Transition from Tap Water to R/O Water

I began my saltwater aquarium 3 months ago using tap water. Now I have minimal algae issues and have decided to start using R/O water. Will it be beneficial to just use R/O water during topoffs and water changes, or should I empty it and start over?

 

Go ahead and use it on top offs and water changes.

 

+1,i'm in the middle of doing the same thing,just doing frequent water changes and all top offs with ro/di.

 

top offs and water changes.

It would be entirely too much work to change all the water for the minimal benefit you would get. IMO

 

Will the tap water eventually be replaced by the R/O water? I'm trying to rid the tank of the metals and minerals, so that I don't have algae blooms

 

Most definitely. You just keep diluting the old water until it has virtually no effect on the water in the tank.

 

I would say it would be diluted to a point of no concern or detectable on test kits,everytime you do a water change,your pulling dissolved organics,phosphates and other gunk out while replenishing with pure water and replenishing needed trace elements that get used up.

 

It will never be fully free of tap water , basic maths tells us that the QTY reduced is related to the amount of water changed

so if you changed 50% - you would have 50% tap water and 50% new water
if you changed another 50% - you would have 75% new water and 25% tap water
if you do this again - you end up with 87.5% new and 12.5% old
etc etc

you never get to 0 , unless you changed 100% , and even then there would be water in the rock and sand etc so you might get 99.9999 % at best

I am not suggesting you should or in fact need to do 50% water changes

I am just saying that , you cant remove the old water and not the new water with subsequent water changes

the larger the changes you do, the faster the benefits get realised
a weekly 5% water change, would have negative effect in countering any of the problems the tap water has created

if your not running GFO , and Carbon now would be a good time IMO

Steve

 

You will always have some tap water present, its impossible to remove it all no matter how many water changes you do. Some things are cumulative meaning they will never go away and build up over time. Thesooner you start on the water changes the better but don't get crazy about it, normal water changes will do.

And hopefully its RO/DI and not just RO ??? If its RO only you are still adding TDS and contaminants to your tank since RO by itself is only a 90-98% efficient device depending on what the substance is. A few things RO by itself is not great at ate nitrates, phosphates and silicates so make sure it is RO/DI or distilled as a second choice.

 

They're right. There will always be some water in your tank with it's origins in the tap, but RO also has it's origins in the tap. All the nutrients that came in with your so called tap water will be exported naturally through algae over time, so in reality everything that once made it tap water will be gone at some point.