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Originally Posted by Boulder
Hello all - after considering various new systems for my start up FOWLER aquarium, I have settled on a 40-gallon glass tank. I haven't set anything up yet as I want to have a plan in place but my question today is about water.
I have obviously learned tap water in a no-no and where I live, city water is extremely high is phosphates so that could be a disastrous start.
So my LFS sells pre-mixed water so that is certainly a good option. But yesterday I noticed at another one of our LFS they sell boxes of pre-mixed salt water - I believe it was made by Oceanic. For the initial fill would this work and does anyone have experience with these premixed boxes?
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The tank is gonna crash anyway. No reason to throw money around if you don't have to. I filled my 112 acrylic tank with uncured live rock and water straight from the garden hose, mixed in the salt as I went. I added the standard water conditioners, a couple of jumbo shrimp for good measure, and did not turn on the lights or protein skimmer.
The tank cycled in four weeks and had a mild algae bloom as expected. After the cycle completed I did a 50% water change now using RO/DI water and used a phosphate sponge. This removed all the phosphates in a couple days. Tank is doing amazing and the only thing keeping me from adding tons of stuff is my wallet.
In the end you have to do what you are most comfortable with.