soulsigma
Member
Why you shouldn't use tap water
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If you're thinking about setting up a marine aquarium you will no doubt be encountering no end of questions and plenty of decisions that need making. One of those questions may be, Can i use tap water in my tank? Hopefully reading on will answer that question for you...
What's so important about water then?
Marine fish have a reputation for being temperamental in comparison to other types of fish. The sea is the most stable Eco-system on the planet and is able to keep its water parameters perfect for the creatures that live there. Your tank will become a mini Eco-system of its own, so it is only fair to replicate the environment as closely as possible by using only the best quality water you can. After all, why spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on setting up your tank, to use water which falls far short of the natural properties of sea water.
Natural Sea Water (NSW) contains hundreds of elements that are suspended throughout the water column and are essential to the well being of the animals that live there. Elements such as Iodine, Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, Strontium, Boron, Potassium etc. These levels rarely change by substantial amounts meaning these creatures are used to specific consistent water parameters day in day out.
What does tap water contain that's so bad?
You may think that ordinary tap water is quite ok to use as we drink and bathe in it every day, but in reality you will find no end of un-desirables that, while not harmful to us in the doses that are present, they simply aren't suited to a reef tank.
When farmers grow crops they use fertiliser to help them grow. These fertilisers contain high concentrations of Nitrates and Phosphates, when it rains the fertiliser can get washed in to our local water supply. These are not removed because they're not harmful to us but in a reef tank they can be devastating. One of the constant battles for the reefer is removing these two unwanted organics, we certainly don't need to be adding them directly.
Whilst the water is being piped through to your home its likely to pick up other elements from the pipes its travelling through as well such as copper, a metal which has catastrophic effects in a reef tank, fatal to invertebrates it kills anything living within an exoskeleton. The quality of your water will also vary dependant upon the time of the year meaning it would be very difficult to make consistent batches of saltwater for your water changes.
All this means is that the fish, coral and inverts you're planning on keeping, put simply, are not used to having these unnecessarily added elements present. this means they're not good elements to be adding to your tank. For example ammonia, nitrites and nitrate are all toxic to marine life in varying degrees and most invertebrates are incredibly sensitive to copper. The tiniest amount in your tank is enough to kill them. Algae feeds on phosphates and nitrates, the higher these levels are, the worse your algae situation can be (see pictures) which has a knock on result and will make your PH levels unstable.
The manufacturers of the major brand salt labels we commonly use, design the salt to be used with RO water. The reason they do this, is because our tap water supply is so inconsistent, it would be impossible for them to know how much of each of the trace elements to put in to the salt so that when we mix our water, the results would have the same properties as natural sea water. You would never be able to keep your water parameters stable, which is your No.1 objective really. This leads us to Reverse Osmosis......
This tank was setup with tap water. Note the algae covering the rocks as well as the sand.
[hr]
If you're thinking about setting up a marine aquarium you will no doubt be encountering no end of questions and plenty of decisions that need making. One of those questions may be, Can i use tap water in my tank? Hopefully reading on will answer that question for you...
What's so important about water then?
Marine fish have a reputation for being temperamental in comparison to other types of fish. The sea is the most stable Eco-system on the planet and is able to keep its water parameters perfect for the creatures that live there. Your tank will become a mini Eco-system of its own, so it is only fair to replicate the environment as closely as possible by using only the best quality water you can. After all, why spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on setting up your tank, to use water which falls far short of the natural properties of sea water.
Natural Sea Water (NSW) contains hundreds of elements that are suspended throughout the water column and are essential to the well being of the animals that live there. Elements such as Iodine, Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, Strontium, Boron, Potassium etc. These levels rarely change by substantial amounts meaning these creatures are used to specific consistent water parameters day in day out.
What does tap water contain that's so bad?
You may think that ordinary tap water is quite ok to use as we drink and bathe in it every day, but in reality you will find no end of un-desirables that, while not harmful to us in the doses that are present, they simply aren't suited to a reef tank.
When farmers grow crops they use fertiliser to help them grow. These fertilisers contain high concentrations of Nitrates and Phosphates, when it rains the fertiliser can get washed in to our local water supply. These are not removed because they're not harmful to us but in a reef tank they can be devastating. One of the constant battles for the reefer is removing these two unwanted organics, we certainly don't need to be adding them directly.
Whilst the water is being piped through to your home its likely to pick up other elements from the pipes its travelling through as well such as copper, a metal which has catastrophic effects in a reef tank, fatal to invertebrates it kills anything living within an exoskeleton. The quality of your water will also vary dependant upon the time of the year meaning it would be very difficult to make consistent batches of saltwater for your water changes.
All this means is that the fish, coral and inverts you're planning on keeping, put simply, are not used to having these unnecessarily added elements present. this means they're not good elements to be adding to your tank. For example ammonia, nitrites and nitrate are all toxic to marine life in varying degrees and most invertebrates are incredibly sensitive to copper. The tiniest amount in your tank is enough to kill them. Algae feeds on phosphates and nitrates, the higher these levels are, the worse your algae situation can be (see pictures) which has a knock on result and will make your PH levels unstable.
The manufacturers of the major brand salt labels we commonly use, design the salt to be used with RO water. The reason they do this, is because our tap water supply is so inconsistent, it would be impossible for them to know how much of each of the trace elements to put in to the salt so that when we mix our water, the results would have the same properties as natural sea water. You would never be able to keep your water parameters stable, which is your No.1 objective really. This leads us to Reverse Osmosis......
This tank was setup with tap water. Note the algae covering the rocks as well as the sand.
