What did people use before ro/di water???

1978-aged tap water....2010-aged aquarist. - Paul

 

My new fish store that just opened up that a cool guy I met owns who's been doing tanks for year, He said he uses tap water in his tanks in the store and all his fish are beautiful and tanks are crystal clear. I live in NYC and he says the calcium level is so high or something its not a problem but he told me before water changes I should take a bucket, Fill it with water and mix it with Reef Crystals (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewi..._campaign=mdcsegooglebase2&utm_content=AS9539 - which I beleive also kills copper and some other ****), Some Stress Coat Marine (http://aquariumpharm.com/Products/Product.aspx?ProductID=129) and let a pump sit in it overnight to oxygenate the water but he did mention he had JUST gave away a RO/DI system he would have gave me so I'm sure its better but, If you take the right precautions, Let your water sit It'll be fine. My water looks good now but I'm not sure, I'll take it slow and if I have problems I'll shell out the extra cash for a RO/DI water but I doubt it.

Actually guys, I have this countertop filter, Would this be good to use for my fish water?

http://www.crystalquest.com/how countertop water filter works 3.htm

 

Letting water sit is not a replacement for treatment, nor is a salt mix or additives like Stress Coat.

The countertop filter is for drinking water taste and odor and again does very little if anything for TDS removal. It removes chlorine and metals like copper with carbon, that is if its fresh carbon and not exhausted, and it removes large sediment over 1 microns in size. TDS is 100 times or more smaller than that.

NYC has one of the highest sediment or particulate loadings in the US. They are paying daily penalties to the EPA and have been for years and will do so until their new surface water treatment plants are completed and on line. Your water is basically untreated, maybe that will open your eyes.

 

Well I don't have the money to pay for a RO/DI at the moment and haven't had any problems yet but, We will see.

 

I use tap water in my tank although I tested it before hand to male sure the levels of nutrients were accepable to me.


That being said, think of it like this: Before there were scalpels people used sharp rocks.....I say NOOOOO thank you! I move/evolve with the times, LOL!!

 

i am still pretty new. only a couple months into reef, but my first fish only is still up and running with a clown and damsel that are about 7 years old.

i use tap water, i am very excited about getting an RO/DI with my upgrade this month. one thing that has never made sense to me was paying for RO/DI water. i would think tap with treatments, or your own RO machine would be best. i do water changes alot and if i got water from the LFS everytime i would go broke. a decent RO is only like 150-200 bucks. even with a small tank it would pay for itself quick.

 

All I can say is that if you are using tap water now, you may not think it's bad (and it might be acceptable to you). BUT, if you were to switch over to RO water, I promise you will never go back Even our freshwater tetra tank was "crystal clear" with tap water, and when we got our RO/DI filter we started using that water in their tank. BIG difference. On tap water, the tank looked fine, no problems. We were still shocked at how big of a difference RO water made on the tank.

You can find RO/DI (or just RO) water everywhere these days. You don't have to go to an LFS or buy a filter to get some. We used to buy ours from the grocery store down the street. It was about $0.30 per gallon I believe. Most grocery stores have water filters for buying drinking water, and normally they display what filtration processes they use. Ours used carbon filtering, Reverse Osmosis, and UV lighting (and I think DI as well...not sure though), so when we switched to water from our RO filter at home, we didn't notice a difference in the tanks at all. Meaning that grocery store water was good stuff.

Oh, and then we bought a TDS meter. You'd be surprised at how loaded with crap some of the so called "filters" can be for refrigerators and sinks and all that stuff. Then we measure our RO water and see a big fat zero Which is good, if you didn't know that Honestly I might want to start drinking our RO water instead of the stuff that comes from the fridge...

 

I was under the impression that RODI is not good to use in freshwater systems. I read that on here not too long ago.

 

It's fine.....just buffer it when doing water changes. Kent RO Right, Seachem Replenish, Caribsea Aragamite, etc. For evaporation topoff, just use straight RO/DI water.

 

Yep it's fine for it. From my experience, it's definitely good for it. How we switched was just topping off with it. Sure, there's not alot of evap from a freshie tank, but it still evaporates a little. We've got anything from feeder goldfish to a butterfly loach in that tank