Culligan water question

[ankjones]

I am still new to the game with a ton of questions (as everybody knows) and I bought culligan water from walmart (the kind you pour yourself out of a machine, and you can come back for refills), it says it is filtered, carbon filtered, reverse osmosised, and UV treated. This sounds like good water to me, so I purchased 5 gal. I tested the PH from the jug and got such a low reading it wasnt on my scale, the water turned yellow, and light green on my scale is 7.4. I was wonding if that was safe to add to my water for evaporation purposes? Then I added the salt I use (Instant Ocean, is that a good salt?) and tested again and got a PH of about 8.2, is that ok to add also?

Thanks

 

[jman785]

Some pH tests are for say 6.5-7.5, and some are for say 7.5-8.5. This can pose a problem with some tests if you don't catch them.

IO salt is good salt I suppose...but switching salts, has posed a problem for MANY reefers in the past.

 

[NaH2O]

jman785 - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!

ankjones - since you live in the same city as I do - it is a good idea to not use our city's water in your tank (the TDS reading on my water prior to RO/DI process is ~497 sometimes in the 500s). Depending on where the Culligan water originated from, and the rejection rates of the RO filters they used the water may or may not contain silicates and phosphates. Now, with the pH, the salt mix (whichever you chose - IO has been used by many for a long time) will change the pH. In your nano, do you know about how much you are evaporating a day? I'm not sure it would make a difference before your next water change. You don't want big swings in pH (or anything for that matter) in your tank, so I would monitor that. Any nano keepers with some thoughts?

 

[Curtswearing]

For top-off, only use freshwater. Don't add salt to it to raise the pH.

Since your nano-tank is very small, it is important to top-off daily....don't wait a couple of days and then top-off. Doing so would cause a major swing in salinity, temperature, and pH.

Since the bottom level of your pH test kit is 7.4, either your test kit can't read in freshwater (not all kits can) or your Culligan water is nuetral at 7.0 which is below the bottom reading for your kit.

It sounds like pretty good water to me other than the fact that since it is intended for drinking, it hasn't gone through the deionization process. Many online dealers sell something called a Tap Water Purifier (made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals) which is basically a DI unit. I would check the sponsors link at the top of the page. Normally TWP's are very expensive to use for marine tanks because the resins are hit with so many impurities that they clog up quickly. That Culligan water sounds pretty clean so I would think it would last a while.

 

[ankjones]

my evaporation rate is pretty minimal, i've been running for a week today, and yesterday was the first addition I made with 1/2 qt of water.

Also, is it safe to add cured rock to my tank with uncured rock, during the cycle? Or should I just wait till the cycle is finished?

 

[Angelscrx]

my evaporation rate is pretty minimal, i've been running for a week today, and yesterday was the first addition I made with 1/2 qt of water.

Also, is it safe to add cured rock to my tank with uncured rock, during the cycle? Or should I just wait till the cycle is finished?

IMO you should add all of your rock at the same time. Cured rock is not always as cured as we would like it to be. Besides add it all at the same time doesn't extend the cycle like adding new rock every couple of weeks because you may still have die off on the new rock. Just My opinion.

 

[cdeakle]

When in doubt test! I would test the culligan water with a TDS meter. If you don't have one you can get one from ebay for probably under $20.00. If the TDS is above 0-1 I would not personally use it. You can always purchase a good quality RO/DI unit as someone else already mentioned. Much better than lugging water from the store and looking for quarters to pay with and you will then know exactly what your working with.