Need Advice!

My water is actually ocean water, but thank ya! Haha.

And what's your reasoning, if I may ask, for not using the shrimp and ghost feeding instead? I added a tiny little bit of food in there, just to see what happens. If you think it's better to move the shrimp out, I can.

Anyways, today's parameters are the same as yesterday:

Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
pH: 8.4
Alk: 180
Hardness: 300

Ohhh and new questions...apologies in advance.

So like a silly, I went out and got some distilled water for top offs during this cycling. But I didn't know that it wasn't good for the tank, and luckily I haven't used it to top off yet.

Just until I can get an RO/DI deal set up, could I use tap water that has been mixed with de-chlorinating aquarium stuff? Or would it be better to just go and buy pre-made freshwater aquarium water at the pet store?

And as for the RO/DI unit, I need...

-Five gallon bucket
-RO/DI filter (I found a Mikro Omega Portable 3 Stage RO/DI Reef Aquarium Filter System with 75 GPD Membrane, hope this is good?)
-And everything else I'm missing.

 

Just keep in mind it is not necessary to violently spike the ammonia and a dead shrimp will cause a mess that you will eventually have to remove in the form of nitrate and phosphate.Frozen cubes on formula 1 is what i used.I just start with a half cube (depending on size of system) and drop it in there when you see your ammonia come up adjust accordingly just go slow.It is better to use precise ammounts when possible.using cubes helps you understand how much food caused how much spike.Of course just using the calculator and using pure ammonia is the best (ime) option for the most precision.As long as there is no rush the food method works just fine and will give you a better idea how dirty food and waste make water.
FWIW The foods toxicity will decrease as it is consumed and metabolized but the nutrients will remain until you get rid of them.So how hard do you want to work??lol

 

Curious why distilled water is a bad thing? I've been using it for all my water for a couple years.

 

You can use distilled but I wouldn't long term.I meant naturally harvested pre packaged sw.lol

 

I may have read something wrong, it's definitely happened before haha. But I've read that the distiller water can be bad for reef tanks in the long run. But I'm glad to hear that it's not bad if you use it just for a little bit.

 

AZ is our local water expert.
I think the problem is not all distilled water is created equal.

 

Read this thread.Especially the posts by Randy Holmes Farley.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2155281

 

Thanks for the lead vinny . Hadn't considered the pipe following distillation.

 

I have used distilled in a pinch before, better than your SG creeping up with evaporation.

I have used both ghost feed and whole shrimp in the past, both work just fine but the shrimp is a whole lot of nasty to clean up.

 

You can check to see if any LFS in your area sell rodi water also, a few where I live do you just have to bring the container.