Why only RO water?

[dogsrule19341]

Hi Guys and Gals,
I'm wondering what's the point of using only RO or distilled water for covering the losses of evaporation.
I've never used RO/distilled water for topping my water off in my 180 gallon FOWLR (with quite a few exceptions!) and I've never had any problems...
My filter is probably 20-40 gallons including mechanical and bio balls.
My livestock are
Fish:
Hippo Tang
Purple Tang
3 spot damsel, 3 strip damsel, 3-4 yellow tails, school of 11 green/blue chromis
Frogfish
Panther Grouper
Coral:
Mushrooms
Other:
Several unidentified sponges
15-20 hermit crabs
15-20 snails including turbos and others
Misc. Crustaceans and weird little creatures that I got with the rocks and gravel!

 

[dogsrule19341]

oh yeah most of my rock is live (no idea what kind)

 

[AZDesertRat]

RO/DI gives you consistency, you get the same high quality water every time with a properly maintained system.
Tap water changes. A storm blows through and treatment changes. The water main down the street bursts or Joe Contractor digs up a water and sewer line running parallel to each other. Your utility switches sources or blends and has to add phosphates to control corrosion in the distribution system. The commercial or industrial plant down the road has a backflow of chemicals. Your neighbor sticks the hose in a tree well, horse trough, pet water dish or the swimming pool and a line down the street breaks causing a backsiphon. Your water utility decides to change their residual disinfectant from free chlorine to chloramines which now contain ammonia and they don't have to notify the public.

There are hundreds of possibilities and unfortunately they happen every day. The watre can leave the storage reservoir or treatment plant in safe drinking condition but they have little control once its in the distribution system.

RO/DI takes care of every one of the above without breaking a sweat.

 

[Anonymous]

If you don't do frequent water change, by adding tap water, your salinity and or other mineral concentration will increase gradually. Take a look at Dead Sea in the Middle East, and see what happened to this formerly freshewater lake.

Besides the mineral problem, the ability to control your water quality, as mentioned above, is another benefit.

 

[Anonymous]

It depends on where you live. Some places have very good tap/well water, but most do not. I also see that you do not have any real substancial coral growth, particularly SPS corals. What the corals look like in your "tap" tank will tell you more than just basic water testing.

 

[AZDesertRat]

Tap water is never advised no matter where you live. Some may have low TDS but can also contain high sediments such as the NYC area or places like the Atlanta area which can be great but change in a heartbeat when big storms blow in. RO/DI above everything else gives you consistency.

 

[Anonymous]

A TDS meter will tell you if your water does not need treatmant. I would at least run it through carbon if it tested fine with the TDS meter(esp if treated with chlorine/chloramine).

 

[AZDesertRat]

A TDS meter does not tell you the whole story but its a start. Many substances such as phosphates, silicates and nitrates do not register well on a hobbysist grade TDS meter so can go undetected.
It is never advisable to use tap water, carbon treated or otherwise. Think of the amount of money you will have invested in a reef system then ask yourself what is the single largest ingredient in that tank? Water of course, so a good RO/DI is very cheap insurance.

 

[D.W.L.]

I know of some cities on our west coast, where the tap water is extremely low in tds. I suppose one could use it for certain tanks or even reefs, with some filtering.

As others mentioned, most are not like that. Even in our own city here, the newer section has a tds reading of 200 to 300 range but at my friends in an older section its over 800ppm. 8O

 

[Anonymous]

A TDS meter does not tell you the whole story but its a start. Many substances such as phosphates, silicates and nitrates do not register well on a hobbysist grade TDS meter so can go undetected.
It is never advisable to use tap water, carbon treated or otherwise. Think of the amount of money you will have invested in a reef system then ask yourself what is the single largest ingredient in that tank? Water of course, so a good RO/DI is very cheap insurance.

There are quite a few reefers using tap water. These reefers live in areas where the water is low in TDS and is soft. It can be done in some cases, not most. Most areas have terrible tap water for reefing, or fish keeping in general.

You can tell the successful reef keepers using tap that it is "never advisable". I'm not looking for a fight, but it can be done under the proper tap water conditions.

 

[AZDesertRat]

Its a risk most of us are not willing to take. I am a municipal water treatment plant supervisor and manager by profession and have been for over 35 years and I would never think of using tap water. Tap Water is my business so that should tell you something. Water conditions change and stability is what you should be looking for in a reef system. Lets see, $150 for a good reef quality RO/DI system for my $3,000+ in corals and fish or tap water? No contest!

 

[Anonymous]

I think your tank works because you have the dog guarding it. :lol:

I believe it is possible to balance out a tank and use any tap water fit for human consumption. especially if you do no water changes and just top off.


my .02

 

[Anonymous]

Its a risk most of us are not willing to take. I am a municipal water treatment plant supervisor and manager by profession and have been for over 35 years and I would never think of using tap water. Tap Water is my business so that should tell you something. Water conditions change and stability is what you should be looking for in a reef system. Lets see, $150 for a good reef quality RO/DI system for my $3,000+ in corals and fish or tap water? No contest!

There's a middle ground, though. Skip the RO, keep the DI. In places like NYC where the tap is really low in TDS this is viable (indeed, I know few reefkeepers in the area who use RO and quite a number using just DI quite long term), places like Los Angeles where the tap is horrid it's not.

 

[AZDesertRat]

In NY the suspended solids will kill a DI filter fast unless you have good pretreatment. NYC has one of the owrst sediment problems in the US due to its water not going through conventional treatment plants. Companies like Spectrapure developed their ZetaZorb pleated prefilter with 10x the surface area so it lasts longer and filters better.

 

[Anonymous]

In NY the suspended solids will kill a DI filter fast unless you have good pretreatment. NYC has one of the owrst sediment problems in the US due to its water not going through conventional treatment plants. Companies like Spectrapure developed their ZetaZorb pleated prefilter with 10x the surface area so it lasts longer and filters better.

I get around 150 gallons out of a single DI canister in Brooklyn. Ditto pretty much everyone else I know, including the tank at Pratt.

 

[Anonymous]

I used to just use a DI and it would last me about a 100-150 gallons and my area shares a water supplier that supplies eastern NYC(Queens). I do use an RO/DI unit because the water here has some high TDS values and the water is very hard. My DI does last much longer now. I will not use a blanket statement and say all tap water is bad, just because mine is not so great. Also, I am not steering anyone away from RO/DI units, but there are areas where people can get away without the need for them. When I had a star polyp and shroom tank years back I just used a carbon and floss filter for my makeup and water changes and my tank was very healthy, stable, and clear.

 

[kendall98]

I know this is off the topic but, how does your frogfish deal with your other fish? I was thinking about getting one but herd they were an aggressive fish.

 

[dogsrule19341]

The fish that he has to be with have to be fast and not too small. What fish do you have?

 

[kendall98]

I dont have any yet Im just starting a new tank and were looking at maybe getting one.

 

[DavidY]

Consider this too...what evaporates from your reef system is pure H2O. Therefore you really want to top off with as close to pure H2O as possible, thus the need for RO/DI water. Using tap water will eventually degrade your system's water quality over time. In a FOWLR however it's probably not a big deal.