No,No,No, tap water

notsonoob

notsonoob

Member
Copper will be in your tap water if you have copper pipes in your house. That is why it is recommended to not use distilled water as some processes use copper in distallation practices.
You need to realize that some places in Florida will get water from wells and some will get it from the Everglades and some will get it from Lake Ockachobee. Some of which is LOADED with phoshpates run off from agriculture, that would account for blooms of algae...
My city water is low Ph and I believe higher in Chlorine. My well is full of rust water.
I put in an RO filtration before I had aquariums and use it for all my aquarium water, except initial cycling where I just run the hose in to fill the tank.
Everybody has their ways about it.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by Pjlovesbaskets
http:///forum/post/2611664
$30, 000! We are really close to getting city water. Hopefully then I can get a RO system. I think I will wait and lug.

Booster pumps for RO systems aren't all that expensive if you wanted to run an RO off of your well.
 
pjlovesbaskets

pjlovesbaskets

Member
Thanks! I am concerned that it would get ruined with this rust since it clogs well pumps. Anyone know? Does this booster require professional installation or a good handyman?
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by Pjlovesbaskets
http:///forum/post/2611763
Thanks! I am concerned that it would get ruined with this rust since it clogs well pumps. Anyone know? Does this booster require professional installation or a good handyman?

A decent handyman could easily install it.
Ro units have a sediment prefilter that will trap particulates. You'll need to replace this sediment filter more often than for most people. I'd also recommend a flush kit.
 
soldier0117

soldier0117

Member
There is nearly no phosphate in my tap water and I'm on a well! My tap does just fine. I may get an RO/DI unit someday because yeah it is better and may help with algae a little bit, but I do not believe it is a necessity.
 
flricordia

flricordia

Active Member
Some will agree, some won't agree and some will use tap water and some won't. When I started reef keeping 15 years ago I used tap water and had one of the most awesome 20long tanks you would ever see in a nano tank.
Rock was Florida prime LR (no longer avilable now) full of Xmas tree worms. One morning they even spawned right in front of my eyes.
Then one evening not too long after I did a water change with the tap water I had used for the last year and though I treated it as always with clorine remover, within a half hour after doing the water change everything started dieing and with 2 hours I had a soupy mess. First the snails started dropping, then corals started melting and the fish finally died.
It this was on a weekend. On Monday that next week I found out the city had backflushed the system and though admitted to me that any one of many toxins could have leached into the tap water, the water was only human consumption, not for keeping reef tanks and though I filed a claim, it was rejected and I never did find out what had leached into the water and killed my tank off.
Needless to say I did not drink that cities water anymore and I do not use tap water in my reefs.
To each his own. Play Russian Roulette if you want, but not in my high dollar reefs, no sir.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by Flricordia
http:///forum/post/2612083
Some will agree, some won't agree and some will use tap water and some won't. When I started reef keeping 15 years ago I used tap water and had one of the most awesome 20long tanks you would ever see in a nano tank.
Rock was Florida prime LR (no longer avilable now) full of Xmas tree worms. One morning they even spawned right in front of my eyes.
Then one evening not too long after I did a water change with the tap water I had used for the last year and though I treated it as always with clorine remover, within a half hour after doing the water change everything started dieing and with 2 hours I had a soupy mess. First the snails started dropping, then corals started melting and the fish finally died.
It this was on a weekend. On Monday that next week I found out the city had backflushed the system and though admitted to me that any one of many toxins could have leached into the tap water, the water was only human consumption, not for keeping reef tanks and though I filed a claim, it was rejected and I never did find out what had leached into the water and killed my tank off.
Needless to say I did not drink that cities water anymore and I do not use tap water in my reefs.
To each his own. Play Russian Roulette if you want, but not in my high dollar reefs, no sir.
Great post!
I have a well and Town water. The Town water is all surface water and very clean... except in the spring. Agricultural runoff raises the PO4 level in the town water from 0.00ppm to 3.6ppm (right now). This stuff can be seasonal as well folks!!
My well water has huge concentrations of sulphur, PO4 and Nitrate.
And, just FYI, about half of the city water supplies have PO4 ADDED! to help prevent pipe corrosion.
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
I have to disagree also
I use tap water and i actually have less problems then when i used RO
i keep softees and lps in my 220 gallon reef
my water isnt as good as NYC' water ( im a native ny'er) im now in pennsylvania where the water taste horrible, it has chloramines, ammonia and 20 ppm nitrate straight from the tap, but it works for my tanks, corals are thriving and i never saw a cyano outbreak again. i condition with prime
no more RO for me, waste of time and money
4 yr old Beemo dont mind

 
loopy101

loopy101

Member
water i have noticed is a area of many many different opions! gotta find what works for you! i live in wisconsin. and in my city i dont know what any of the paras are but i wont drink the water taste to much like clorine and other stuff... but for my fish tank i drive about 10 miles to a drinking spring where the water taste crisp and clean! thats what i use in my fish tank. i am sure that by using this water it is possibleto run into problems with minerals in the water but so far my paras have been great! i dont have alot of fish or inverts though. i did have a prob with lower ph but it seemed to correct itself after a water change and putting different lights in. i dontknow what the problem was with the ph before or what fixed it for sure but will keep a close eye on it but this spring water has been doing great for me for 6 months now!
 
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