Natural Spring Water - ooops

[yourpalcm]

I don't have an RO/DI unit, but I do live practically next door to a natural spring water place, so I thought I would be doing better than tap water if I filled my new 75g tank with Natural Spring Water.
Now I'm reading that Spring Water can be worse than tap water.
I've done nothing else so far except add about 70g of spring water and mixed the salt in the tank. Should I remove it? What should I test for to see if it's as bad as some people have told me it could be for my tank?
I've tested for PO4 and there appears be SOME phosphates but the low end of the scale is so hard to tell...it might be zero, or it might be something ever so slightly more than zero or my eyes are just playing tricks on me because now I'm paranoid about this.
I've tested for NO3 and it's definitely zero.
What to do?????

 

[windmill]

If it's cycling, I wouldn't worry about anything. If you have fish in there, I'd do a noticable water change. If you have coral, they're probably already dead.
But you said "new tank" and "filled" so I guess this is just the initial fill? No problems there. When I set up a "new" tank, I usually mix R/O or distilled water with a good bit of tap. The first saltwater aquarium I had was filled with a hose. That housed nothing more delicate than sergeant major damsels so that was fine.
Just keep in mind which way you're going with your tank. If it's going to be an aggressive tank - don't worry about water quality so much. If you want inverts and corals - you're going to want to do a sizeable change down the line to high quality water. I've heard stories of people topping off their aggressive saltwater tanks with a gallon fresh from the sink (no additives, no waiting). This is of course discouraged, but sometimes you can get away with things you shouldn't.

 

[yourpalcm]

Originally Posted by windmill
If it's cycling, I wouldn't worry about anything. If you have fish in there, I'd do a noticable water change. If you have coral, they're probably already dead.
But you said "new tank" and "filled" so I guess this is just the initial fill? No problems there. When I set up a "new" tank, I usually mix R/O or distilled water with a good bit of tap. The first saltwater aquarium I had was filled with a hose. That housed nothing more delicate than sergeant major damsels so that was fine.
Just keep in mind which way you're going with your tank. If it's going to be an aggressive tank - don't worry about water quality so much. If you want inverts and corals - you're going to want to do a sizeable change down the line to high quality water. I've heard stories of people topping off their aggressive saltwater tanks with a gallon fresh from the sink (no additives, no waiting). This is of course discouraged, but sometimes you can get away with things you shouldn't.
I just emptied the tank. (Yes, I'm just starting so all I did was fill it about 70% of the way, and was about to add the sand and LR.) Now I need to decide to I bite the bullet and install an in-house RO/DI unit - I am NOT a plumber and so this idea doesn't appeal to me. OR, I just noticed that Wal-Mart down the road has a Culligan RO water dispencer. I think it was 33 cents/gallon.
This will be a FOWLR tank - no corals.
Thanks for your response, by the way.

 

[bbb]

Originally Posted by YourPalCM
I am NOT a plumber and so this idea doesn't appeal to me.
I bypassed this problem and got one off of the big auction site, that hooks up to the hose.

Lfs had one like it that went under the sink and was rated at 50 gallons a day for like $270ish. Mine hooks up to the hose and is rated at 75 gallons a day and I got it for $140 shipped.
When I filled my tank up I put the RO unit beside the tank and put the water right into the tank. Just had to take out waste water in 5 gallon buckets about every 15 minutes or so.

 

[yourpalcm]

Originally Posted by BBB
I bypassed this problem and got one off of the big auction site, that hooks up to the hose.

Lfs had one like it that went under the sink and was rated at 50 gallons a day for like $270ish. Mine hooks up to the hose and is rated at 75 gallons a day and I got it for $140 shipped.
When I filled my tank up I put the RO unit beside the tank and put the water right into the tank. Just had to take out waste water in 5 gallon buckets about every 15 minutes or so.
Hey, that would work. Can you tell me the brand and model number?

 

[bbb]

email me at billybobbozo13@yahoo.com
It's made by abundant water flow. They have it for $149 on their site. I guess they had it marked down a little on the auction site. I don't see a product number. They also have nicer ones but this one works just fine.