Primed tap water VS RO Water?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

360º

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
May 25, 2010
Messages
581
Location
Edmonton Alberta
i've noticed a lot of people referring to RO water or distilled water.

but why is the necessary? i just use city tap water and put prime in it and then mix salt. seems to be just fine in my tank.

my tap water comes in at:

7.9 PH

173mg/L total hardness

... is this bad or good?
 
I work for a large water municipality. There are many compounds that are added to treat water. They are good for us humans but not good for our reef tanks. Many things that no water conditioner can remove. Things like phosphates, silicates, nitrates, flouride, ammonia and several heavy metals are added in the name of treated drinking water. As I said it`s OK for us but not for a reef tank. You could probably get away with a FO or maybe even a FOWLR tank but not a reef IMO and IME. If it was me I would go with RO/DI no matter what if SW.
 
oh ok thanks for the info. im just starting out with a FOWLR tank so ill probably be using tap water until i can afford to step up to a larger reef tank and then maybe an RO system
 
Back
Top Bottom