Poll How did you fill your saltwater aquarium?

azocean709

azocean709

Member
Originally Posted by ReefNut
The thing with tap water is it different across the country, town to town and even sometimes house to house. If you have success with tap water then good for you!! BUT it's ALWAYS better to use purified water... that way there is no question of it's quality. Obviously the water we put into our aquariums is very important to the overall health of the system... and there's more things to worry about then algae.
Look up your city water quality report here
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html
If you can not find your water company's report online then you can go to the water treatment plant and they will give you a copy of their report.
ReefNut is absolutly correct.!
 
J

jcrim

Guest
For smaller tanks, I liked using *****'s real ocean water. A little more difficult for bigger tanks so RO/DI.
 
watertight

watertight

Member
Just to be different, I use natural sea water. $2.00 for 5 or 6 US gals from my lfs. Top ups with distilled or purified tap water when i run out.
 
michelle l

michelle l

Member
Okay, so here is my question....
I have a 125 gal, fish only with a few inverts....so which is the lesser of the evils? I don't have (nor can I afford at the moment) an R/O unit, so I am forced to go to Wal-Mart and buy gallon jugs of distilled water for my water changes. This causes me to put off water changes longer than I should, and also make smaller ones than I would like. (usually about 18-20 gallons every month, which isn't enough) It's a HUGE hassle to lug all of that water home. I can't buy an R/O unit right now because a good skimmer is next on my list of purchases after christmas.
Would it be more beneficial to my system to do more regular water changes with tap water? Or stick to the less frequent distilled water changes?
In answer to the OP's question, we filled our tank with distilled water.
 
azocean709

azocean709

Member
Originally Posted by Michelle L
Okay, so here is my question....
I have a 125 gal, fish only with a few inverts....so which is the lesser of the evils? I don't have (nor can I afford at the moment) an R/O unit, so I am forced to go to Wal-Mart and buy gallon jugs of distilled water for my water changes. This causes me to put off water changes longer than I should, and also make smaller ones than I would like. (usually about 18-20 gallons every month, which isn't enough) It's a HUGE hassle to lug all of that water home. I can't buy an R/O unit right now because a good skimmer is next on my list of purchases after christmas.
Would it be more beneficial to my system to do more regular water changes with tap water? Or stick to the less frequent distilled water changes?
In answer to the OP's question, we filled our tank with distilled water.
i don't know how your walmart is where you are from...but i bought 2 5 gallon water jugs and can fill them for 25 cents a gallon with RO ....costs me $2.50 to fill both to do my WC and have left over for TO. hmmm i did one time have to go to the winndixie and get 15 gallon of Distilled...in the one gallon jugs...that sucked...and the looks on peoples faces was priceless....LMAO to answer your question of WC. if your perameters are good ,i would stick with the less frequent distilled water changes. have you tested your tap water? if not...could be bad juju...i would stick with the distilled or RO. better for your tank.
 
skiutah

skiutah

Member
A garden hose and hard water from outside. I top off with RODI water. Have done lots of water changes with RODI since startup.
 
michelle l

michelle l

Member
Originally Posted by AzOcean709
i don't know how your walmart is where you are from...but i bought 2 5 gallon water jugs and can fill them for 25 cents a gallon with RO ....costs me $2.50 to fill both to do my WC and have left over for TO. hmmm i did one time have to go to the winndixie and get 15 gallon of Distilled...in the one gallon jugs...that sucked...and the looks on peoples faces was priceless....LMAO to answer your question of WC. if your perameters are good ,i would stick with the less frequent distilled water changes. have you tested your tap water? if not...could be bad juju...i would stick with the distilled or RO. better for your tank.
I read here that the R/O water at Wal-Mart (or any store) might not be any better than tap water due to the fact that they rarely change the filters. Opinons?
You should have seen the managers face when we said we wanted 100 1-gallon jugs of water. Classic!!!!!
 
shu-perman

shu-perman

Member
I am lucky to have a LFS Jeff's(same as online) around the corner from my house that sells filtered ocean water that they buy from Scripts Institute....I use their RO water for top offs....
 
shu-perman

shu-perman

Member
Originally Posted by AUFishman
Generally only the hot water lines are copper pipes.
That is an untrue statement....it all depends on your local building codes...in Cali all water lines are in copper...some older homes 1970's and older have galvanized for both hot and cold...and our tap water here SUX
 
aufishman

aufishman

Member
Originally Posted by AzOcean709
i don't know how your walmart is where you are from...but i bought 2 5 gallon water jugs and can fill them for 25 cents a gallon with RO ....costs me $2.50 to fill both to do my WC and have left over for TO. hmmm i did one time have to go to the winndixie and get 15 gallon of Distilled...in the one gallon jugs...that sucked...and the looks on peoples faces was priceless....LMAO to answer your question of WC. if your perameters are good ,i would stick with the less frequent distilled water changes. have you tested your tap water? if not...could be bad juju...i would stick with the distilled or RO. better for your tank.
Tap water has to meet federal guidelines. City water undergoes constant and rigorous testing to maintain safe standards. The fed’s guidelines for maximum allowable levels of nitrates aren’t going to harm most healthy fish. Speaking for my tap water, it tests significantly lower than the maximum allowable levels (10% or less of the allowable concentrations). From the tone of some of these posts an uninformed observer would be lead to think that tap water was poison.
 
aufishman

aufishman

Member
Originally Posted by Shu-perman
That is an untrue statement....it all depends on your local building codes...in Cali all water lines are in copper...some older homes 1970's and older have galvanized for both hot and cold...and our tap water here SUX

You're probably right on the local codes. However, where I'm from. Generally, I only see copper on the hot water lines. On the newer homes now all the lines are PVC.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by AUFishman
Tap water has to meet federal guidelines. City water undergoes constant and rigorous testing to maintain safe standards. The fed’s guidelines for maximum allowable levels of nitrates aren’t going to harm most healthy fish. Speaking for my tap water, it tests significantly lower than the maximum allowable levels (10% or less of the allowable concentrations). From the tone of some of these posts an uninformed observer would be lead to think that tap water was poison.
Not the point... many of the things that we drink can build up to toxic levels in our tanks.
 
hagfish

hagfish

Active Member
Originally Posted by AUFishman
Tap water has to meet federal guidelines. City water undergoes constant and rigorous testing to maintain safe standards. The fed’s guidelines for maximum allowable levels of nitrates aren’t going to harm most healthy fish. Speaking for my tap water, it tests significantly lower than the maximum allowable levels (10% or less of the allowable concentrations). From the tone of some of these posts an uninformed observer would be lead to think that tap water was poison.
Ummm, safe standards for what? Or better is whom? They aren't trying to make safe standards for saltwater animals. I know of people who had measurable amounts of ammonia in their tap. You can't tell me that's doing the fish any good.
Bottom line is, even a 20 gallon tank tends to cost about $1000 or better to complete. Why not pay $100 or so to have the assurance that an expensive investment like this is under your control, not the water company.
And for those who are buying their water from the store, why not just go buy the ro unit and save some money in the long run. I bought my ro water from the store for about 6 months and I probably could have bought 3 ro units with how much I ended up buying.
 
azocean709

azocean709

Member
Originally Posted by hagfish
Ummm, safe standards for what? Or better is whom? They aren't trying to make safe standards for saltwater animals. I know of people who had measurable amounts of ammonia in their tap. You can't tell me that's doing the fish any good.
Bottom line is, even a 20 gallon tank tends to cost about $1000 or better to complete. Why not pay $100 or so to have the assurance that an expensive investment like this is under your control, not the water company.
And for those who are buying their water from the store, why not just go buy the ro unit and save some money in the long run. I bought my ro water from the store for about 6 months and I probably could have bought 3 ro units with how much I ended up buying.
you are correct...and a Ro unit is one of the things on my little list of goodies!!!
***)
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
I'm Kinda sold on RO, but I'm not here to sell you a filter...
I'm here to talk philosophy...
Way I see it you have two choices at this point...
1. Get an RO Filtration system right off the bat, Deal with sediment issues, a couple "staged" pre-filters (of finer and finer micron level and/or carbon) will take care of that...or
2.Start and run the tank on Tap/well water and "see" what happens....
Thinking this thru...You'll have basically two results...
1. Everything is fine tank runs smoothly, fish and coral stay healthy and thrive, no algae builds up no diatom or cyno issues plague you every one comes over to "admire" your tank...or
2.Slowly over time (or not so slowly...like the first 8 weeks) you notice a brown sludge growing in your tank, fish get Ick, corals shrivel, crabs abandon their shells and purple slime starts creeping up the side of the tank walls...People stop coming over (and your glad because of the embarrasment)...
So you come to the fish Boards looking for advise...and you get two responces...
1. "Do you run RO...?"...."Good" that eliminates a majority of the problems. issues and contaminants from source water and we can focus on filtration, lighting and husbandry...should be an easy fix...
2. "Do you run RO...?"..."NO??!!??" "Aw Man.. theres no telling what's wrong with your tank and who knows what kind of toxins have built up over time!!" Going to have to tear it all down QT every thing in separate Tupperware and start the WHOLE thing over...Throw out the rock and bake the sand in you kitchen oven for a week.....
So you can see its really all about choices and willingness to accept the concequenses....
It's not "What's in your water"... but "What's inside you.."....
 
azocean709

azocean709

Member
Originally Posted by Squidd
I'm Kinda sold on RO, but I'm not here to sell you a filter...
I'm here to talk philosophy...
Way I see it you have two choices at this point...
1. Get an RO Filtration system right off the bat, Deal with sediment issues, a couple "staged" pre-filters (of finer and finer micron level and/or carbon) will take care of that...or
2.Start and run the tank on Tap/well water and "see" what happens....
Thinking this thru...You'll have basically two results...
1. Everything is fine tank runs smoothly, fish and coral stay healthy and thrive, no algae builds up no diatom or cyno issues plague you every one comes over to "admire" your tank...or
2.Slowly over time (or not so slowly...like the first 8 weeks) you notice a brown sludge growing in your tank, fish get Ick, corals shrivel, crabs abandon their shells and purple slime starts creeping up the side of the tank walls...People stop coming over (and your glad because of the embarrasment)...
So you come to the fish Boards looking for advise...and you get two responces...
1. "Do you run RO...?"...."Good" that eliminates a majority of the problems. issues and contaminants from source water and we can focus on filtration, lighting and husbandry...should be an easy fix...
2. "Do you run RO...?"..."NO??!!??" "Aw Man.. theres no telling what's wrong with your tank and who knows what kind of toxins have built up over time!!" Going to have to tear it all down QT every thing in separate Tupperware and start the WHOLE thing over...Throw out the rock and bake the sand in you kitchen oven for a week.....
So you can see its really all about choices and willingness to accept the concequenses....
It's not "What's in your water"... but "What's inside you.."....
Now THAT is a good way to put it..."Bravo"!!
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
Originally Posted by AzOcean709
Now THAT is a good way to put it..."Bravo"!!

That's my "Soft Sell" approach...
Usually, I just grab people by the back of the neck, and Bang their head against the corner of their tank, Screaming "RO"..."RO"..."RO"... Till they get the message...
 
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