Well water for curing liverock?

[JeF4y]

Going to cure 40'ish lbs of liverock in a bin, and am wondering if using our (naturally hard) well-water would be idiotic.

I use RO in everything, but figured I'd be going through so much with the curing that the hose would be a hell of a lot more convenient...

Fire away...

 

[down and outman]

Your rock is one of the most expensive and vital parts of your reef. It may be safe, but at this point do you want to chance it. If I had a well, I'd test it every way I could ( I cheat, I'm a water plant operator with all the goodies to test water) to see if I could use it. I would be most concerned with metals such as copper and other contaniments in the groundwater. Nitrates would indicate if it is under the influence of surface water. Hardness shouldn't be a problem as we dose calcium, unless there's a lot of manganese in the water (causes black stains). You might be able to get a local water plant to test your water for metals, as we run ph, alkalinity, copper, iron and manganese tests all the time. You should have a nitrate test kit in your arsenal. If it were me, i'd want to know if I could uses my well water for my reef. A buddy has a 120 gal freshwater tank he fills with a garden hose out of his well. Not quite the same, but it would be nice.

 

[aquariumclown]

I would guess there are too much unknown elements (metals, phosphates, etc, etc) in the well water. Even if you are just curing it, the unknown elements would soak into the rocks and you'd be transferring that into your tank. A very bad idea. RO/DI water is used in reef applications for a reason, everyone is recommended using RO/DI water that detects zero TDS in PPM. So I would say no to well water.

 

[JeF4y]

Fair enough! Bad idea indeed...

After already dropping a few grand, I have no excuse for not having an in-home RO/DI system...

I did break down last night and buy a 35 gallon food-grade rubbermade bin which I'm making up 30 gal of saltwater in right now. Just sucks hauling the 5 gallon bottles around to the grocery to get RO/DI.

 

[down and outman]

You ought to fill a 90 with a 25 gal sump that way.