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Test your tap for nitrates and phosphates and ideally copper before using. If the levels are 0 measured with a standard aquarium kit I would use it. Also is it treated with chloramines? If so I would consider it a no go. As for top off, use distilled or RO water. But occasional or emergency...

There is a automatic timer shut off on the JBJ ATO. Maybe that is what is preventing the pump to fully fill. It's a safety feature. You can modify the time before shut off : http://www.jbjlighting.com/prod-ato-faqs.html The aqualifter can slow down a lot with any significant lift height. I...

I never implied that any salt mix is toxic. I only pointed that many studies have found some metal levels order of magnitude higher compared to sea water. It does not mean that those levels are toxic. As it is explained in the first article we should not put too much weight to those detailed...

Second link

I agree some tap water is not usable plain and simple. Also have a look at the municipal water report. My municipal water does not contain chloramines as well. Here are a few links. : General intro to water very good and he recommends against using tap. ;)...

Don't want to bring out controversy, you are all correct. But once you treat the water to precipitate heavy metals and make sure the water is free of phosphate or nitrate I believe it is ok, specially if those levels are high in your tank. Anyway, Salt mixes are known to contains heavy metals...

Since I don't have any meaningful coral yet, I figure this was my chance to try this out and get at my nitrates. For the last 10 days I have changed 10% daily of my tank water with tap water mixed with reef crystals. The goal was also to slowly raise my salinity. My nitrates went from 20-30...

You are right. That is why this was at the end of my post:

Just want to comment that I see 2 very different recommendations when setting up a display or a quarantine tank. For the display: wait for the cycle to compete before adding any fish . Use expensive equipment etc... For the quarantine: simply add a sponge filter that as been sitting in an...

Reading the comments in the article it seems that some people using a lot of 420nm have bleaching problems. Also the math used in the article seems bogus. Regarding adding 60 to 80 watts of flood led lights it might not fly as the cost will be over 120$ with the extra actinics and I still have...

Violet/UV LED emit at 420nm but are significantly less efficient than blue or royal blue leds. I got from this source that 420nm might be relevant for corals: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature How is shimmer affecting the light reaching the coral ?

I started thinking about upgrading my 4 24w t5 (2 actinic and 2 10k) with leds. I read today that many led fixtures lack around 420nm. Than it hit me : I could just run 4xt5 actinics and buy 2 x 20-30w cool white LED flood light to complement? Could this grow sps corals well? This...

Thanks for your comments. I'll get a tds meter for sure!

Distilled or RO/DI is the closest we can get to pure water. You are right that we don't know all that's in the tap water tds. That is exactly my point. I don't want these unknown potential contaminants to concentrate in my tank because they will not evaporate. Regarding kalk, it will for...

For the same reason you don't top off with salt water. It will concentrate anything that is in the water over time.

I'm only suggesting tap might be ok for water changes. For top off this is a big no. My question is what is the tds of the SW once you add the salt? And what is the tds of your tank before the wc? I will certainly get a tds meter to measure that. But once you mix salt I think the measurement...

I do about 5 gallon per week wc and top off 3-5 gallons weekly, so about the same. The way I see it is that anything that you add with your top off might concentrate in the long run. For water change its a 1 to 1 exchange. As long as your change water is cleaner you end up ahead in term of...

Why would you go tap for top off and distilled for wc and not the other way around?

Once I get to very low levels nitrate and phosphate I will need to invest in a RO/DI unit or pay more in distilled water. For the time being I am confident that I replace my aquarium water with cleaner water. As far as topoffs, I see the only replacement to evaporated water is distilled or 0...

My tap water reads 0 phosphate and nitrate but my tank reads 0.3 and. 20 so I see no problem using my treated tap water for wc for now. Also no chloramines in my tw. I like how easy to prepare large quantity of sw straight from the tap. Even instant Ocean reef crystals suggest tap water is...

Got a replacement triton 3 pump last week but it now has the same issue! Actually worst this time since I could not restart the pump at all. Seems stuck for good. I bit the bullet and got a good renown quality brand from my LFS.... Not a good idea to skimp on the pump.

I have been thinking maybe iron is limiting my algae growth. I stumbled on a old thread reading on algae scrubber and a very experienced reefer suggested that. So when I do a water change I might replenish my iron. I will have to get an iron test kit to confirm that out.

+1 IMO tap water is not bad to go thru the cycle or for a FOWLR if it doesn't contain chloramines or copper. But do check your city water quality report and do test it. If going for a reef bite the bullet and go RO/DI or distilled.

Great! I will have to change my profile from FOWLR to reef. ;) Thanks

This is growing in my QT tank. Is this a pest anemone or a kind of duster. Still small and hard for me to tell . Thanks in advance !