normal?

[cf1]

k, still waiting for the protein skimmer to arrive.

[cf1]

just put the reef salt with tap water. nothing else. what product can speed up the cycle?

[spit.fire]

Originally Posted by cf1

just put the reef salt with tap water. nothing else. what product can speed up the cycle?

kz zeobak

[cf1]

thx!

[WarDog]

Originally Posted by cf1

... with tap water.

Yikes.

[cf1]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Yikes.

What could be done with the tap water?

[WarDog]

Lots of people use tap water, but its not ideal. Better to have a ro/di filter. Just be prepared for high Po4, and the algae that comes along with it. But, that being said, everybody gets some form of algae.

Any chance you could provide us with some more details of your system?

[mike31154]

I started my tank with tap water years ago as well and would not recommend it. Too many unknowns being introduced into a more or less closed system. You will need to top off with fresh water due to evaporation and also do periodic water changes. Adding more tap water via top off & water changes will only concentrate those unknown elements & cause you all kinds of headaches down the road.

You should be able to obtain a copy of the water report your supplier (city of Edmonton?) publishes on line. This will show you the concentration of various elements in your tap water & the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). Once you have that info, you can tailor the water filtration unit (RODI) to your particular needs. Folks in the greater Vancouver area are fortunate to have very low TDS right out of the tap, but I wager most of them still use a RODI filter for their aquarium. Perhaps a fellow Edmonton hobbyist will chime in here with more info on your local water source.

[cf1]

That's excellent info! Thx mike. Will need to find that out about the water here. How much a rodi filter go for? Thinking about getting one for the whole house and the softener too.