Why you NEED RO/DI!!!

[Zylumn]

One thing nice about the tint in the Calgary tap water is you just have to add sugar and ice to make ice tea.
188 to 205 tds

[scsi]

On a more sinister note........
I live in Slave Lake.
Apparently, the natural water table runs down from Swan Hills to discharge in Lesser Slave Lake.... I don't know if anyone here has seen it, but it's a massive lake.

We all know what's located in Swan Hills, AB......
Well, if you're an Enviromentalist......
This can't be good for my tap water.

[bv_reefer]

-a facility that disposes tonnes of PCBs, pesticides, paint thinners and other toxic chemicals every year...yup probably wouldn't hurt to have a RO water purifier there would it-

[fkshiu]

All this discussion over what colour tap water should or should not be is the exact reason why you should be using RO/DI even if your tapwater is usually OK - consistency.

RO/DI will always be the same beautiful blue water and you know exactly what is in it. All it takes to destroy your entire reef system is a sanitation crew outside mucking around with the pipes and stirring up a bunch of crap just when you're changing your water. Visually you may not even notice, but your system sure will.

This is coming from someone who lives in the GVRD where we routinely get ~10 TDS coming straight from the tap. I probably could get away with using just tap, but the 2 weeks of brown water we got last winter completely justified the RO/DI investment. My pre-filters were nasty after that incident - filled with stuff that could have otherwise gone into my tank.

And you don't need to "waste" any water with RO - collect it and use it to wash your clothes or water your garden.

[andrewsk]

Thankyou fkshiu. I was going to try to respond to some of the comments but you said it better than I could have.

As for the cost, JL has one available for 230.00 and I am sure you can pick up a second hand or off of ebay for even less.

Unless you run a nano (and even then!), you cannot argue that Saltwater Aquariums are inexpensive. When you add up the cost to replace all of the livestock, coral, sand, and live rock in your tank from a bad water change, 230.00 is a sweet investment.

I know there are some great tanks that use tap water. I just think that I would be constanty worried every time I did a water change, that I would find my inhabitants belly up in the morning.

Originally Posted by fkshiu

All this discussion over what colour tap water should or should not be is the exact reason why you should be using RO/DI even if your tapwater is usually OK - consistency.

RO/DI will always be the same beautiful blue water and you know exactly what is in it. All it takes to destroy your entire reef system is a sanitation crew outside mucking around with the pipes and stirring up a bunch of crap just when you're changing your water. Visually you may not even notice, but your system sure will.

This is coming from someone who lives in the GVRD where we routinely get ~10 TDS coming straight from the tap. I probably could get away with using just tap, but the 2 weeks of brown water we got last winter completely justified the RO/DI investment. My pre-filters were nasty after that incident - filled with stuff that could have otherwise gone into my tank.

And you don't need to "waste" any water with RO - collect it and use it to wash your clothes or water your garden.

[bv_reefer]

oh god last winters water was horrible,brown and abundant in the worst bacteria, all from excessive rain in december, but I always thought that last winters incident was only in burnaby not vancouver

[Fishman]

I don't disagree with the RO/DI results/benefits. I'm just curious what would happen if you added a "tiny" amount of food to the RO/DI water and let it fester for a day ... many say one incident of overfeeding contaminates your water 10 times of what's in the tap water.

[surgeonfish]

Fisherman
It is true that you can spoil your tank with rotting/decaying food. However, we are talking about something different; possible contaminants from the water supply including chlorine, heavy metals (lead, copper, etc) not an explosion of bacteria from decomposing food.

[digital-audiophile]

I have had an RO/DI unit sitting under my stairs for a year and a half, I still have not hooked it up mainly becuase I suck at plumbing and have not got around to it. I've been using tap water for over 2-1/2 years and I really cannot say that it has caused me any problems.

[Fishman]

I was just making a point of the effort we put into getting the "bad stuff" out of our water (RO/DI) and then turn around and put it back in again ... phosphates for example.