how much harm could a little tap water do?

I've been in the process of moving this last week and as a result my tank has gotten WAY less attention than it normally does. since I have not been at the old house for than a half hour at a time, I have no RO water made for top offs. It's a 140+ gallon system, so a couple days ago I decide it'll be OK to just top off with tap water until I can get the tank to the new house (doing that nightmare tomorrow).

yesterday I noticed my frogspawn looked like it was pooping . . . odd as it hasn't been fed in about a week, but whatever, and everything else looked totally normal. today 3 heads died off the frogspawn from what looks like brown jelly, and my huge RBTA split into 3!!!

this sort of thing ever happen to anyone else?

~Will.

 

i used tap when i started my tank 2 yrs ago - i have a conditioning system and the water tests 0 for metals with the water company.

of course, i then spent 2 yrs chasing every algae known to man.

lesson learnt.

 

IMO, tap water top off in 140 gal is not significant enough unless tap water is really really bad. Could frogspawn is responding to stress from moving from tank to tank? Same goes for RBTA.

 

Could your tap water have copper in it?

 

Man. My mother in law had a freakin 30 gallon when she lived in HOUSTON... Evaporation central... and she would get pissed off when her boyfriend would forget to top off because her filter would make a lot more noise. So she would just pour tap water in. He said she had to have topped it off with more than a gallon one day. That tank lasted for 2 years before Rita killed their power for 2 weeks. Her boyfriend's tank is what originally got me started on the hobby.

 

Actually, I had a problem with my RO/DI without my knowing. Did everything....every recommendation except TDS my source water. It tested about 643 going in, 148 @ the RO, 147 @ the DI. Needless to say, I found out about 3weeks after my algae infestation began. Lost no corals at all though.

 

I top off with tap water... that is what i use in my tank... granted it is double filtered through the water filer.... but I have not seen a big issue with my tank

 

in my old tank (noob tank) i used aged/conditioned tap for top off and sometimes I even mixed in a little tap with my water i brought home from LFS... didnt see much ill effect but never saw much growth either. should be fine. if not keeping ultra sensitive stuff.

 

Nothing's been moved yet, that happening tomorrow. My TDS is usually around 185-200 out of the tap, and 1 out of my DI resin that needs to be changed.

~Will.

 

Nope, i agree with what someone else said... i think the only way you'd have die off like that is if there was something really bad in that water. Its always possible your local water treatment plant decided to add something without telling you i suppose... i'd test your tap water and see what's in it.
Any other changes to the tank?
Have you moved things around it? Is it possible something has fallen into the tank/sump/ect?
When our office started their two tanks they were still in the middle of building everything! A nail fell into the aggressive tank and was throwing the params off. IDK, i'm groping at straws here... Seems odd that something would change so quick without an outside influence.