cal tap water and algae

[Neil]

I have had my tank up a running now from almost 5 months and still am battling diatom algae blooms. I am using conditioned tap water and feel this might be the root of the evil. I have been told that calgary has decent tap water and it will suffice until time to purchase an RO unit. Anyone else find this as well? perhaps help me out with some temp solutions.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Hey. Had the same problem as I don't have a RO/DI unit either. I put Rowaphos in my canister filter and the diatoms went away almost immediately. Magic! Also, I've been buying RO water from Superstore. I figure it's probably not perfect but definitely better than the tap water!

[Neil]

did you find it locally or order online?

[Der_Iron_Chef]

I found it locally, at Elite Aquatic on MacLeod Trail South (near Limericks pub). I'm sure lots of the other stores carry it as well, or some other good alternative, like Phosban.

[Bob I]

I have run my tanks in Calgary for the past seven years with water from the tap. I usually have bucket sitting around for topoff purposes. The only additive I use is Chemipure, nothing else. I have never had algae problems , except for newly set up tanks, which get the usual brown algae, and cyano. Once the tanks are running for a while I have no more problems.

[Snappy]

I think a lot depends on the bioload. If it is on the high side I recommend getting an RO unit. Calgary water is very good for tap water but there are still some phosphates that probably get through in my opinion. Also we have 2 different water supplies depending on what part of town you are in and they may be inconsistent. I used tap water for a long time but with my large bioload going to RO has created an improvement.

[EmilyB]

If you are drinking tapwater lately, you like the taste of bleach. I choose not to use this in my tanks, or to drink.

[kwirky]

Tapwater's not as scary as some say it is. I found it a nuissance, myself, compared to RO/DI water, but not a danger.

When I was running tapwater, I had a massive hair algae bloom from cycling my rocks, but there were too many factors to really account it as being the tapwater. For one thing I made the mistake of running a photoperiod while the rocks were cycling. My diatom bloom lasted about a week longer than it did in my 18g nano, but it cleared out a week before the hair algae attack.

Also, my algae went away when I both switched to RO/DI water, and added the phosphate reactor, AND added the skimmer in the same 2 week period, so I can't determine whether one helped more than the other. I don't want to stop using any of them, as well, out of fear of an impending bloom

One thing I did notice is that with RO/DI water I'm not using prime any more and it made my skimmer more managable. I switched to RO/DI water, then I ran carbon to rid it of the remaining prime (as euroreef instructed me to do) and the skimmer quietted in about 3 days.

Not that I'm knocking tapwater, I just feel safer using it on my big tank. I've used tapwater for quarantining fish, and I'm probably going to use it for cycling liverock from now on, too.