What kind of water to initially fill reef aquarium with?

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iamkush

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 7, 2011
Messages
36
Location
Rapid City, SD
can I just use treated tap water, I live in the city so i know It has chlorine and things in it. Ive been reading online thats not the best way to go, but what is? thank you for your help!
 
You should look into your local fish stores and see if they carry RO/DI water, (reverse osmosis/ de-ionized) You really dont want all the things that come alonge with tap water. Besides chlorine and clorimites tap water has a lot of other impurities that will hurt your aquarium life and lead to algae.
 
Can I use all distilled? Ive heard thats not good either because its been "stripped" of all its minerals and stuff.
 
You can get your own RO/DI unit for pretty cheap then you won't have to go to the Lfs every time you need water.
We bought our RO/DI system off ebay for 100 bucks. It does 100g a day and beats having to carry 5 gallon buckets back and forth to the LFS.
 
RO/DI is considered better since it's pure water while RO water still has impurity.

I would definitely invest in an RO/DI filter and fill it up with that. Just my $.02.
 
The original poster did not state the size of their tank. I assumed it was not too big due to they said they lived in the city.

Distilled water may still contain trace elements of copper which is no good for marine tanks.


This is what i was saying. If it is not good then the website would be wrong. This is what the website said:

"If reverse osmosis water isn't available, the next option is distilled water. The purity of this water is pretty close to RO water, often a little better, but it does cost more. The average price is $1.00 USD for a one gallon jug of water."

I am using distilled due to the fact that I do not have access to RO/DI water and cannot set one up due to my living arrangement. The downside to distilled is the cost.


SUMMARY: Distilled water IS deionized water, deionized through distillation. They are the same, just two different ways to get there.

RO/DI uses lots of waste water and eventually filters
Distillers use a lot of energy and have few filters

difference between distilled water and deionized water - General Lab Techniques

Good luck with the RO/DI unit. They both do thet same thing!
 
What about well water? I have a basic charcoal filter in the home, & used it to top off a 35 gallon setup given to me from my brother, about 15 gallons. after about a week, It has developed a hard white "scale" on the inside glass. It is very difficult to scrape off, even with a razor.
I noticed my calcium, phosphate & ph was high, but my salinity is just under 1.019, holding steady, even after slowly adding salt. The 2 fish I had eventually died, but suddenly. They were looking fine, not appearing stressed, then gone within 18 hours. I thought it may have started to cycle again because of the water add, so I got snails as cleaners, but they appeared to have died within 2 days.
So now I have just changed out @ 10 gals with distilled water, using a phosphate absorber. Sorry for the long winded info, but I'm stumped. I have approx. 30 lbs of live rock. I just hope it's still "live", LOL. Thanks for any help.
 
I also have another silly question. I live near the ocean. Would it be OK to get water & sand from the beach to use, or is there too much of a chance of contaminating something?
 
GreenHornet said:
I also have another silly question. I live near the ocean. Would it be OK to get water & sand from the beach to use, or is there too much of a chance of contaminating something?

I wouldn't,just think of the last time you were at the beach with people and all the mess they leave.Plus with the recent storms all of the mess that was in the water and brought towards the beaches.Plus with what the Soprano's left in the ocean.That was meant as a joke.
 
What about well water? I have a basic charcoal filter in the home, & used it to top off a 35 gallon setup given to me from my brother, about 15 gallons. after about a week, It has developed a hard white "scale" on the inside glass. It is very difficult to scrape off, even with a razor.
I noticed my calcium, phosphate & ph was high, but my salinity is just under 1.019, holding steady, even after slowly adding salt. The 2 fish I had eventually died, but suddenly. They were looking fine, not appearing stressed, then gone within 18 hours. I thought it may have started to cycle again because of the water add, so I got snails as cleaners, but they appeared to have died within 2 days.
So now I have just changed out @ 10 gals with distilled water, using a phosphate absorber. Sorry for the long winded info, but I'm stumped. I have approx. 30 lbs of live rock. I just hope it's still "live", LOL. Thanks for any help.

Well water still has something besides water in it 99.9% of the time. The charcoal probably strips some things from the water, but the fact that you have phosphates indicates that those are making it through. Most of the time those other things in the water end up contributing to algae growth which doesn't normally hurt the fish, but can compete with or smother sessile inverts.

You said that your salinity was holding steady after adding salt. How are you mixing your saltwater for water changes? Also, you indicated your pH was high. How high? Most folks have a problem keeping it high in saltwater as opposed to needing to bring it down.
 
GreenHornet said:
I also have another silly question. I live near the ocean. Would it be OK to get water & sand from the beach to use, or is there too much of a chance of contaminating something?

I got sand from the beach, but I went out into the ocean to get fine sand. I think it looks nicer than sand from the store. As far as water, I use ocean water that I get from my backyard, not from the beach though.
 
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