Tap Water

Quick question- In general, how bad is it to use tap water for a reef aquarium?

Obviously, I rid the water of Ammonia and chlorine, etc...

I must say, the water around here is actually very clean/pure...

 

Do you know the levels of Iron, Nitrate, phosphate

Additionally, do you know if your water treatment plant uses Chlorine or Chloramines. Many methods of removing Chlorine just breaks the bond when dealing with Chloramines so once that happens, the Chlorine is gone, but now you're adding Ammonia to your tank. I.e. Not a good idea

 

Sometimes you can use tap water sometimes you cant. I know where I live the tap water is fine and everyone in the area that I know uses tap water. Just have your tap water tested if you are unsure. I have a RO/DI system and I hardly ever use. I am setting up a second tank right now and I am going to use only RO/DI to see what the benefits are but with my other tank i always use tap water. So it all depends and I dont have city water which def helps

 

ya Tap is not good, not good at all for a reef. look into getting an Ro/Di unit. there is soo much stuff even in "clean" tap that you deff dont want on your corals. That stuff you add to tap may do ok removing chlorine but there are heavy metals that are still in there that will hinder tour reef. check out ThefilterGuys.Biz

 

I don't care how "clean" my city officials claim my tap water to be, I would NEVER use it. Not from any faucet in the world. RO/DI is the only way.

 

Tap water in a reef tank is a bad idea.

 

One thing to think about as well is that it's an uncontrolled source. What if your city all of a sudden starts using a different treatment process using new chemicals, or what if a farmer nearby starts using a different type of fertilizer, what if some of your pipes start deteriorating and leeching some new metal, etc? Of course those may not apply but there are so many factors out of your control it would worry me. I would never know whether my latest algae outbreak was because I had slipped up and started overfeeding unintentionally, or maybe a bunch of snails died, or maybe some nutrients were starting to creep into my water supply.

For me the only way to go is starting with a clean slate with RODI. Even that is not foolproof but it certainly rules out a lot of possibilities, especially if you keep an eye on your TDS with a meter.

 

Looks like RO is the way to go...

I will have to wait a little bit but then switch over...

Thanks to all!