Will all of my fish die or should I be fine??

No way MAtt can track IP's and stuff. I'm on board 100% with AZdesertrat's advice.

 

There are over a dozen ways to skin a cat............... ;-)

 

Hey, your spectrapure products look great, I would easily use them myself. Thanks for posting the link. I'll check it out when the TDS on my in line meter goes over 4 after I've replaced the pre-filters. I'm sure there's lot's of customer feedback to read, so I'll have a good idea what I'm getting.

 

I am really curious as to why you consistent try to derail the thread and all but be combative with people in this thread. This is a forum a place where people some to offer and share advice.

I didnt say you biopellets werent the shiznat, all I said is I can buy a HoB filter and fill it with GFO bags to get me started for less than the costs of the pellets alone. There are different appraoches for the same problem.

In fact I dont even run GFO myself period, I run a $20 ATS, but that is a whole nother subject and I was simply offereing cheaper solutions since I got the jist that he might financially limited.

But then again unlike yourself I didnt think I would have to defend myself. Maybe and probably I am just feeding a troll at this point. Ill be honest brah, the combative types dont last long on board, might want to change up the drama & attitude, starting thinking of a post ban new name, or visit RC, I dunno.

 

Nice post.
I've run GFO on my 90 with great cost and headache. I replaced the GFO medium with biopellets, ran them down 60% in volume, took them out of the TLF reactor, bagged them and threw them passivly in my sump. Now I have to fish them out of my sump now and then to RAISE my nitrates and phosphates. Would you like to purchase media for and gently tumble GFO for a 240 FOWLR?

I'm also seeing that some of these posters would like some hindsight from other members in the name of simplicity so that they can make their own decisions based on their needs. You make your case, somebody else makes theirs and by the end of the day we have a happy original poster.

No need for anything other than that.

 

Back to the Original Question...

No, your fish will not die from using tap water. period.

Not too many decades ago, all we had was tap water and IO salt mix, coupled with a HOB carbon filter. Our FO tanks were just fine, even without LR! We need RO/DI for reef tanks because corals and inverts are far more sensitive than fish to the impurities in tap water. Furthermore, in my own personal experience and opinion, algae IS NOT the foe in a FO or FOWLR tank, but rather, a friend, as it consumes harmful nutrients and provides healthy, natural food for herbivores and omnivores. The reason we try to eradicate it from reef tanks is ONLY because it will overgrow and smother corals. FYI, there was a time when we bought algae spores from the LFS to spawn it in our FO tanks...

 

Back To Original Question...

Regarding municipal water: Some municipal treatment plants clean their system from time to time by adding ammonia. The resulting chloramine is deadly to fish and it sneaks through many RO systems undetected. You can call the water co and ask for a history of chloramine implementation. Tell them you have health issues with it. I have heard of cases when the send out notices beforehand. If suspected, you can pre-treat with many different water conditioners labeled for that and specific RO RO prefilters must be labeled for that job.
I would also keep a bottle of good stress coat conditioner handy in the event there are slime coat issues. This may be one reason why a previous post-er recommended a lengthy new tank cycle period. The one year cycle was his opinion, everyone else can follow their own conclusions based on their resources and circumstances.
I do use salts where tap water has been mentioned to be O.K. so I guess it's being done but I would assume higher experience levels and more caution and testing are required.

GOOD LUCK!

Try to buy from our sponsors whatever you can.

 

Prefilters as in sediment and carbon blocks have very little to absolutely nothing to do with TDS and have no effect on it. By definition TDS or dissolved solids are just that, dissolved in the water and usually in the 0.0001 micron range. Sediment filters can be 10.0, 5.0,1.0 and very good ones are 0.5 and 0.2 microns which is what I use. Many many times larger than 0.0001 microns so all the ydo is trap TSS or suspended solids which do not register on a TDS meter, inline or otherwise, and of course eliminat that 1 mg/L or so of residual chlorine.
It is the solely the job of the RO membrane and DI resins to remove TDS so changing the prefilters will not get you TDS below 4 of have any noticable effect on it.

Chloramines can be an issue but again, special prefilters are not required. This is often misunderstood as it is actually the DI resin that is by far the most important piece of chloramine removal since it is the ammonia that is the kicker, not the chlorine. A good 1 micron or less carbon block is more than sufficient for chloramines as long as you have a good full size vertical DI with proper contact time. Again, you don't learn this stuff overnight but I hate seeing misinformation thrown around and causing confusion.

Plants are not cleaned with ammonia as you state, not sure where you came up with that but in 37 years of running plants I have never heard of it? They may increase the chlorine dosage in certain basins within the plant but chlorine residuals cannot exceed 4 mg/L in the distributiopn system. The reason chloramines are used is their long lifespan in the far reaches of the water distribution system, they have no benefit within the plant since the retention time is relatively short.

 

I'm sorry OP, I believe your initial question has been answered and the thread has gone down hill since then, CLOSED