liquid nutrients...

[wvanderborg]

No. Sadly I do not. I treat tap water. That's all I have acess too.

 

[Fishguy2727]

There is your problem. You should be able to get access to RO/DI water somehow. Either buying it at the fish shop, buying an RO/DI system, or even just buying distilled water.

 

[wvanderborg]

Seriously tap water is that bad even if I'm treating it? And I know ro means reverse osmosis but is di distilled then? Because we sell distilled filterd water at my work. I can just start buyin it from there.

 

[Fishguy2727]

DI=deionized. RO/DI is so pure that it won't even conduct electricity.

Treating tap water does nothing more than detoxify chlorine, chloramine, heavy metals, etc. It does not remove nitrate, phosphate, silicates, etc. I don't know how well it takes care of heavy metals either, but stuff like copper is the last thing you want in a reef. Although tap water is safe to drink it is a soup of nutrients in a reef system. In nature the water on a reef has very little nutrients, otherwise they turn in to algae farms (which is what we are doing to many of them).

I have never had a single client or customer who has had a nice reef tank using tap water. I have had them try, myself included, but they all come to the same conclusion, it just doesn't work. I am sure there is an exception somewhere out there in the world, but your tank has proven it is not it.

If the distilled water is 100% distilled it should have 0 TDS just like RO/DI. If you can test the TDS/conductivity to verify this you have your solution.

 

[Crabs]

Even distilled water will contain dissolved solids. I checked some different brands, out of curiosity and found that none were 0 TDS. RO/DI is the only way to go really

 

[Crabs]

Still, anything is better than tapwater

 

[Fishguy2727]

All the distilled I checked ran 0 TDS. It was 100% distilled, not drinking water or with anything added at all. By definition distilled should run 0 TDS.

 

[wvanderborg]

Too bad I don't have a refractometer at my dispense. I know the filtered water I use at my work is good because that's what I run all my tanks with there. And my invert tanks with my nems polyps zoos shrimps crabs urchins and starfish is never in bad shape. Ntm I rarely lose anything (due to death) in there. The lfs by my house (not my work) has a refractometer so maybe tomorrow ill run a sample of my water from work to him and see how it tests out. Thanks a lot guys for all ur help and wisdom.

 

[Crabs]

Don't want to continue harping on this but filtered VS. Distilled is a major difference. U can Brita filter ur home water and remove 99% of the bad stuff. But the TDS only drops slightly. I've also checked this as I drink filtered water. I use a mighty mite RO/DI system for my nano needs. They're cheap but only produce 11/2-2 gal. per hr. If u r using filtered water with good results then that's all that matters

 

[Fishguy2727]

Refractometer is not what you need. That measures salinity and can not tell the difference between horrible tap water and 0 TDS. You need to test TDS/conductivity. I bought my meter for $10 shipped on eBay.

You need to have a refractometer. IMO you might as well guess by tasting if you are going to use a hydrometer. $30 shipped on eBay.

 

[wvanderborg]

Our system here is culligan and microfiber filter. I'm going to take a sample to another lfs with a better test setup than I have available here. It won't b till like Wednesday but when I do ill post on this thread about what he says the quality is so u can let me know if its in the acceptable paramaters. I don't think it can be too bad considering I use this water in store but id like to know just for kicks. Lol.

 

[Fishguy2727]

It won't be. As stated drinking water filters don't even come close.

 

[Crabs]

Yep. That's exactly what I paid for mine off of eBay. Inexpensive, yet necessary tools for successful reef keeping

 

[wvanderborg]

Yup. Totally right. Even my distilled microfiltered water from work has phosphates in it. A lot lower than my tap water at home so I'm going to use that untill I get my rodi unit that I'm ordering in two weeks when I get paid oh well. I got my new lights so let's see if I can't make this slime algae really grow now.... lol

 

[Crabs]

That's because your water at work isn't distilled, it's simply filtered tap water according to your posts. Watch the major water quality changes once u begin using RO/DI water.

 

[wvanderborg]

Yea I can't wait till I get it. I'm going to use it for my fw and reptiles too. Lol