Water Poll!

[arc eye]

What are you guys using in the way of water?

I am a North Seattle resident and so far I have been using aged tap water and salt mix. Things were going great and my newly established 55g was cycling nicely. All test readings were within tolerable limits with the exception of fairly high of Phosphates..................... Then I went out of town for about five days with the skimmer off and a ten hour photo period set. When I returned my tank looked like moving green carpet of what I assume to be hair algae.

After several hours of cleaning and several more to come I have decided it is time to take a deep look at water quality and what others in the region are using. Is an RO/DI unit my best option?

Equipment recommendations/offers much appreciated.......keeping in mind that I live in an apartment.

here are some pics for you enjoyment.....................................


Before Trip

After Trip

Full tank pre-trip

 

[nomercymike]

I may not be a authority in this,but water qualtiy is one of the most important thins in a healthy reef tank. Myself I have a 50 gal tank. I have a ro/di unit and make my own water. A lot of fish stores will fill your water for a price. There so many factors, but if you start right you can minimize them. There are so many of us on here willing to help you. Here is a pic of my tank. I started with a 20L and about 5 lbs of live rock and a 3 headed frogspawn. Have a great one, Mike

 

[salmonslayer]

RO/DI is a must. I would get one ASAP. I know many people that buy water till they can get one. Best of luck

 

[dnjan]

I don't think what you experienced is due to using tap water to mix your salt. In north Seattle, the tap water is fairly clean. Last time I checked TDS it was about 30ppm. What you experienced was the effect of normal nutrients coming of the live rock.

That said, it never hurts to improve your water quality. If I were you, I would look at a DI-only unit (with carbon and particulate pre-filters, of course). The RODI will clean your water fine, but at a cost of about 5 gal wasted per one gallon made. And since the sewer charge is based on water usage, those five wasted gallons start to cost money.

This recommendation would be wrong for most of the country, but given the low TDS input in North Seattle it makes sense. Unfortunately, nobody told me this when I spent the money on an RO unit years ago.

Also north Seattle ...

 

[Elmo18]

I agree with Don.

Best,
Ilham

 

[Snowboarda42]

I'd still go RO/DI, but I'm pretty biased in this department. You can use your waste water for lots of things too, including drinking. I have my waste line going right into my laundry machine so it fills it up and I can already have water in there when I go to wash clothes. Just use Tide Coldwater lol.

 

[salmonslayer]

Sorry forgot to ask. What do you plan on keeping Fish only ? and what kinda piping is your home ( copper,gav,cpvc ). The problem I have, this is JMO is TDS can read one thing and across the street its off the charts.
What don is saying makes sense DI-only unit. Be on the safe side and barrow a tester and see.
Remember they put crap in the water system all the time. What they put in our water systems will blow your mind. Remember that humans can tolerate way more than your live stock.
PS just some friendly food for confusion .

 

[plack]

I would add a pre 1 micron filter it's really cheap to replace and will extend the life of you di filter and keep it cleaner !

And buy a tds meter they are cheap!

 

[arc eye]

no idea on the piping other than the fact that it is new (they just did a major renovation in our building). What does the cost per gallon work out to be roughly with a waste rate around 5 to 1? Also How easy would it be to configure in my kitchen (it's the closest water source to my tank).

Thanks all!

 

[jnarowe]

Municiple water supplies often have compounds added to the water, including phosphate. With any captive system, if you don't start with purified water, you will never be able to isolate causitive issues. I get a lot of messages about reef keepers having problems and the first place I start the trouble-shooting process is water quality. There's a reef keeper out in the Dakotas with several large tanks and when he sent his water out for testing at a lab, it came back with copper. The deal is, he never used copper in his system. So how did it get into the water? A bronze fitting in his water supply.

It's possible to keep FW fish and some hardy SW fish with tap water treated for chloramines, but trying to keep most SW fish, inverts, and corals will be extremely stressful. First thing to do is test your tap water. There are labs that test water with aquariums in mind for about $25, but keep in mind that water quality is not a constant. Just because it tests fine in PO4 one day, does not mean it's always like that.

I have 3 RO/DI units in my house, and one is under my kitchen sink. I use it for my FW Planted tank, drinking water, and ice maker. I ran a 1/4" line from the DI, under the house, and to the aquarium for auto top-off. You can also get re-mineralizers for making coffee and drinking water.

I realize that there is some up-front and ongoing expense to purify water, but that pales in comparison to the cost of lost livestock.

 

[KrautBurner]

I got a green hair alge bloom about a month after moving my tank (from a friends place)
using tap water (north perry water dist, I've been told it was good water)

I picked out the big pieces,
it hasn't come back (been about 3 months now)

I'm now using RO/Di water
I get it from my LFS "The Shark Reef" in Silverdale
it's free to customers (not to excede 10gal/day I think)