about tap water??

[movadoman21]

hello i was reading an post on here about tap water giving the water,glass and LR alge problems. what would i need for somethig at home to use to take the chem's out of the tap water? i heard of smething like a ROS soemthing liek that? i need soemthing for the home and to keep the alge content down. can you help me find somehting to get that will take the chem's out of the water?

 

[justinx]

Actually, its not the chemicals, but rather the excess nutrients such as phosphates and silicates that cause excess algae.
But to answer your question, a Reverse Osmosis Filter is what you are looking for.
HTH
Justin

 

[dreeves]

go to airwaterandice dot com and look at their dual home/reef RO/DI setup...can use the purified water for drinking too...

 

[beaslbob]

Tap water is just fine. When you strip out the chemicals from any water you also strip out the useful things such as calcium and magnesium. Your tank can handle the small amount of undersirable chemicals and make great use of the very desirable chemicals in tap water.

 

[clownfish2]

Look for a unit called RO/DI. It will take care of your problems. They come in different sizes so it is up to you which one you would like. Check right here at SWF. They sell the units under the dry goods section. Hope this helps

 

[reefnut]

movadoman, Tap water can contain a multitude of different elements... Nitrates, Nitrites, phosphates, silicates, chlorine, copper, lead, etc.
When replenishing the evaporated water these elements do not evaporate so pure RO/DI water is a great way to add back in just water.
Yes the RO/DI will remove beneficial elements such as calcium and magnesium but the salts have everything you need to replenish the RO/DI water.
If you have a reef tank with calcium demanding corals then calcium will need to be added to your tank no matter if you are using tap water or RO/DI water.
I would defiantly recommend a RO/DI unit to anyone... and second dreeves' suggestion...

 

[gregvabch]

i highly recommend using a ro/di, (reverse osmosis/deionization), unit for your tank. there are numerous brands and some will tell you that one works better than another, but the end result is purified water for your fish tank. i bought mine off of ----, it works like a champ, and it cost me around 100 bucks. i had a nitrate problem before, now i don't. it's a worthwhile investment IMO.

 

[marvida]

It depends on your water source. Where I live the city water is from several different wells & the quality differs well to well. Thirty miles North is a community that gets it's water from a natural spring that's so pure that they don't need to chlorinate it. So the correct answer to the question of tap water is, maybe.
Ken

 

[dsa_mom]

If you are hesitating to buy a RO/DI system (by the way, we have one attached to our laundry room sink--so easy even I could attach it, and that is saying something!!!) You could purchase filtered water from a free-standing unit at many Wal-Marts or even grocery stores. Some people recommend testing that water, in case the unit hasn't been well maintained. Those units usually use the same filtration system (RO/DI) that we are all talking about. Believe me, after you haul a few dozen gallon jugs, the price of your own unit doesn't look so bad! I found ours right here at SWF in the classified forum for $80. Good luck with your tank!

 

[wyldgunz]

Beeing a plumber you learn a great deal about water quality. IMO id go with spring water R/O water . You can use distilled ( if you want to add the trace elements to the distilled) a lot of older housed used lead to solder the joints together or even lead pipes to conect city water to the service water of streets which haven't been changed in some areas because its not a threat as its coaded with slime and such. R/O water is excelent as it revoves lead, copper, mercury, and other heavy metals from your water and city water uses recycled water which they add chlorine and flouride along with a lot of other treatments to before releasing into rives and lakes then reusing out of the ground. best bet is get it bottled or buy a R/O system. Distilled is just water with nothing in it, no metals or minerals of any kind in fact you cant send electrical currents through distilled water, that was a cool hands on project in school.

 

[poiboy]

another reason to not use it besides everything else. I tested my tap just for the heck of it and found out it contained .25ppm ammonia

 

[nm reef]

I too "beg to differ" in regard to the suggestion that normal un-treated tap water is fine. A good ro or ro/di filtering system will remove many minerals/metals that can potentially accumulate in toxic levels if added on a regular basis. Personally I prefer to add only ro/di filtered water to my systems and establish desired trace elements via a quality salt mix...calcium and alkalinity are futher supplimented via Seachem products and kalkwasser.

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