Water questions

[bartman]

I live in an area where water comes from deep water wells. My own personal well is well over 150 ft in the ground. I had a long talk with my culligan man. I asked him about the ro filters. He informed me that although the ro filter will remove some things it will not change the hardness of the water. Which BTW is the only real problem with my water. My well water has a pH of about 7.7 . I understand that most members of this board have "city" water and the additives are quite harmfull. I dont have the additives to contend with here. I dont have copper in any of my plumbing. Although i will be testing for copper soon. Why would it be a bad idea for me to use plain old well water for my reef/fish tank?
Another option i had considered is getting filtered ocean water from a local research facility that has all the good filters. ( shoot they crank out about 1000 gallons for the kiddies in school shows. Why not my tank ) But i live in upper virginia real close to maryland and i would think that my sea water is not quite the same as the sea water where my future fishies to be will have come from.
Seems to me if i read enough stuff on these boards i end up not liking ANY of my options because the opinions are so varied. So, LOL, what is your opinion?
Bartman
<img src="graemlins//angel.gif" border="0" alt="[angel]" />

 

[mr . salty]

If at all possible you should avoid using well water...There are minerals,and bacteria that your well water will have that could cause real problems down the line..Regardless of what your so called "water expert"said,RO/DI filtered water is the BEST choice for a marine tank....But is I had the chance to get that filtered ocean water you spoke of,I think I would be using that,and buying bottled RO for top offs...

 

[bluemarlin]

I've taken a deep breath before replying here because I do not want to give poor advice. I've decided to let you decide.
This is what I do. I have a 180 gallon tank. When it was new, about 7 months ago, it was filled with about 25% from an existing tank and 75% of water from my well. I have used the well water for all water changes and for top offs. So far, so good. My fish seem healthy. My hermits, snails and shrimp are thriving. One thing though: I have noticed that my annenomes are not completely in love with my water. I do run about 20 ppm nitrates which I cannot seem to get lower but my ammonia and nitrites are 0 ppm. My PH seems to run a little on the high side at around 8.6-8.8. This is a concern.
If you have the choice, go with the RO water or the sea water. I must admit that even I am thinking about re-hooking the RO unit I had at my old home into my new well water home. In fact, since I have it in a box, I am being stupid by not hooking it up yet. I am a big believer in "if it ain't broke don't fix it". So far I have had no problems. I admit it spooks me a bit and some say I am waiting for disaster but I don't lose many creatures.
These are just my rambling thoughts on a Tuesday morning. I hope it made sense!