water quality

[lanej20]

I am new to this business and my tank is still cycling. I just have a question about the process I use to prepare the water for my water changes. I use tap water and then treat it with Prime and Stability and of course use salt to get it to the right sg. Is that good enough for the tank? Is it necessary to use RO and DI water? Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks

 

[roka64]

I would suggest you premixing your SW for at least 24 hours. Salt is caustic and the premixing will enable you to match the pH and temp to your tank's parameters.
As for RO/DI, it is a good thing to have. If you can get a TDS meter check out the readings, you might not need an RO/DI unit.

 

[macman7010]

I agree with Roka, you may not need an RO/DI unit. Using Prime is a good choice and letting the water cure for at least 24 hours is needed.

 

[melosu58]

If you are planning on a reef tank I would suggest it but if you could do some testing of your tap water it would help to make an educated guess. As stated above a TDS meter check will help also. Prime and others like it are good for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates but do nothing for heavy metals that sometimes come with Tap water. I know my county post a warning saying that our tap water is not good for aquariums. Call the county you live in and get a water report.

 

[lanej20]

Thanks for all of the help guys. I will definitely call and check on the quality of the water and buys a meter.

 

[lanej20]

Out Walmart has Culligen water. Its fairly cheap and easy to transport. Will that water work for my aquarium. I know it is filtered and run through an RO unit.

 

[melosu58]

IMO it will be better than tap water but not as good as RO/DI water. Best thing to do would be to test it to see if there are any readings of Nitrates, nitrites, ammonia and phosphates.

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree...How large a tank do you have? If you have a decent size tank (55g+) I would suggest getting an RO/DI filter, it will pay for itself over the long run. They really aren't that expensive especially when compaired to all that we put into our tanks. Just my $.02