RO/DI Water

[Dee_Dee_fish]

Must you use RO/DI water? Do you store buy or make your own? How do you mix your water?

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Depends on how much you like the look of algae. An ro unit was the best investment I've ever made in this hobby, they'll pay for them selves in under a year vs buying water. As for mixing, you just pour the ro into a container (a lot of people use 5 gallon buckets to brute trash cans depending on tank size) with a power head and heater and add your salt and let it mix for about 24 hours

 

[drfu]

As BRR10 said, buy one, they are not that expensive, you can get refurb units from Spetrapure cheap! Its an absolute no on tap water!

 

[Gregcoyote]

In some rare cases your city water may test low in TDS. But I have never seen tap water that read zero. Remember, your aquarium is a slow distillation machine. It evaporates off pure water and concentrates the dissolved solids in the remaining tank water, whatever they are in your area. Water exchanges help mitigate this, but the best thing you can do is start with zero tds.

 

[aadair22]

RODI is an absolute must. Your LFS should sell it if you don't want to buy your own, but like stated above, they pay for themselves quick and are a lot more convenient then lugging 5 gallon buckets around in your car.

 

[mrvincent]

Must you use RO/DI water? Do you store buy or make your own? How do you mix your water?

Here the tap water TDS are at 70 in the summer... But I prefer making my own water at <1tds.

 

[jeffaquarius]

Must you use RO/DI water? Do you store buy or make your own? How do you mix your water?

The answer is yes and no. Yes if you plan to have corals since they can not tolerate high nitrate or phosphate. No if you plan to have fish only since they are more forgiving. I started with fish only with live rocks and I used filtered water (RO) from grocery store at 25 cents per gallon. Fish can live with 60 ppm of nitrate ime. You only have to deal with algae though.

 

[Mattyfelts]

do it. i regret not doing it sooner haha!