Tap Water Anyone?

P

pitmindi

New member
Hi, do some people on this site use tapwater? I use RODI but it sure is a waste of water. The amount going down the drain is much greater than the amount going into the container. My tap water TDS meter shows over 300 going into the RODI system. However, I recently saw someone's 17 year old tank that is about 50 gallons and he uses tap water and does a 20% waterchange every 2-3 weeks. His tank has trumpet corals that have almost taken over, huge brain favia and a lobo and about 5 fish. No algae. His light is T5HO with 4 bulbs. It makes me consider trying tap water at least for the daily top off.
 
Would be interesting to see what his tap tests at if you have that option, mine tests at 40ppm so i use distilled water for my top offs, its cheap & pure @ .99 a gal. No tap water use here.
 
I used tap water for over 20 years. I kept everything except Acropora sp., and that was because my lights (T12VHO)weren't up to it and availability was not great, not the water. I also had seasonal algae blooms, especially after hard summer rains due to the increase of nitrates from farm runoff. I don't know what TDS was then, it's about 250 now. I also allowed it to naturally de-chlorinate itself by keeping a 55g barrel full all the time.

You certainly can use tap water, but there are certain drawbacks that can easily be avoided with the addition of a ro/di unit. In the summer my waste water goes to the garden so as to not be "wasted"
 
Route the waste line into your washing machine or into a barrel to use in the garden.
 
Some have usable tap water.. Some don't..
300tds isn't typically a good starting point or indication your water may be usable without issue.

There are ways to reduce or reuse waste water that may be of interest to you.. Dual membranes, routing waste to washing machine or rain barrels and more..
 
Generally speaking the issue of water quality is more for the fish than for the corals. It also depends what the TDS represents. Copper and certain heavy metals would not be acceptable. Magnesium would be good. Not knowing what is in our water is the reason RO/DI is used. Not knowing is why my drinking water comes from an RO system. I am on a well on a lot on a golf course. Who knows what pesticides, insecticides plus fertilizer elements are seeping into the ground water table.
 
I have had much better luck with 40 cent per gallon grocery store water and 3 & 5 gallon reusable containers.

I had quite a few algae farms using lightly filterrd tap water in the past :)

Sent from my LM-Q710.FG using Tapatalk
 
I know a service tech who's been using tap water for decades. Granted, he doesn't maintain much in the way of "SPS", mostly just fish short term for customers, but he does keep a 40g tank of his own and uses tap water for that one too. I don't know what his tds is but I live the next town over and mine is around 311ppm. Bottom line is that he doesn't seem to have any more casualties than most of us so I guess it's working for him. Nevertheless, after seeing what my RO/DI pulls out, I wouldn't be without one.
 
If you use a water conditioner all the time I don't see a issue with it. There is a lot of waste water with RO systems but its much cheaper than paying .50-$1 per gallon for other store bought options.
 
Timfish said:
Yup, been doing it for awhile. It's been years since I tested TDS but historically they have been 300-400.
Click to expand...

[MENTION=242021]Timfish[/MENTION] Well water? City Water?
Any pretreatment for Chlorine/Chloramines (if used), settling tank, waiting period while mixing salt would likely remove most if not all Chlorine, etc prior to use?
Just curious..
 
[MENTION=12404]loc01[/MENTION] uses tap water and is wildly successful. I lived near him and the TDS in that area is quite high.
 
five.five-six said:
[MENTION=12404]loc01[/MENTION] uses tap water and is wildly successful. I lived near him and the TDS in that area is quite high.
Click to expand...


Here is my tank using tap water(tds reading around 400ppm) in the city of Orange.
 

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mcgyvr said:
[MENTION=242021]Timfish[/MENTION] Well water? City Water?
Any pretreatment for Chlorine/Chloramines (if used), settling tank, waiting period while mixing salt would likely remove most if not all Chlorine, etc prior to use?
Just curious..
Click to expand...

City water drawn from a local reservoir. The 90 gallon the water is mixed, dosed with ammo detox and sits about 20 - 30 minutes, the amount of time it takes to wipe algae off the glass and siphon out the amount for the water change minus evaporation. I've posted Triton ICP results for the 90 gallon tapwater and system water on the local forum here.

For the 210 started in '97, water goes through a carbon filter then sits in a 55 gallon barrel with a dash of ammo detox for a few days before being mixed for the water change.
 
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