tap water??

There really is no cut and dry answer to that question. Water treatment and quality is different in every city. Like said before test it and you may be lucky enough to have good tap water. If you are talking about starting your tank cycle with rock and sand the water will not matter as much. You need nastys in there to get the cycle going anyway.

 

Not if you want long term success.
Why risk hundreds or thousands of dollars in inhabitants when you can get a reef quality RO/DI for $150 complete?
The name of the game is consistency and its not there with tap water. What happens when a storm blows through and the plant adds more alum or polymers, has to adjust the pH lower or adds phosphates for corrosion control? Or they add a new source or change the blend? They sure are not going to notify you ahead of time. I am a treatment plant supervisor by profession and while I'll drink the water I will not put it in my tanks period.

Start it out right from the very beginning and use RO/DI from day one. You wil never have a doubt in your mind if it was water that caused a problem since you alone control its quality.

Its very cheap insurance.

You don't need nasties at all. Some are cumulative and once its there it cannot be eliminated even with water changes! Thats dumb logic.

 

It really depends on where you live AZ, been reefing for over 7 years and have always used tap and i have long term success.

 

you use tap water????? boy o boy are u a lucky individual. I can understand on a FO tank with some clean tap water. But on a reef?

 

Its called luck. NY has one of the highest sediment or partciulate loadings in the USA. Their water systems are operating under consent orders from the EPA and are in sore need of upgrades. Even though you have low TDS your TSS is through the roof due to the water sheds and antiquated delivery system. NY is tough on prefilters and carbons. I would never chance it and I do treatment for a living.

 

Well i have been "chancing" it for 7 years with not a single problem, no algea, nothing. I wont fix whats not broke.

 

I also use tap, and have used it from day 1.
I would like to know some of the others tap readings. Here, we have 70-80 TDS with no traceable nitrates, nitrites, copper, or ammonia. Just a slight reading on PO4, but that gets filtered out by my reactors easy enough. I also use Prime to treat it.

 

mines about 45, same on po4, but like you pack since day 1 i have used tap. With the right system its not a big deal at all, plus with the money i save on ro i get to throw it all into my tank and make it look pretty lol

 

Mine is 830 and we have traces of rocket fuel and other volatiles. Its also 15 to 20 grains hardness so a softener is a good thing to have in front of the RO.

 

I would never risk not at least using RO water in a reef tank.

I used to work for a company that supplied equipment, install, and engineering to municipal water works. Like AZ stated, the plants can and do dose stuff you would never want in your reef tank. They don't need to ask the public when they do it, and they certainly won't let people know if they need to dose a bunch of chemicals.

That said, I know of 1 guy in our club that has a nice 125g that uses tap water, but he has his own well, and he lives on a spring fed lake. The water should be clean from the springs that presumably feed his well.