Using Well Water

[ryanlee]

Hello, I'm pretty new to the hobby and I've been researching for about three months now. I have everything planed out to the nth degree however, I'm wondering how safe it would be to use well water. The water that I have is pretty much clean (no pollutants etc.) but it contains a fair amount of calcium. Could too much calcium be potentially hazardous to marine fish? Should I look into getting an RO unit?
thanks
Ryan

 

[phixer]

Most of the well water near my home contains high levels of heavy metals. If your well water contains a large amounts of calcium you might want to run it through a softener first. This will prolong the life of the RO/DI membranes.

 

[ryanlee]

Thanks for the reply. I was just wondering if it was possible to get by without using an RO unit. Those things can get really expensive.

 

[bang guy]

I wouldn't suggest it. The problem is that it's difficult to know the amount of Tin, Zinc, and Cadmium without expensive tests. You can test for Copper, Phosphate, and Silicate yourself but I'm pretty sure you'll be disappointed by the amount of Silicate that comes out of the typical well.