Tap, or Distilled H2O????

perryfish

perryfish

Member
Hey I am starting my new tank. I bought a multi-skimmer with UV light inside the skimmer. Only $149.00. Anyways I am setting it up with a 40lb bag of crushed coral. That should be enough to give me 3 to 3 1/2 inchins on the bottom.
But my question is do I use distilled or tap water??? In my 125 tank it is tap water, but this only is going to be 100% live. What would be the best thing to do.
Other notes I have custom ordered a light from Tropical Fish Acquatic Arts. It is a 42gal Hexigon tank. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.
Thanks
Perryfish
 
jerseysaltwater

jerseysaltwater

Member
avoid the crushed coral and go with aragonite reef sand - CC traps detritus, and it is a poor substrate in case you choose fish or inverts that like to burrow. distilled is better than tap water, but reverse-osmosis / de-ionized water is the absolute best way to go - salt water mixes are designed with that purest of waters in mind.
hope this helps - eddie
 
justinx

justinx

Active Member
A couple things. For starters, ditch the crushed coral and get some aragonite or southdown sand. You will be much happier in the longrun. A SW tank can be maintained and succesful with crushed coral, but IMO it is more labor intensive.
Secondly, definitely dont use tap water. I dont care what other people on this BB say or think, but I use nothing but reverse osmosis water. Never have and never will use tap. Distilled is good as well, but you have to be careful with distilled water, sometimes the bottle says distilled, but this does not guarentee that it is pure water like RO.
What exactly is a multi skimmer? Do you have a link or picture of it? I am curious to see what this is.
HTH
Justin
 
perryfish

perryfish

Member
Ohh thanks for the water tip and another ?.
Can I mix the crushed coral w/ the sand or would that be stupid?
 
justinx

justinx

Active Member
Well, it wouldnt be stupid, but not a great idea. What will happen is the larger pieces of CC will rise to the surface of the sand bed and just bury the sand. As far as functionality of a DSB it wont hurt anything, but it wont look nearly as nice IMO.
Justin
 
aaronw78

aaronw78

Member
I agree with justin. I added sand to my CC and now it just looks like CC again. All this sand went to the bottom. Only now I can't vacuum it or I'll suck the sand out. Places where the sand still show aways look cleaner, so someday I want to remove the CC and add more sand.
 
jarvis

jarvis

Member
I would look into purchasing RO or RO/DI filter. Welcome to the board. You got 12 post so I will give you a heads up. Dont listen to Bob.:p
 
stillfrodo

stillfrodo

Member
First thing I did was invest in RO/DI unit. When considering the amount of money you spend on this hobby it really was almost insignificant. You can find some great deals on these units if you look around. My levels of nitrates are<5ppm since topping off and using RO/DI water to prepare my aged saltwater for changes. And phosphates are non exsistent. A absolute must for this hobby. IMO The whole idea of water changes is to lower nitrates phos etc. Why take it out when you are just going to replace nitrate laden water with nitrate laden water if you use tap.
 
perryfish

perryfish

Member
Thanks....
I'll have to look into getting one. I heard about them but it somehow never crossed my mind for this tank. Thanks again..
Perryfish
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
perry fish: tap water is fine for saltwater tanks. The money saved by not buying processed water or water processors is better spent on larger systems, better filtration, refugiums, and macro algae/marine plants.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
This Ignore feature works pretty well:D . I don't know what he said but I'm sure it's false, irresponsible and/or just plan bad advice.
 
jeo

jeo

Member
stillfrodo- I recognize your Avatar from The Far Side! :D
I, unlike the majority, have been successful with tap water, but I think that is due to good water where I live and all of the nitrate and phosphate consuming macro algae in my refugium. I wouldn't reccomend this option for everyone, and in your case I think and RO/DI unit would probably be a good investment.
 
dreeves

dreeves

Active Member
Now that is an excellent way to give that advice Jeo...not that it matters coming from myself...but good job.
 
leboeuf

leboeuf

Member
CC is NOT a bad substrate, however it will most likely not work if you are considering DSB. there are other alternatives too.
ecosystems.com for a truely maintanence free set up. You don't have to buy all there products, you can build your own to cut lots of cost, my suggestion at least.
 
jeo

jeo

Member

Originally posted by dreeves
Now that is an excellent way to give that advice Jeo...
thanks dreeves, I think it is always important to remember not only what works for you , but why it works for you as well when giving advice.
Just because tap water has been fine in my system does not mean it is fine in everyones system. There are reasons for that, and those reasons are an integral part of the advice.
 
stillfrodo

stillfrodo

Member
Your right about your post. I tested the the nitrates and phosphates in my tap water and they were thru the roof. I have excellent quality water comes from a million year old aquifier. Just not conducive to a reef tank. I just couldn't see replacing trates with possibly more trates. I really want to succeed so I did a little investing in this RO/DI unit. So far so good. Like I said RO/DI is way to go IMO.. Later all
 
overanalyzer

overanalyzer

Active Member
perryfish - I would suggest having your local water tested if you want to go with tap water. Personally I would not run the risk. I use an RO filter.
If you set up a tank with a crushed coral substrate then you will have to vacum it every couple of weeks. You could also go with a barebottom tank (personally don't like these) or a sand bed - either deep or shallow. A deep sand bed is from 4-6" of aragonite play sand. You can either buy all live sand from teh LFS or try to get your hand on aragonite play sand from south down.
Good luck and do lots of research and be sure to find lots of opinions and not go with just one opinion. Because that one may just seem like the easiest advice but it is most likely wrong (say - for instance - beaslbob)......
 
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