RO/DI units vs TAP water.

i started out with tap in my tank..and i had a lot of algae problems..go ahead and start running some sort of phosphate/silicate remover..once i did this it got rid of a lot of algae

 

Tap water is not used by serious reef tank owners.

So if you are not serious and just paying around, you can use tap water. But people that invest a lot of time and money dont use tap water.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/its-official-73100.html

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AND PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION AS TO HOW TAP WATER RUINED MY TANK!!! and in the next link (below) how eventually i broke and tore down my tank... I wish i made the ro/di decision before so none of this would have happened..

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/starting-over-74071.html

 

You my friend are 10000000% WRONG on this one, i have more tanks then most people and over 700 gallons of saltwater, all my systems are amazing and i am VERY serious with my tanks. And yup you guessed it! 100% of all my water is tap!


Now this is to be taken with a warning, my TDS is not high, well not 400 high like most, but i do use tap water and i am very "serious" about my reef keeping.

 

I too have only used tap water. I didn't have much problem with algae. I have softies, lps, and sps in my tank.

 

interesting...getting diff answers.

 

Most serious reef tank owners DO NOT use tap water regardless of TDS

Do yourself a favor, dont listen to clowns that pretend to be serious hobbyists.

RO/DI water will always be better than tap water, unless ofcource you have a faulty unit or something.

People will defend themselves to justify the use of tap water and tell you that they've had no problems.

I always recommend RO/DI water because it's safer and better logically. It's not possible for me to know the water quality in your area, and if it happens to be bad, it will be a pain to start over.

 

are you serious? so haveing 700+ gallons of saltwater tanks, all with tap water and none with algea...hmmmmm seems to me YOUR the clown....


it can be done and it has been done MANY times before, im more serious into this hobby then u will ever be and ive only used tap....WITH NO PROBLEMS

 

jzenob is correct. If you have good tap water you won't need an RO filter. However in this hobby you need to assume you have bad water unless you can prove it otherwise. Buy a $20 TDS meter. If your water measures 20 ppm or less you don't need an ro filter IMO. I never purchased an RO filter when I started my tank the first time years ago. I eventually quit out of the frustration of scrubbing all the hair algae off my rocks with a toothbrush every couple weeks. Tap water has never gone into my new tank and I've never had algae issues.

 

Im not an expert by any means but it isnt even logical to think algae only comes from the type of water you use. There are so many different factors involved