Does everyone use bottled water?

[mpgt]

I've been away from the marine fish scene for about 9 years, but we used to use (cold) tap water, add salt and heat it for saltwater tanks. I still have the water my cichlids were in, and was planning to just add salt. Bad idea?
How do most do it now? De-ionized, distilled, or R.O. water? For fish, does it matter?

 

[crispcritr]

i use ro water, but make sure you check the ph. most of the time it is to low. when i cant find ro i use distilled almost as good. good luck. bad idea about using that old water, proably too old and wrong quality.

 

[ruaround]

I have my own RO system...Worth every freakin penny. cris was right about the pH, typically low in RO water. You can pick up some from you local wal-mart ~or~ grocery store provided that they have a fill your own bottle machine. Be aware that most places that make distilled water use copper distilleries, so ther is a chance that copper levels may be high in distilled water. IMO I wouldnt use the old water either...If youre gonna start a new system better off to start of "fresh".

 

[the infamous sea cucumber]

I use RO/DI. Works like a charm, and i bought the system on e-bay for 120.00

 

[tiffbritty]

i buy poland spring distilled water from the market seems to work for me haven't had any problems.

 

[ed r]

Most people would recommend RO or better yet RO/DI water. Did you really mean you were considering adding salt to water that had contained your cichlids? Most tanks of that type have pretty high nitrates, are likely to also contain phosphates, and would do nothing positive except be convenient because it happens to be in the tank. I think adding the salt would probably also kill all of the freshwater bacteria that were established and provide an ammonia spike.
What substrate were you using? Have you removed that? Are you intenting to clean and use that as well? I think you would benefit from doing a lot a reading before you make the change. A lot of things have changed in the past nine years especially on the reefkeeping side, if you are considering that. Good luck.

 

[mpgt]

Ed, I have a book that says freshwater and saltwater bacteria are the same. Of course that doesn't mean it's true. The cichlids are very tolerant of nitrates, and I have never tested them in this tank. I only want fish in the new set-up, so I'm wondering about the water. I have some old crushed coral in it from the cichlids...

 

[ed r]

I am sorry. I was making an assumption that dumping salt onto the freshwater substrate would be likely to kill everything that was in there. Perhaps I was wrong. I would think that where the salt hits becomes extremely high in salinity and then drops as the salt is distributed throughout the tank. Perhaps the bacteria are unaffected by this. If there are any creatures in the substrate similar to the infauna we cultivate in deep sand beds, I do not see how they would survive, but I must admit I don't know for sure.
Some people still use crushed coral for the substrate, but I believe most are moving in the direction of deep sand beds. For a fish only tank, you could use a thin layer of CC and vacuum it regularly to try to keep the detrius accumulation and nitrates down.
With as expensive as saltwater fish are, I think I would want to use new water (preferably RO/DI)and clean substrate so that the tank starts with no nitrate or phosphates that will cause undesirable algae growth. You will need to make your own decisions.
Good luck with it.

 

[mpgt]

I'm sure you're right. I'll try the bottled water from Wal-Mart. First, I'll see what LFSs are using...I really don't want to fight algae or abuse the fish. The right kind of algae adds attraction to the tank. I'm leaning toward removing the CC. I know it collects lots of dirt, and is likely to do more harm than good. I appreciate the advice from everyone.