Ro Water mix?

[Maridia]

I am almost done setting up my 55 gallon Saltwater tank with 20 Gallon sump. I have read over and over that Using 100% RO water is highly recommended as it will prevent algae outbreaks or any algae at all. My main concerns are:

1. I have an RO Unit, but it it only has a 2 gallon pressurized tank storage (takes about 3-4 hours to fill), and I don't want to have buckets and buckets and jugs upon jugs of water laying around everywhere while I wait to do a water change or initial tank set up.

2. I don't want to buy RO water or Saltwater from my local fish stores for the initial tank set up or to do the massive water changes that come with doing fish less cycling. This is the biggest reason that I bought my own RO unit to begin with.

3. I'm obviously not going to use 100% tap water in my SL tank, but is it a bad idea to do a compromise and use 50/50 RO and tap water mix in my SL tank?

4. Besides algae problems, what other issues can occur if I don't use 100% RO water when doing PWC or with initial setup. Any info that anyone can provide me would be extremely appreciated.

5. When I mix my salt with my RO water and let it fully dilute in a couple days, my PH goes from 6.8(RO water) to 8.0-8.3(result from salt mix). If my tap water is normally about 8.3-8.6, will adding salt increase it substantially?

 

[Fishman007]

I am almost done setting up my 55 gallon Saltwater tank with 20 Gallon sump. I have read over and over that Using 100% RO water is highly recommended as it will prevent algae outbreaks or any algae at all. My main concerns are:

1. I have an RO Unit, but it it only has a 2 gallon pressurized tank storage (takes about 3-4 hours to fill), and I don't want to have buckets and buckets and jugs upon jugs of water laying around everywhere while I wait to do a water change or initial tank set up.

2. I don't want to buy RO water or Saltwater from my local fish stores for the initial tank set up or to do the massive water changes that come with doing fish less cycling. This is the biggest reason that I bought my own RO unit to begin with.

3. I'm obviously not going to use 100% tap water in my SL tank, but is it a bad idea to do a compromise and use 50/50 RO and tap water mix in my SL tank?

4. Besides algae problems, what other issues can occur if I don't use 100% RO water when doing PWC or with initial setup. Any info that anyone can provide me would be extremely appreciated.

5. When I mix my salt with my RO water and let it fully dilute in a couple days, my PH goes from 6.8(RO water) to 8.0-8.3(result from salt mix). If my tap water is normally about 8.3-8.6, will adding salt increase it substantially?

Tap water has heavy metals in it that will kill you invertabrates amd corals, use 100% RODI water. Make sure your unit has a DI (Dionization) filter or it wont filter the heavy metals, what type of unit do you have? I have BRS 6 stage chloramine plus, if you have chloramines in you water you will need to get a chloramine unit.

Your salt will buffer the water to 8.-8.3 so no worries about that.

If you mix tap and RODI water you are just lowering the contaminates in the tap and putting them into the RODI so thats also a waste of RODI water.

Hope this helped

 

[Maridia]

I see a lot of dechlorinators also detoxify heavy metals or get rid of them. I would use dechlorinated Tap water to mix with my RO water. This still will not work at all?

 

[Fishman007]

I see a lot of dechlorinators also detoxify heavy metals or get rid of them. I would use dechlorinated Tap water to mix with my RO water. This still will not work at all?

Those dechlorinators just gunk up the water when used for SW but are fine in a FW tank, also cause alot of problems in perimeters. Also you need 0 TDS (totally dissolved solids) for pure clean water which is a must for a SW tank. Is there a problem with having 2 5g buckets around for water? Or maybe 3? Just wondering...

 

[MacDracor]

The biggest problem with using tap water is control. In that you have none. Tap water varies from place to place, and even month to month depending on local conditions. The metals mentioned are a serious concern. Take copper for example. Copper is toxic to most marine invertebrates. But they won't die right away. The copper will bind with aragonite and be undetectable and harmless for quite some time. But then it will reach a saturation point and much of the bound copper will be released, causing a massive invertebrate die off. Not only that, all the live rock and sand will be 'infected' and useless. Water conditioners that claim to remove heavy metals are not being entirely honest. They detoxify metals by binding them with other elements to render them inert. In a low ph, freshwater environment, that's no big deal. But in the high ph saltwater environment, this binding rapidly falls apart.
Buckets can be a hassle, I know. And purchasing the water for each water change gets pricey. Consider upgrading to a better RO/DI unit. Purewaterclub.com has a 50 gpd 4 stage unit for $60 in the portable RO/DI section. They also have 100 and 150 units available. Well worth it!

 

[Maridia]

Thank you all so much. I was trying to see if it was at all possible to have tap water, but the consequences are too great.

 

[Tmar]

You could just get a very large rubbermaid bin to store your water in. Then you won't have buckets and buckets and jugs and jugs lying around
RO/DI is the best way to go for sure, specially IF you already have a system. Good Luck!

 

[chbix]

I have a rubber maid 35 gallon trash can in my laundry room where I hooked up my ro/di. I drilled a hole in the lid just big enough for the ro/di out put line. I bought a pump that I use only for the pure water along with 10' of clear tubbing.

I use the pump and tubing to transfer the water to my top off container and to a 10 gallon aquarium I use to mix the saltwater for water changes

Works great an no lugging buckets