Is it really that bad?

[bigwiz]

so i picked up a 12g aquacube yesterday and bought some live rock and live sand and some salt.....but i def forgot all about the fact that im not supposed to use tap water to mix with the salt. And so here i am back at college and ive got class all week so there is no possible way for me to get anything but tap water to fill up my tank....and im too excited to wait till next weekend to set up and cycle this tank.........so i went ahead and filled it up with tap water and the salt..so im hoping it cant be all thattt bad......Any thoughts???...or reasons why this is bad and what i could do to make it better if thats at all possible?

 

[skipperdz]

youll have a much much longer cycle time to get all the impurities out of the tap water before you can put anyting fish/inverts/corals etc in there

 

[demartini]

be prepared for a HUGE algae bloom.

you should have waited. you can buy distilled water at any store in gallon jugs... good luck
Do all your water changes with distilled water, and buy media that gets rid of phosphates and copper. You will have to wait a really long time. I hope it all works out for you.
(not trying to sound mean) there's are a lot of crap in tap water that can harm fish and corals.
When you do decide to add corals/ inverts be sure to test for copper first, because they can't survive with copper.

 

[bigwiz]

should i drain it completely and do it with distilled water? or should i just wait it out?

 

[redbora]

if you can, it might be easier to get a copy of the water quality in your area first, just to see what the readings are
although i do not recommend it, i have heard of people using tap no problems because they happen to have pretty good water for tap
anyway gl

 

[demartini]

Originally Posted by BigWiz
should i drain it completely and do it with distilled water? or should i just wait it out?
I'm really not sure what you should do... I guess I wouldn't drain everything. Just wait it out.

 

[24#1]

if you can, have the water tested in school,there must be someone who can do that for you,if not the school must have a readout of the quility of the water,most school water systems are filtered through softeners to save on calcium buildup on the inside of the plumbing and heating systems.good luck

 

[m0nk]

I did the same thing at first but decided that it would be better to drain the whole tank and refill with RO water before cycling. I wouldn't neccessarily use distilled water because the distillation process removes all oxygen from the water. RO water is inexpensive and you can probably find it at a local grocery or Walmart. Hope that helps, good luck!

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by BigWiz
so im hoping it cant be all thattt bad......Any thoughts?
It completely depends on the tap water. It could be harmless or it could be deadly. You need to look up what impurities are in your tap water from the local water authority.

 

[jacksonpt]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
It completely depends on the tap water. It could be harmless or it could be deadly. You need to look up what impurities are in your tap water from the local water authority.
yea, what he said. Tap water varies greatly, and most people jump right into the "tap water is the death of your tank" mantra. I've used tap water before with pretty good results, but it totally depends. Tap water can indeed be the death of your tank, but it can also be just fine.

 

[bigwiz]

thanks for all the imput........im just gonna wait it out until i can find a water report for my area...should i be testing my tank for anything else or just let it sit with my powerhead on? and if my tap water is bad in my area...did i just mess up my liverock?

 

[blueram]

I have been using tap water since I set up my tank and so far it doing well. The tank has been running for 7 weeks now and there is hardly any algae in the tank and all the fish, invertebrates and corals are doing just fine. I think it all depends on how good your tap water is.
Cheers