Is RO water a must for fish keeping only?

[Mightyfish]

I totally understand why people use RO water but I am just wondering whether I can get away with not using RO water for keeping fish and live rocks only aquarium?

 

[OrionN]

No RO not needed for FOWLR

 

[eatbreakfast]

No RO not needed for FOWLR

Agreed.

 

[sublime9182]

I totally understand why people use RO water but I am just wondering whether I can get away with not using RO water for keeping fish and live rocks only aquarium?

If it's tap don't forget to dechlorinate.

 

[Dmorty217]

Water conditioner and a hose from outside is all you need. The salt will mix extra cloudy depending on the DKH of your tap water. Check the water for what the PH is also

 

[sublime9182]

Water conditioner and a hose from outside is all you need. The salt will mix extra cloudy depending on the DKH of your tap water. Check the water for what the PH is also

+1 I used tap in a FOWLR for a long time. As long as you dont mind algea.

 

[Rutrag]

It's not likely to impact the health of the fish, but using tap will still provide nutrients to undesirable algae and cyanobacteria , making keeping the tank presentable a chore. For whatever reason, it doesn't seem to be as big a deal in freshwater as salt in my experience.

 

[Fallling]

Algae could become an issue and require more maintenance to get rid of it or keep it at bay.

 

[snorvich]

Agreed.

This. I did it for about 10 years but as others mention, algae is more of an issue. Now with reefs, RO/DI only.

 

[Dmorty217]

Just to clarify I used tap water with water conditioner to setup my QT system which I'm using CP on so there will be no algae issues what so ever for me

 

[Rybren]

I ran tap water on my reef for a couple of years without issue.

I think that a lot depends on where the water is being drawn from. In our area, it comes from the Ottawa River. In times of heavy rain/runoff, the city has been known to 'hit' the water extra hard in their treatment protocol. This has been known to wipe out the tanks of folks who were unlucky enough to have done a WC at just the wrong time.

For me, switching to RO/DI has been worth it.

 

[caribfan]

I like RO for the top off, theoretically prevents the accumulation of some of those naturally occurring trace ,minerals in the tap water

 

[o2manyfish]

I've run tap for my Fish Only no problem. For the first 10 years of my reef I ran tap water without any major issues.

Since going from a 125 to my current system which is now 1100g but was up to 2000g, I use RO for top off and use tap for water changes.

Even now when I need to do a water change its out of the garden hose. It may mean I have to wipe the front glass a little more often, but no major outbreaks of anything bad.

Dave B

 

[Titans_Reef]

I ran my 125 for a year just on straight tap water and I didnt have issues with algae as much as I see other peoples tanks. It does depend on where you live though. When I moved houses and I took my 125g with me, a couple months later after setting everything up again I had a cyano outbreak but I think it was because of the water from the new house since it was an older style house built in the 50's while the other house was built in the 90's. I did run biopellets in a reactor though to remove the phosphates which did help with diatoms.

 

[aquaticaddict]

I've always used tap/well water and never had any issues

 

[Nina51]

before i got my ro/di unit, and knew i was upgrading soon, i started using tap for water changes in my 2 biocubes. prior to that, i had been buying ro/di by the gallon, 7-10g a week. it was a mistake using tap as my live rock leached crap after the upgrade. i fought cyano for weeks. i thought i would be ok since my tap water comes from a sand point sunk 30' down into an underground spring. i was wrong!

 

[Mightyfish]

Thanks everyone for their input. I think I feel safer to use tap water to just keep fish now

 

[E.intheC]

I've also found that water conditioners (to remove chlorine) can mess with skimmer production.