HELP!!!! Girlfriends gift

[hagfish]

Originally Posted by zipityzoom
i know thaT Many people use the RO water, but I use tap and i know severl people that do and we have not had any problems. I would see if tap works for you before i bought and RO/DI filter. They are expensive and you might mot need one. Some tap water is pooreer quality. Most fish cannot tolerate mineral build up. If your water has iron, sulfur, or rust you will prob need to get an RO filter.

There are plenty of people who use tap water. But IMO it is risky even if you've tested it a couple times and it looks OK. For one thing, you have no control over how good the water is, and the water quality is probably the most important thing in this hobby. Also, the quality of the tap water is going to change from season to season. They have to increase chemicals to control algae at certain times of the year for instance. And they just aren't trying to make the water good enough for marine animals to live in. That's important to realize. Tap water is supposed to meet human standards, not marine. And marine life has much higher standards.
All that said, you can get a good RO unit for about $100 on the auction site. That's really not that bad.

 

[dr.vinyl]

An Update for all those who helped out

Talked the GF into removing "Nemo's" decor and going with LR/LS not as hard as I thought but wouldnt want to do it again,
Have been doing alot of reading on these forums and have gotten tons on info that will prob save me hundreds if not thousands in mistakes, so sympathy to all those for there loses, but THANKS for the valuable info
have decided that a QT tank is a necessity for me, sounds like a safe have for my future livestock when I screw up, would the CC be ok in here or should I make it a mini me of my DT sure hate to throw it away but will if it is necessary.
with the CC my tank was full with a salt premix added should I drain completely and clean (with what) or is a partial water change sufficient

THANKS

 

[hagfish]

You QT should have no substrate, just bare bottom. You will want to be able to vacuum out junk on the bottom easily and it's harder to get it all with CC in there.
There's probably not much to worry about with your water. I am still interested in what kind of filter was used on it though. If it wasn't an RO unit, you may have some silicates or phosphates, or anything really. But probably nothing that will be too bad (copper). If there are silicates or phosphates for instance, you may have some algae problems in the future. I think I'd leave it filled like it is though unless you have reason to believe there is something wrong with it.