Tap Water in the Saltwater Reef February 9, 2011 at 7:00 am

[sanchezkk]

My question is.... I have a FOWLR. How accurate i this article to my FOWLR tank? The articlewas addressing REEF Tanks. Can someone advise?

[Nu-Nu the eel]

What is the question???

[sanchezkk]

My question is.... Does this also apply to FOWLR tanks? The article just referred to Reef Tanks.

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Oh im sure it does. I dont think you should use tap water regardless, but i am not 100% sure

[AusAaron]

Ive been using tap water in my fowlr the last few water changes and all seems fine. I havent had any problems anyhow.. i add api stress coat also.. But i have been told i should b using rodi water..

[sanchezkk]

I'm using Distilled Water and all my parameters are fine, except my nitrates. They are always at 20ppm as when I used tap water.. I don't get it.

[AusAaron]

Ah k.. Thats weird. Does it settle back down or stay at that level? could b disturbing it during water change mayb.. Did the new water test that before u changed it

[Mrc8858]

The reason you don't use tap water is mainly due to phosphates which if you aren't using phosgaurd or some other type of phosphate remover they will continue to build until you have a major algae outbreak since nothing in your aquarium will use it other then plants....you could plant saltwater ferns and they will remove phosphates nitrates and dissolved organics from the tap water but it would be much better to just go Ro/Di. Also some sources of tap water already have nitrates present which in SW you wanna keep them very low which could prove to be difficult

[redsea]

In my opinion, I think RO/DI is the best choice for an aquarium . I think the reason why the article said for reefs is because corals are generally more sensitive to the quality of the water than fish are.

[sanchezkk]

Originally Posted by AusAaron

Ah k.. Thats weird. Does it settle back down or stay at that level? could b disturbing it during water change mayb.. Did the new water test that before u changed it

It normally stays at 15-20ppm all the time. I did a test on the tap water and it did not have nitrates or nitrites. I didn't test my distilled water though.

[SeanMonster]

I think it also depends on the quality of your tap water. Not all water is created equal. My municipal water quality is very good and both of the lfs's that I utilize use tap for their tanks, and the tanks they maintain with no issues.