How Many Of U Use Tap Water Or RO/DI

well water. Seems to be working at the present time, but I am switching to all ro/di, just because...... uh who wants to chance it, right?

16 breeding tanks
1 pr maroon clowns
1 pr perculas
1 pr occellaris
1 pr black occellaris
1 pr clarks
3 pr bangaii cardinals
1 carpet
1 rbta
3 bta
herms
snails
mangroves and culerpa

 

i too am topping with well water. i no this is not premium so i am currently saving for a nice RO/DI unit. i have noticed the tank will go months with excellent water quality and then make a sudden change and here comes the algae.

 

I'm just looking to see if we are missing something here. I am sure back when aquariums started they did not have RO/DI units and had to use tap. 20 years later there RO/DI what is going to be in another 20years.

That is how I ran things for 20 years, tap water from Lake Superior. Allot depends on the water supply. The good thing about RO/DI is that it fixes the water before you unfix the water by dumping in sea mixes.

We dump organophosphates into the water supply like no ones business

How do you get away with that ? Organophosphates are nerve agents.

 

My LFS sells ocean water out of this huge canister they have in the back of the store. Does any recommend for this or against this? They also sell RO water by the gallon which I just bought to top off my tank. Has anyone had any experience with actual OCEAN WATER for their tanks?

 

There are some good threads where Matt explained the benefits and I believe he no longer goes with the ocean water. My issue would be that you have no idea where the water is actually collected unless you know the lfs pretty well. I would just be worried that one week they get lazy and collect it to close to shore and then you can contaminate your tank. Of after a big storm and the water is collected close to shore. Just some issues where you have no control. Even though the salt mixes do not contain the exact elements of the real ocean it is pretty close as well as it is consistent. If you did 10 or 20% water changes with contaminated ocean water, just imagine the impact it would have and if it was bad enough you could be forced to do almost a 100% water change to fix things. Talk about stress for your system. Just my 2 cents.
Now if you collected the water yourself at least then you would know exactly what was gong on it your tank. Which to me is one big science experience that is hard enough to control when you already personally add everything. Thus the fun of reef-keeping

As far as them selling rodi water. It is a convenience thing. The store I helped setup will sell it as well. THey sell it because they already make it themselves for their systems so selling it to you is basically easy money. Convenient to you and extremely profitable to them. I forget the calculations but remember seeing that it only costs about 25c per gallon if you make it yourself minus the actually rodi filter costs. So you can do the math and find out how quickly it would pay off. There was a post about 2 months ago on that topic I believe.

 

sometimes I buy ocean water by Nature's ocean.

 

Municipal water companies are required by not only state but federal guidelines to provide a report of contaminants. This report is available in hard copy form to the general public. The question is, is it an honest and accurate report? I operate printing presses and print these reports for local and even if there were some inaccurate testings preformed I wouldn't want to use tap water in my reef because of what I see IS REPORTED ACCURATELY.

 

JTREEF, the LFS says that they actually use the ocean water for their own tanks that they display in the store. Their tanks are crystal clear and everything is extremely healthy. Should I trust their ocean water? Or just buy the RO water and mix it myself with the Instant Ocean that I have? It is an EXPENSIVE LFS, so hopefully I get what I pay for.

RO water $0.39/gallon
Ocean water $0.99/gallon

I would really just prefer to buy the RO water and mix the salt myself. That way I know that it is CLEAN water. But their tanks are so spotless and crystal clear water that it is tempting to just buy their ocean water and not have to worry about mixing the salt myself.

 

I started out with tap water but graduated to RO/DI. What a difference- the water is so pure it sparkles- and my tank has less algae

 

If their tanks are so perfect then that is a great sign. If they swear by it then I see no issues. I personally am a control freak. Yes I admit it.
I would be interested in where they collect it. Plus if they swear by it and it is cheaper for you in the long run then go for it. Doing the math at 1 dollar a gallon that is about 180 for 180 gal. I believe a bucket of instant ocean costs 50 at the store to create your own 180 gal of salt water plus RO you can create yourself. They need to spin a profit off of it obviously. So if it were me in your shoes I would base my decision on what is most convenient to you. With the sea water you should not have to add all the additives the rest of us use but then again it will cost more. Plus it must be nice to be able to pick up water that easily without all the prep work. I say it is a 50/50 which is cool that you have that option.

The last thing to think about is the fact that they may have clean tanks. That will not be because of just the water. It will have to do with all the other aspects of reefkeeping as well.

It is good that you are looking and analyzing all these aspects. Should you have any future problems you are very likely to notice them before an actually problem gets out of hand.