Is Tap Water Bad?

bigsteve

bigsteve

Member
Not to swell bob's head up or anything, but me and 2 of my friends use tap water, and all of our tanks are doing great. (Except the tank that had the broken thermometer and crashed.... but that had nothing to do with the water source).
Me and one friend have FOWLR set-ups, and my other friend has a 55g reef setup, and his tank looks great IMO. But, we've also tested our tap water, and it's suprisingly good. I do plan on eventually getting a RO/DI unit, but not until I get a huge tank and try my hand at reefs. (In other words, it's not on my priority list)
But, here's the fun part (get ready bob).... none of us have plantlife, other than micro's. No fuge's, no macro's, no plants. And my water stays clear and my fish are happy. I guess it's just a matter of where you're from, and how good the water is. If my tapwater had too many chemicals in it though, I'd definitely stock up on the RO/DI water...
 
cincyreefer

cincyreefer

Active Member
IGNORANCE!! Do you have any idea what Fe does to coral? Nonsense! I think there should be a sticky warning people of this kind of nonsense
What does iron do to coral? I have researched this before but am curious to know exactly what you mean here.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by cincyreefer
What does iron do to coral?
I do not believe Iron is a problem in reef tanks. Could be, I've never seen a problem with it. My concern would be that if there's Iron there is a pretty good chance there are other metals in excess, especially copper and zinc.
 
schneidts

schneidts

Active Member
I should have clarified. I was mainly reffering to the invader organisms and pathogens feuled by Iron. I do not know where levels of Iron become a problem...
 
beckzilla

beckzilla

Member
Just my 2 cents worth on this. I too dont have a problem with beaslbob using his own techniques but he should keep them to himself and not cram it down newbies throats. I am glad i didnt listen to his posts when i was starting out as i would still be trying to get it started successfully. Thanks to the great advice from Bang and Kip and the rest i have a very thriving tank and am very happy with it. The nonsense that bob spews is very detrimental to the newbies as they dont know any better and are just trying to start out the right way the first time. An example of bobs propaganda is i just found him on another thread telling a newbie to go ahead and add 2 delicate fish now even though his ammonia is at .50 and of course he told them to add plant life and you will be fine. I second the motion for a board vote on his membership!:D
 
beckzilla

beckzilla

Member
schneidts, having been in the know of the water industry and a long time experience with ground water problems as it pertains to contamination by a large oil company and many years of RO use i can assure you that there is no known method to closely duplicate Ro water other then by RO production itself. what ever other methods are out there would only mask the original problems in the used water. Hope this helps.
:D
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member

Originally posted by Beckzilla
...
An example of bobs propaganda is i just found him on another thread telling a newbie to go ahead and add 2 delicate fish now even though his ammonia is at .50 and of course he told them to add plant life and you will be fine. I second the motion for a board vote on his membership!:D
Care to show us the evidence? how about posting a link here.
How about asking me directly why I posted that.
Here was my actual reply with pictures that showed An aquarium pharm... ammonia kit at .25 and just one step up on the nitrItes test kit:
1) get the live seaweed thriving. put some in another container to make sure you always have some growing (fish like to eat it)
2) let the nitrItes come down the the clear light blue. It looks a little dark in the picture.
3) add a small fish and don't feed it for a week. (actually don't add food). It may very well ignore your added food for a day. With the bioload reduced by limiting the added food, the aerobic bacteria can estabish itself very quickly (like in 3-4 days for the nitrItes spike). And the fish will find things to eat in the tank and therefore not be starving.
Looks to me like alot different from what you posted.
Do you even care why that advice would work?
Probably not. But at least you can represent my posts accurately.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by Beckzilla
I second the motion for a board vote on his membership!:D
I don't really want Beaslbob off the board. I just want him to stop telling new hobbiests that RO/DI water is detrimental to saltwater aquariums and they need to use Tap water.
This is my major beef.
OTOH it would be nice if he would also give both sides of the "plant life" story instead of the cure-all theory.
 
beckzilla

beckzilla

Member
Hey bob, your exact words from the other thread: let the nitrItes go to 0.0.
Add plant life.
add the fish but don't feed for a week. What about the ammonia level. Are you saying it is OK to add fish even if the ammonia is not at zero?? Take a careful look at the pic of the ammonia test. It is showing .50. Too high IMO. And why did you post that? You didnt mention not to add fish until ammonia is 0.
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member

Originally posted by Beckzilla
Hey bob, your exact words from the other thread: let the nitrItes go to 0.0.
Add plant life.
add the fish but don't feed for a week. What about the ammonia level. Are you saying it is OK to add fish even if the ammonia is not at zero?? Take a careful look at the pic of the ammonia test. It is showing .50. Too high IMO. And why did you post that? You didnt mention not to add fish until ammonia is 0.
You see beck that is not what i said. and you are correct ammonia of .5 ppm is too high. But then that is not what i said.
Now carefully think abut the post and all three steps.
then if you don't understand I will tell you why it will work.
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member

Originally posted by Beckzilla
bob, those words i got directly from your first post on the other thread.
here is my first post:
let the nitrItes go to 0.0.
Add plant life.
add the fish but don't feed for a week.
hth
The second post just elaborated.
Again care to know why either would work? especially being as he "I have some kinda plant life... I don't know what it is... Some kinda seaweed" in there as he posted between the two posts.
 
beckzilla

beckzilla

Member
Ok, you just told me that you said something that first you said you didnt say. You didnt answer my questions yet on why you told someone to add fish when the ammonia was still high. And yes ,for the second time please explain to me why your comments will work.
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member

Originally posted by Beckzilla
Ok, you just told me that you said something that first you said you didnt say. You didnt answer my questions yet on why you told someone to add fish when the ammonia was still high. And yes ,for the second time please explain to me why your comments will work.

Between the two posts they stated they already have plant life. But with or without added plant life 1) get the plant life thriving and 2) get the nitrites down to 0.0. (in any order)
Real easy to understand. Plant life consumes ammonia. With existing plant life the most important thing to do is get that thriving. That way ammonia, nitrates, phosphates, and carbon dioxide are being rapidly consumed plus toxins and heavy metals are being filtered out. Under extreme conditions well beyond any tap water source, the toxins and/or heavy metals will slow/kill the plant life. So by the time the plant life is thriving, the water has been filtered of toxins to where fish can live. Getting the nitrItes down to 0.0 insures the ammonia is 0.0. So the false positives of the aquarium pharm... is not in the picture. In fact with a thriving plant life and nitrItes at 0.0 after a spike, there is no need to even test for ammonia.
Add a single fish and don't feed for a week:
Insures that even if the biological filtration can not handle the large increase in bioload, that bioload is as low as possible. So if the fish is not eating, food is not added to rot at the bottom of the tank, further stressing the system. If the fish is eating, there is plenty of plant life for it to explore, eat, or eat pods or other things hiding in the plant life. With a new cycle kicked off, the ammonia will be directly consumed by the now thriving plant life. The reduced ammonia feeding the nitrItes cycle will result in a very short if any nitrIte spike. The nitrIte spike under the worse conditions will last at most 4 days before returning to 0.0. Then the aerobic bacteria builds up and more ammonia is converted to nitrites. At that point the plant life resumes consuming more nitrAtes than ammonia. So that eventually ammonia and nitrItes are 0.0 and the nitrates are being consumed by the plant life. The plant life then grows and nitrAtes also return to 0.0. and all the while, the thriving plant life is consuming the carbon dioxide the fish generates.
But if you do not get the plant life thriving or say have added cleaner crews to eat the "ugly" algaes then the above process breaks down. If the bacteria had not sufficiently buildup then ammonia spikes the tests endangering the fish. If the fish is being fed and especially if that fish is under the ammonia stress, the nitrItes spike can and does last weeks. And in the process the carbon dioxide from the fish is not being consumed by the reduced, controlled, and/or eliminated plant life.
Therefore, the safest things to do is:
1) get a thriving plant life established.
2) get the nitrItes down to 0.0
3) add a single fish and don't feed it for a week.
I hope you understand the logic now.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
HOLY CRAP!!! Duuuuuuz this mean we USE tap water or not?? What happened to the topic?? Quite enjoyable, but it's not answering anything. Get an ro/di, Your tap may or may not be sufficient... but I've NEVER heard anybody ask if they should "get rid" of their unit because their tap may be ok. Some believe in trial & error, but when 2 corals cost about as much as an r/o unit... why test it? It would be, in my opinion, one of the only purchases that you won't wish to change, upgrage, alter, add to, etc. (unless you get an r/o without the d/i... like me...
)
 
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