top off

damien2818

damien2818

Member
what type of water do you use for top off and why? i hear so manny things that i dont know what to belive anymore. i know that or system water is the best but i dont have that money yet....
 
mcbdz

mcbdz

Active Member

Only use RO and better yet RO/DI.You can get it from your lfs or out of those machines for water at the grocery stores if you can't afford your own system.
 
ameno

ameno

Active Member
I use only DI water for my tank. Reason being you want to get out as much of the TDS (totally disolved solids) as possible from you water before adding it to your tank. One of the biggest reasons is to help prevent algae growth
 
lexluethar

lexluethar

Active Member
You use RO/DI because 1)you want the purest water you can purchase and 2) because if you topped off with saltwater your salinity would continue to rise. Reason being your topping off your tank because water is evaporating. Salt does not evaporate, only the water.
Take that same scenario, and you want to top off with RO/DI because if you use tap water, your disolved solids will NOT evaporate, staying in the tank. Which is why people usually don't have tap water issues at first. After say a year of doing this the levels of solids still left in the tank will eventually get to a toxic level (time depends on the TDS levels in your tap).
Hope that helps.
 
damien2818

damien2818

Member
its more because a lote of people tell me that distilled bottle water is better but i belive ro bottle water is the bets but if you had to but a bottled water witch one will you buy??
 
lexluethar

lexluethar

Active Member
Neither, bottles water (purlife, nestle, etc) is WAY too expensive. Go to Walmart and purchase RO water for 40 cents a gallon.
 
niskyvaulter

niskyvaulter

Member
i dont have an ro/di yet. I plan on getting one for my 55g. what would be a good system for my needs? (i'm not trying to hijack, just seemed like a good place to ask)
 
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