How do you get water?

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bjj_junkie

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Nov 14, 2012
Messages
174
Location
Miami Beach, FL
This might be a silly question but I've been thinking about it for a few days. How do you get so much salt water from the fish store to your house?... I only have to get about 70 gallons but that's still 14 buckets. My question is, is there some type of service that brings water to your house in a big tanker truck or something? I can't imagine the people that have huge 500 gallon systems filling them up with little 5 gallon buckets
 
Not sure where in the world you are but I'm in the UK and anyone i know with saltwater tank just buys aquarium salt and adds it in
 
Usually with tanks that big they have overflows with canister filters set up to drain and refill from an r/o or ionizer... It gets incredibly expensive at the start up of these tanks, and maintenance can get confusing if ur not familiar with the format. If you're talking buckets, please for your own sanity and health of the fish sick with a 50g or less... Saltwater can very easily be mixed and aged in oxygenated bottles for refills and use conditioned distilled water to 'top off' tank and prevent salt creep.
 
I'm in Miami and they sell actual ocean water but even if I were to mix reef salt doesn't it have to be with rodi water anyway?
 
You SHOULD use ro/di water, or distilled, but, like I said, if you premix the water, oxygenate and age the water you can use tap, as long as it's stable and balanced in spec. Make sure you check once oxygenated and test once again before adding the water, you can keep a smaller tank in check. I have a puffer FOWLR and am starting a nano reef... It's a ton of work, because, yes, I use 5g buckets, lol. I don't have any tanks above 40g.
 
I cheat on my fw community, I sump and run a hose to my ebb and grow 50g hydro bucket. Sumps are kind of a necessary evil when dealing with larger tanks.
 
Wow that's gonna be a huge pain. I'm gonna have to do maybe two 7 bucket trips if I don't find a company that'll come pump it full of saltwater
 
You SHOULD use ro/di water, or distilled, but, like I said, if you premix the water, oxygenate and age the water you can use tap, as long as it's stable and balanced in spec. Make sure you check once oxygenated and test once again before adding the water, you can keep a smaller tank in check. I have a puffer FOWLR and am starting a nano reef... It's a ton of work, because, yes, I use 5g buckets, lol. I don't have any tanks above 40g.

I have a new 40G breeder and let me tell you lugging 8 culligan bottles up three flights of stairs has me looking at an RO system for the third floor.... only nice thing is I can refill them at 39 cents a gallon....
 
I don't have an RO syStem yet, so when I filled my 55, I had to make a couple of trips to the LFS with my 5g buckets. :/ It was a pain, but it was only for the initial fill. Now I only have to make 1 trip per week for water for PWCs.
 
I'm new to saltwater but other people in this hobby say don't use tap water will have phosphate problem and algae problem to buy a ro/di unit.
 
I use tap water, but I must be honest, I have to aerate the water until the salts and conditioner are completely mixed together and clear with no bubbles, then I age it for about month and I test like a mad scientist, lol
 
Buy a 4-stage RO/Di system off bulkreefsupply.com, they're on sale for 129.99... get yourself a big trash can and just make water.. that's what I do for my 90G and 29G. Use what I need/refill the trash can as necessary. No more lugging around 5g buckets. Simple :)
 
ktomminello said:
Yup, 88 cents a gallon where I live- other than purified ocean water it's the most stable I've found (remember DISTILLED)

My LFS sells RO DI water for 25 cents pet gallon but they just give me 5 gallons. I guess the $1.25 isn't worth the hassle and it keeps me coming in. I felt stupid for ever using tap water because that was more expensive than free.
 
With a tank of that size, buying an RO/DI is the best way to go IMO. It might even be cheaper in the long run. It will be better because you'll know what's actually in the water opposed to not knowing when the LFS filters have been changed, etc. Where I live, they filter ocean water and give it for free, but it's coldwater which wouldn't really work for my tropical reef. How do they filter the ocean water where you live? You'd save more gas, time, and energy going with the RO/DI system rather than buying water from the LFS.
 
I have a 200litre (I think that's about 55g) and use 2 x 25 litre drums to get my water from my LFS. I go once a fortnight and I dont mind it at all, I like going there so often, they get new shipments each week so there is always something new in there ;) I am lucky it's only a 20min drive away tho...
 
but i mean for my initial tank fill. how did you guys start your tank? with salt mix or natural water from the lfs?... either way i gotta bring 70 gals of water to my house whether its natural salt water or or rodi to mix with salt
 
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