Instant Ocean sea salt

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sansouci01

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jul 6, 2012
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Orlando Florida
I was reading the directions on the back of the box and it said that I can use dechlorinated tap water. Since my tank will be FOWLR and I don't intend to add fish for at least a month or two, would regular dechlorinated tap water be ok? Also, do I have to mix the salt water before I put my live rock and live sand in the tank or put the fresh water in and mix it with the LR and LS already in..
 
I was reading the directions on the back of the box and it said that I can use dechlorinated tap water. Since my tank will be FOWLR and I don't intend to add fish for at least a month or two, would regular dechlorinated tap water be ok? Also, do I have to mix the salt water before I put my live rock and live sand in the tank or put the fresh water in and mix it with the LR and LS already in..

You can use tap water but it can cause some issues. It's probably best to just start out with ro/di water.


I would mix the salt and then add the live rock and live sand. It will help anything that's still alive on the rock make the transition.
 
It can be used...thiugh I would never recommend it. I have a friend that uses tap w/I algae issues, but most tap water has nitrates and phosphates in it which will give algae something to feed on. Dechlorinating it won't remove this. Even using only distilled water, I'm still getting phosphates into tank but are manageable. Ro/di is your best bet for success, but for a fish only tank distilled will work. You can try tap, but some fish don't like high nitrates as well.
 
Thanks.
This is my first salt tank so I want everything to go right. My fish store sells r/o water for .50 a gallon and salt water for $1.00 a gallon. Would it be better to get the water pre-made or use r/o and mix it myself. As far as pricing goes, it comes out about the same if I get pre-made salt water. My tank is only twenty gallons. Instant ocean is about 15 bucks for 25 gallon box.
 
That would be up to you. I prefer to mix my own because I want to use a salt with higher calcium an alkalinity for my reef. For a fish only it shouldn't matter.
 
Thanks.
This is my first salt tank so I want everything to go right. My fish store sells r/o water for .50 a gallon and salt water for $1.00 a gallon. Would it be better to get the water pre-made or use r/o and mix it myself. As far as pricing goes, it comes out about the same if I get pre-made salt water. My tank is only twenty gallons. Instant ocean is about 15 bucks for 25 gallon box.

I was buying the 25 gallon boxes for my 20g tank as well and was going through them way too fast, especially with the difficulties in maintaining my first salt water tank. Do yourself a favor and go out to buy a 5g bucket of salt.

Mixing can be a bit of a pain but as long as you have some method of water circulation then it's nowhere near as bad as it can be.
 
You could also use distilled for evaporation. It is a bit more, but grocery stores carry it so if you can't get the ro/di water from the fish store, there you go. Also if it is just Ro water, it contains some level of contaminants, that is where the DI comes in to get rid of the rest. A basic 5 stage RO/DI filter will pay for itself and can be put in a basement or under a sink in a cabinet. It pays for itself.
 
In the long term, it's cheaper to buy your own RO/DI unit. You can get them during group buys (I'm running one next week) for $180 or less (depending on the number of stages). Between PWC and top-offs (and time/gas to get to/from your LFS), it will pay for itself inside of a year.
 
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