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I am getting ready to set up a fish only saltwater 30 gallon tank. Is it okay to use tap water or should I go with r/o water or deionized water? Thanks.
Everyone will say R/O D/I water, so that is best. Tapwater is ok in a FO setup, just better have a cleanup crew because depending on your local water supply, algae problems can be pretty fierce using tap.
You *can* use tap water along with a dechlorinator but it is recommended that you use RO/DI water instead. This is because using RO/DI water will remove >90% of the nutrients that undesirable algae love.
So as long as you don't mind putting up with continuous algae problems, tap water is fine.
I will note that some people's tap water is so clean that they don't have to use filtered water. But this is normally few and far between. The majority of city water has all kinds of chemicals in it that will fuel algae blooms.
Thank you. I guess I will be trucking 5-gallon bottles of Glacier water back and forth to the house since I have only one container. Is this type of water okay?
Thanks, Patti
If your going to that much trouble of actually driving water around then you should look at a RO filter as an investment in not only creating good water for your tank but good water for you aswell.
Hi Usually the places where they sell distilled bottles will loan you bottles for your first fill-up ! Mine did but now I have a RO/DI so non more transport ... but it's worth asking them ! Part of customer service right !