Water Quality

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Maridia

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Oct 9, 2013
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This question is concerning Freshwater, but to give you an idea, I have to start out by talking about Saltwater. In the past I had asked on this forum about using treated tap water in a saltwater tank and 99.9% of the replies recommended against it. Basically that RO water typically has a neutral ph and that adding the salt brings it up to the desired 8.2-8.4 range. But the biggest reason for using RO and not tap was because of the algae blooms, and metals accumilating in your tank over an extended period of time which would kill EVERYTHING!!!! That was the basic idea that was given to me. That not even treated tap was recommended.

That brings me to freshwater. Why is it not the same situation? I understand that the physiology is different, but doesn't the same eventually happen in freshwater as well? I was told that it was ok to use 100% tap even if ph is 8.0-8.2 (my tap water). That as long as the ph is stabe, the fish would get used to it. Also that RO water is too pure and in the end would cause the ph to crash as there are no buffers in RO.

This is a pretty general question. But I love this forum and I have learned so much. Any answers or opinions that anyone has on this would be awesome. Thanks
 
Salt water and fresh water are ran on two different algae control methods

Salt - Ultra low nutrients. There really isn't anything to absorb nutrients in salt water and the algae that grows is extremely efficient at growing under ultra low nutrients. This is why minor increases in nutrients (mostly phosphate) turns into large algae blooms. Keeping the nutrients too low for good algae growth allows saltwater tanks to run the lights longer which is the norm for reef systems.

Fresh - Rather than salt water which is ran on ultra low nutrients fresh water runs with a limited lighting as the main factor for algae control. Lights (particularly in planted tanks) are ran for 6 - 8 hours on average which will work all on its own to control the algae growth. I can only guess that in non planted tank the numerous large water changes are working to keep essential micro elements out of the water that algae needs to grow.


This is my take on it although I am sure other will have some insight on the topic as well. I could never get 100% for sure information on the topic.
 
Salt water and fresh water are ran on two different algae control methods

Salt - Ultra low nutrients. There really isn't anything to absorb nutrients in salt water and the algae that grows is extremely efficient at growing under ultra low nutrients. This is why minor increases in nutrients (mostly phosphate) turns into large algae blooms. Keeping the nutrients too low for good algae growth allows saltwater tanks to run the lights longer which is the norm for reef systems.

Fresh - Rather than salt water which is ran on ultra low nutrients fresh water runs with a limited lighting as the main factor for algae control. Lights (particularly in planted tanks) are ran for 6 - 8 hours on average which will work all on its own to control the algae growth. I can only guess that in non planted tank the numerous large water changes are working to keep essential micro elements out of the water that algae needs to grow.


This is my take on it although I am sure other will have some insight on the topic as well. I could never get 100% for sure information on the topic.

This is very good information. I'm curious now about the metals. Marine conditioner is supposed to render these harmless (not eliminate but render them harmless). But after talking to some people, the metals gather and pile up with every WC and eventually reck havoc on the tank. So the algae blooms was the least of the worries.
 
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