Tap-water anyone?

Tap-water anyone?

  • RO/DI

    Votes: 43 95.6%

  • Tap Water

    Votes: 1 2.2%

  • Well water

    Votes: 1 2.2%
  • Total voters
    45
Chef Reef

Chef Reef

In Memoriam
Does anyone here actually use tap water to fill there tank? Or does EVERYONE use RO water? I'm just curious. For you people using tap water, if your afraid to say who you are, I made it a poll :P so far I haven't had any problem with tap water (maybe its where I live), but I dont have to add calcium or anything to my water except the salt.. I do use a conditioner of course and I put about a cap full of AmQuel+ Pluse in every 3 gals of water I add to the tank.. only to remove any kind or Chlorine & Chloramines. I'v heard a few people say not to use it becuase it will mess with my PH levels but I haven't had a problem yet and i'v been useing it for about a year now..
 
i used to use tap water on my tank when i was away at college whenever it would run low and I couldn't run to the store to get rodi. everytime I did that though you could deff see a huge difference in my corals. Everything opens and grows like 10x better when using rodi. the problem with tap water is it's not the chlorine or chloramines that only do harm...theres other stuff in tap water that is not the best for a fish tank. if that is all you can do then I guess good luck, but I wouldn't be spending that much money on corals because they'll have a harder time surviving. Good luck. p.s. before spending like $10 a week for saltwater and rodi...i would recommend buying a rodi unit. best money I've ever spent. I always have rodi and a bucket of salt on hand just in case. would highly highly highly recommend getting one.
 
ya i have an RO/DI unit. im just in an apartment right now and i dont know how to install it without messin there stuff up. i'll be using ro/di on my 75 gal when i pick that up next week. put for my little 30 i just use tap. kinda sucks i dont have a resivor for the RO/DI unit either. cant complain though i got it for free.. maybe someone has an extra resivour? and possibly someone can come show me how to hook it up right
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11065286#post11065286 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chef Reef
what is that?
Click to expand...

It's Italian Sparkling mineral water.

final_sanpellegrino.jpg
 
I do not know where you live....I can tell you in North Miami, if you use tap water to top off, within a few days your tank will turn green and hairy!!!!
It was amazing at how the algae bloomed...
Never ever again, only r/o di for me. :)
 
Re: Tap-water anyone?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11065134#post11065134 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chef Reef
Does anyone here actually use tap water to fill there tank? Or does EVERYONE use RO water? I'm just curious. For you people using tap water, if your afraid to say who you are, I made it a poll :P so far I haven't had any problem with tap water (maybe its where I live), but I dont have to add calcium or anything to my water except the salt.. I do use a conditioner of course and I put about a cap full of AmQuel+ Pluse in every 3 gals of water I add to the tank.. only to remove any kind or Chlorine & Chloramines. I'v heard a few people say not to use it becuase it will mess with my PH levels but I haven't had a problem yet and i'v been useing it for about a year now..
Click to expand...

Using tap water and conditioners was a very common practice, one we all did if you have been in the hobby long enough :D (old). Unfortunately this practices usually lead to failure and frustration 'cause we couldn't understand what happened? "everything was perfect until"

There is a good chance that your water is really good, and you are right you definitely could do what you are doing with some success, however the issue is that there is more substances to tap water that are not eliminated and will accumulate over time, items like silicates, fluoride, heavy metals etc. The issue with this substances is that when you see their negative effects it is usually too late to reverse.

The other drawback is the inconsistencies of tap water, you could have "San Pellegrino" water coming coming out of your faucet until the day heavy rains filter in your city's reservoir, or someone decides to add more chloramine than they should (sh!t happens)

All this issues were resolved when we finally were able to control the quality of the water through a Ro/DI filter, if you have one you should use it, it is very simple to tap into your kitchen sinks water supply without damaging anything.
 
thanks roger. im gonna use ro/di water in my 75 gal.. can someone show me how to set this thing up (ro.di unit) im not very good with this kinda thing. plus theres no where for me to store the water..
 
I used to buy Distilled water from WalMart to use in my aquarium.
It gave me great results :D
But yeah you can do that only if you have a 55 gallon or smaller aquarium. It's about 80cents a a gallon so not expensive at all sometimes you can get it even cheaper.
 
First you need to tell me what kind of equipment you have and were will you like to install this, you may want to permanently install it (recommended) or you may want to hook it up every so often to make enough water for a week.
Finally you need to find out what kind of water connection you have were you want to install the unit, it could be the water supply for your sink, a faucet, or even garden hose outlet.
if the water supply under your sink uses the rubber type hoses then you easily use a connector like this to tap into.

Product_270.bmp


if the water supply uses the copper type tubbing then you need this

Product_141.jpg


if you are going for the garden hose connector then a connector like this will do

Product_134.jpg



if you want to connect into the faucet then you need this

Product_242.jpg


if you need to buy any of this stuff you can get it here sponsor link
 
well...i think rogger just taught everyone how to hook an rodi to pretty much anything! only thing else would be to hook it up to a gutter and catch rain water, run it through the rodi, and walla.
on a better note I would recommend under a bathroom or kitched sink. you could easily fit a 5 gallon bucket under there. figure out how long it takes to make 5 gallons and set a timer. I knew a kid in college who had a 18 gallon rubbermaid container under his kitched sink. he supplied about 10 tanks worth of water through that container. all tanks were atleast 55 gallons. one was a 210. I've got no clue how he did it, but he did!
 
chef, dont mes w/ tap.
i live right by you, and at first tap water seems ok,
then slowly but surely, youll notice the change in your tank.

although theres no phospates in the tap water around here,
like roger said, theres silacates, flouride and other heavy metals.
 
blah i said im switching to RO/DI on the 75 :P only about a weeks time. i think i hokked up the RO/DI unit right its filling a bucket right now (i think) so well see..

gonna go check the bucket...
 
well as far as i can tell it worked ok. i just put a bucket under the sink with it and it filled up after a few hours.. anyone know how to check and see if the filtters r still good? where can i buy new filtters for cheap local. its got 6 stages on it
 
tds meter will tell you if the filters are still good. basically itll test the water and see if the filters are actually doing there job. new filters...no clue where to get them. plus i tink it depends on what type of filter you've got. good luck
 
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