Phosphate!

[nima]

My tab water has a phosphate level of .5 ppm. should I still go with RO water?

 

[nacl-h2o]

There are many unwanted contaminates in tap water besides phosphates. The RO unit will remove most of them.

 

[beth]

I used to use the RO bottled water sold by Publix, then took a reading of it and found that it had .5 phosphates! The Winn Dixie distilled bottled water has no phosphates, so I use that now.
Now, check out your salt mix, cause most I've tested so far, including Instant Ocean has .5. Red Sea, which is hard to get, has .0.

 

[burnnspy]

Dan the Man is right, most tap water has heavy metals dangerous to aquarium livestock. If your tank doesnt evaporate more then 5gal a week, then I recommend the Tap Water Purifier. The Purifier is easy to use, less expensive and has great results. I measured Instant Ocean at 0.3ppm PO4 and Reef Crystals at 0.5ppm PO4, same manufacturer. Phosphates of 0.5ppm is the recommended limit.
BurnNSpy

 

[sduda]

I've been using the distilled from Walmart and it always reads .1. I have been trying to figure out how to get this to 0 and have not been successful thus far.