initial tank fillup?
I have a rinky dinky little Aqua Pharm Tap Water conditioner and i'm not looking forward to having to make 38G of RO water with it.

Just a correction, the water coming out of the AP Tap Water conditioner is DI water and NOT RO water.

[TheReefGeek]

DI is stripped of more than RO I believe. People use RODI because using just DI would deplete the DI media really quickly, and it is more expensive to replace than the RO membrane, carbon and filter media.