can you use tap water

[davez79]

I'm new to salt water tanks I keep reading I should use reverse osmosis water. Will I hurt the tank and future fish by using tap water? The tank is in setup mode now.

 

[FTMMWS]

Simple answer ,YES...i would recommend getting it tested first..
I use tap ,but i have a whole house filtration system and my TDS's are only 40..I also don't keep a full blown reef,,if your planning on that just get an RODI unit or if your TDS reading is over 150..

A lot will say you'll get huge algae blooms ,but i disagree ...I know tons of people who run pure RODI water and still have huge algae problems ...There are many factors to algae growing ,,,yes RODI water "may" help avoid it ,but not necessarily .

 

[MacDracor]

*Can* you use tap water? Sure. *Should* you use tap water? Absolutely not. Tap water contains a lot of trace elements and chemicals that you have no control over, and some can be difficult to test for.
I will admit that I used tap water for the first two months of my tank. Since then, I've been using the Glacier water machines outside my grocery stores, which is RO, UV, and double carbon filtered.
Sure, it's a bit more work, but it's worth it. Water is clearer, cleaner, and I can control all the water parameters much more easily.
Plus, some communities' tap water has phosphates. I have a customer who has been using tap water for her freshwater tank and it's always been cloudy. Her blood parrot cichlid had some fin rot and she couldn't figure out why. Turns out her tank's phosphates were off the charts. And read off the charts almost instantly rather than "wait three minutes for color to develop". A PWC with RO water and the cloudiness started clearing up.
Moral of the story, control what goes into your tank.

 

[melosu58]

I would suggest not using tap water. I work for a large water municipality and I see what they add to water to purify it. Good for us humans but not for our reef tanks. I do have an article in the SW articles section about using tap water.

 

[jones1483]

I am new to the scene also and I am attempting to use tap water for my tank because I simply can't afford to do it any other way. I bought a bottle of stress coat that is supposed to treat 946 gallons of water and it cost me around 8 bucks. Stress Coat is supposed to take out the chlorine and the copper that may be in your tap water and make the water safe for the fish. I do not have any fish in my tank as of right now because I too am in set up mode. The fellow I bought the tank from said his friend used tap water for many years with great success. It must be treated though.

 

[melosu58]

And yes it could be years but eventually the crash will come. I have known of some folks that experienced the same thing only to be asking later why did my tank crash. Stress coat can not remove heavy metals like copper, aluminum and others. It can only bind them but they remain in the tank.

 

[tonedogz]

you can get a nice ro/di setup for $150 or less

 

[davez79]

Thanks for the advice I will most likely get one but now I am having problems with my alkalinity. I read that I could use baking soda to raise my ph. All it did was raise my alkalinity. It is now threw the roof any advice.

 

[jones1483]

How does an ro/di system work? Maybe I will look into one

 

[SeanMonster]

Thanks for the advice I will most likely get one but now I am having problems with my alkalinity. I read that I could use baking soda to raise my ph. All it did was raise my alkalinity. It is now threw the roof any advice.

It should have raised your pH as well. Alkalinity is the water's ability to buffer itself. Having said that, if alkalinity increases, so should pH. In the future I would spend the money and buy marine buffer at your lfs. It has exact dosing for the pH increase you need.

 

[davez79]

It didn't though my Ph. still is between 7.6 to 7.8. I also took a sample to my lfs they got the same reading. I did a pwc and added more backing soda still nothing. I went out and bought a new test. Still same readings. Talked to people who own a pool they said use soda ash, baking soda just raises alkalinity. When I did a test for it it is over 500 ppm. Ph still 7.7

 

[tonedogz]

How does an ro/di system work? Maybe I will look into one

well the water in your house goes through a series of filters depending on the size could be 4,5, or 6 filters and it removes 97 to 98 percent of contaminants from the water so it is almost pure

 

[ShaunV]

I have just started my tank too. I am using tap water. I have had my tap tested multiple times and I spoke to the municipality. I have no phosphates, nitrates, chloramines or metals. The water I get from my tap is fantastic. I still have to make sure all of the chlorine is gone before I use it though. So, I pour my water into buckets a couple days in advance and the chlorine burns off naturally. I do this because I absolutely hate how much water an RO/DI unit wastes. For every gallon you get of "pure" water you get, the units waste at least one gallon of water, but most units waste a lot more than that. I was blown away by the waste. I will just have to test my water before using it every time because you never know what the treatment facility will do to the water at any given time. If an RO/DI unit becomes available that doesn't produce so much "waste" water, I would get it, until then, I will not. Don't know if this helps at all, but if you are conscientious of your water usage, then an RO unit is not for you.

 

[ShaunV]

It didn't though my Ph. still is between 7.6 to 7.8. I also took a sample to my lfs they got the same reading. I did a pwc and added more backing soda still nothing. I went out and bought a new test. Still same readings. Talked to people who own a pool they said use soda ash, baking soda just raises alkalinity. When I did a test for it it is over 500 ppm. Ph still 7.7

I have worked in the pool and spa industry for 15+ years, and yes, in a pool with thousands of gallons of water, baking soda will make the alkalinity go up more than the PH. However, ph will still go up. Soda ash ( sodium carbonate) is used to raise the ph more than the alkalinity, but same thing, the alkalinity will still rise some. Wen dealing with such a small volume of water as is found in aquariums and even smaller hot tubs(500 gallons), use sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). This will raise both the PH and Alkalinity. You may just need to let the water circulate for about 24 hours before you get a proper PH reading.

 

[jones1483]

Who would I take my tap water to, to get it tested?

 

[ShaunV]

I took to multiple LFS. Home depot is doing a free home water test. Leslie's pool supply is free too and will test everything.

 

[uh.oh...]

your tap water may be safe at the moment, but read up on reef tank crashes, say from the UK and larger cities. Tap gets used often, but when something goes wrong...say a big natural gas company starts hydrofracking nearby, and fill your tap up with enough chemicals to pickle an elephant...well then you're just out of luck. No, the municipal water company won't comp you the cost, and no, you won't know until its too late. There was a huge crash in a city in the UK just recently. Water company just said "oops"

BTW, the waste water isn't really waste. Sure the ph may be a bit high, mine comes out of the tap regularly at 7.8, and out of the ro at 9, but its still gone through the sediment and carbon filters, so its good to use for plants, animals, people. Just save it, plumb it out side to a rain barrel like me.

 

[melosu58]

I would get a copy of your water municipalities water report. It will give you a detailed report. Also not trying to dispute but our water ranks in the top three in the country and there is nitrates, phosphates and heavy metals in tap water. There has to be as that is what we treat water with. You can not get it all out even with prime or other water treatments. All prime does is bind these compounds so that they are less lethal but they are still there. As I said this is my job and it`s what I do. As I said I`m not disputing anyone elses opinion.

 

[FTMMWS]

I would get a copy of your water municipalities water report. It will give you a detailed report. Also not trying to dispute but our water ranks in the top three in the country and there is nitrates, phosphates and heavy metals in tap water. There has to be as that is what we treat water with. You can not get it all out even with prime or other water treatments. All prime does is bind these compounds so that they are less lethal but they are still there. As I said this is my job and it`s what I do. As I said I`m not disputing anyone elses opinion.

What about running it through the house filtration systems first .The install guy swore to me it takes out all but TDS..Which he also tested for me and they were 42 that day..He said my area averages high 30's to low 40's ..

 

[melosu58]

To get the truth I would get a copy of the municipality water report. And BTW any filtration is better than none.