water quality / alternatives

[Skinr1]

ok ,
trying to edjamakate myself on some of the latest things keeping FO . since im so old school .
im looking around at water quality learning all i can .
questions :
is distilled water safe to use in a FO marine aquarium ?
water from the dispenser at publix is that safe ?

now i cant afford to kick out $165 at the moment having spent a fortune on my tank lately with this damn algae Bloom i just battled , which after 3 weeks of fighting and the addition of 2 UV sanitzers the the addition of phosphate reducer medias , the tank is finally starting to clear ( happy dance ) i can see through it , it not perfect yet but finally ....still saving for the RO/DI
. did my Labs this morn

ammonia ..... .0 good
ph ..............8.2 good
nitrite .........0.50 coming down
nitrate........10 ppm coming down
phosphate . 2.0 coming down
keeping in mind i did a massive water change on my 90gal 17 days ago and changed all the medias ,,,,pretty much a restart after the algae bloom to try to kill it .

this morn i also did a phosphate test on my Tap
regular tap ......3.0
PUR water ....... 1.0

any ideas on what you guys use would be appreciated . i know many of you prob have an RO but what is suggested these days other then tap .
with the phosphate levels low from the PUR would that be ok to use ??
what are sufficent water options keeping in mind a trip to the closest fish store is an Hr. adventure which is why i always made my own mix .

 

[silverado61]

Any grocery store that has a water station. IE: Walmart, Jewel, Kroger, etc. Average .37c per gallon. I use 5 gallon buckets I got from Walmart. People see me pulling 2 carts loaded with buckets through the store but I say screw 'em. Let 'em look.

Then setup your own mixing station: 32g Rubbermaid garbage can or larger with a lid. I got a four wheel furniture dolly and mounted a piece of 2x2x3/4 plywood on it and put my can on it so I can move it around. A good power head and a heater. If you get the water temp up before you add the salt, it'll mix better.

Let it stir for 24hrs and keep checking the salinity and temp to make sure it's the same as your tank.

That's all I do. I can't afford an RO/DI unit right now but I'll work on that.

 

[Skinr1]

you have any exp with distilled ?
I understand its supposedly pure

 

[geridoc]

you have any exp with distilled ?
I understand its supposedly pure

You probably can't get "distilled" water. Distillation involves heating the water to steam, then fractionating the steam by condensation and saving the purest fraction. It is an expensive process since heating is involved, and the water is only barely adequate since distillation doesn't remove many contaminants. It is cheaper to produce reverse osmosis/deionized water (RODI) since there is no heating step involved. Most of what you see sold at grocery stores, etc., is RODI, even if it is labeled "distilled". RODI is more pure, and the way to go for salt water systems.

 

[jay0705]

If you look at what is labeled drinking water, its tap water run threw r/o. The way Silverado does it is the way to go tho, buy in bulk. I use tap water( dont kill me) lol I use it bc there is almost nothing in it, so it works for me. But I only do fowlr, if I go reef ill use r/o

 

[Skinr1]

im doing fowlr also , but water quality does concern me a bit because of what the city is putting in it , I checked at my local homedepot , and I can get a GE RO/DI unit for $165 maybe I will aim for that . the other 1 I was looking at was kinda big and would only fit on my outside sink so I think I might save the pennies and get that GE , I just don't want to get into lugging water and all that , so im checking all options

 

[Skinr1]

You probably can't get "distilled" water. Distillation involves heating the water to steam, then fractionating the steam by condensation and saving the purest fraction. It is an expensive process since heating is involved, and the water is only barely adequate since distillation doesn't remove many contaminants. It is cheaper to produce reverse osmosis/deionized water (RODI) since there is no heating step involved. Most of what you see sold at grocery stores, etc., is RODI, even if it is labeled "distilled". RODI is more pure, and the way to go for salt water systems.

I prob cant get ?
why? I work at a marina we have distilled water here in 150 gal tanks 5 of them on property , and a serv that delivers here when we get low . and they clean and serv the tanks also .
but your saying distilled isn't a good idea ok so that's scratched off the list also . question answered

 

[jay0705]

How big is ur tank?

 

[Skinr1]

I have 2
the main is 90
the back up med is 30

 

[geridoc]

I prob cant get ?
why? I work at a marina we have distilled water here in 150 gal tanks 5 of them on property , and a serv that delivers here when we get low . and they clean and serv the tanks also .
but your saying distilled isn't a good idea ok so that's scratched off the list also . question answered

Talk to the delivery guy - it may not be distilled, but DI (if used for drinking) or RO. Real distilled is very expensive.

 

[silverado61]

And not very tasty either. It doesn't taste bad per say. It just has no taste. Doesn't taste like tap. Doesn't taste like bottled. Just.... no taste.

 

[geridoc]

Yah, bottled water is usually RO only. The salts that are left behind by reverse osmosis give the water the taste we like.