Tap Water!!!

benihuma

benihuma

Member
Background:
My tank has been set up for 8 months now, and for the first 7 months I used tap water for changes and top-offs. I experienced really bad algae. I am now using RO water.
My Question:
Will the contaminents from the tap water eventually fade away? Since switching, I've done a 10 gallon Ro change and topped off all with RO. My filtration is excellent so for the most part I just top off. Will the phosphates and silicates slowly vanquish themselves from my tank?
Ben
 
deuce_bigalo

deuce_bigalo

Member
I could be wrong but I think the phosephates will not just go away.
What are your phosphates at ?
If they are super high you could get phosogaurd by kent marine but if used in large quantities will harm your leathers (if this is a reef tank)
Do you have any leather corals in your tank ?
and I dont know about silicates
 
benihuma

benihuma

Member
No corals here, AFOWLR. Not sure on the phosphate reading. I think the algae that grows consumes it, and then my lawnmower blenny eats the algae. I'm thinking sooner or later the algae will deplete the tank of phosphates.
Ben
 
deuce_bigalo

deuce_bigalo

Member
seems to me it would be faster and better to get the phosogaurd and take care of it now.
Once you use the phosogaurd and get the phosphate down it should stay down unless you overfeed or use tap water with phosphates in it!
 
jimi

jimi

Active Member
The more water changes you do the faster the phosphates will go away if the source of the phosphates is your tap water.
 
chrismilano

chrismilano

Member
RO water is purified water from a reverse osmosis water filtration system. DI water is water from a water deionizer. They remove chloine, phosphantes, etc from crappy tap water. Ive seen great systems new on ---- as low at $270 or $350 retail.
 
carrie

carrie

Member
Question: when you used tap water for your water changes did you add a "declorinator" to your tap water? I had the same problem you are talking about. My LFS said to add a declorinator to my tap water for some reason my tap water had to many contaminents and it was recommended either I switch to RO water (you can find this at your local grocery store) or some LFS provide RO water for you.
For a few months I continued to use the tap water adding the declorinator, then it was too much of a bother so I switched to RO water and slowly, over time, the more water changes I did, the phosphate lowered themselves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top