Time to fill up the new tank

So I need to fill up about 120 gallon of salt water to a new tank. Assuming I have time to wait for the water to cycle or dose bacteria to speed up the cycle..., should I just use the faucet water with water conditioner and let the tank cycle that way. Or should I use RO/DI water from the start....? I feel wasteful when dumping all hundreds of RO/DI waste water to the drain or lawn all at once. The weather is so cool nowadays, and the lawn can use like 10-20 gallons but not 200-300 gallons. And I don't have storage for saving that water for later usage either. We are having a drought in CA so wasting that much water is really a crime .

I don't know what in the 300 TDS, that is what I have, in the water from my faucet can/will do to the future reef.....Please chime in experienced reefers

 

Personally I'd use the RODI. I'm not sure if you'd get 200-300 gallons of waste water from 120g of RODI.

You'd save lots of future headache by doing it right the first time. However with the water predicament in Cali, it's up to you ethically what you want to do.

 

I'd go with Rodi.

 

It depends on how efficient the system is. With a booster pump, I get close to 1:2 ratio; more like 1:1.5

This is why I am asking for second opinions

 

RODI imo, I use it for all of my water changes and everytime I start up a new system, cant go wrong with that stuff

 

Cycle with salt water created with RO/DI. When the cycle is over, you're not draining the tank 100%. You're just going to do a very large water change.

Or, if you want, go buy the salt water from a LFS and have them do the first fill.

 

The first water change is another headache ;

 

Good for you for your ethical considerations! Love it.

 

i use atm colony and it works as advertised.

 

If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right from the very beginning. Start with, and always continue to use RO/DI.

Send the brine or waste from the RO/DI down the drain to be recycled and used over and over, it does not get wasted.