RO Question

[RyanMcLaughlin]

I used tap water to fill my tank and it has been cycling for 2 weeks. Is there a way to get RO water without an RO Unit? I cant afford a 200 dollar water purifier and was wondering if there is something I could do besides those water conditioners to remove metals? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[dsn112]

you can buy ro water from an LFS, or Walmart, better than tap by far.

 

[EdKruzel]

An RO/DI is a good investment and should be considered in the future when your finances become available.

For smaller tanks I used distilled water from Wal Mart; at $.64 a gallon and running activated carbon it worked out to be relatively inexpensive, but with a 40gal you're starting to push the barrier between current expense and expenses over a long term.

 

[dave2184]

There are some units on ebay you can get for $100 shipped to your door or one of the captive purity ones like I have.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~CP1111.html

 

[HABS#1]

We have a water depot in London that will sell water for about 3 bucks for 5 gallons for RO water.

 

[RyanMcLaughlin]

If I were to drain my tank and buy Saltwater would I have to start the cycle over again or would the bacteria survive on the rock?

 

[WaterKeeper]

Not sure about that question Ryan. Do you mean drain a FW tank and then add SW? If you had LR in FW for any length of time it is no longer Live. On the other hand if you want to replace SW made with tapwater with SW made with RO then there would be no cycle a most bacteria are attached to the substrate a very few are in the water itself.

 

[RyanMcLaughlin]

Alirght well Ill do that. My tank is already filled with saltwater. So I will just drain it and immediately fill it up.

 

[WaterKeeper]

Ryan,

A single dose of tap is not going to harm a tank. It is the repeated use, especially in replacing evaporation water, that makes tap work against the tank. Over time, bad things build up in the water as the tap water adds small amounts of contaminants each time the the tank is top offed.

I'd just do routine water changes and let the RO/DI eventually replace the entire water column in the tank. Their is no need to get drastic and in the long run the tank will be as good as if you used RO/DI at step one.