Water changes?

I very rarely do water changes, and I use tap water
When I test it and bring it for testing they always commence me at my LFS for having such great water quality...

Is there something terribly terribly wrong with this?

 

Are you talking about your initial set up from 2009?

 

My husband has been in the hobby 55 years and it's only since he met me that he started using RO/DI (8 years out of 55). And it's not that his tapwater was so great as we live in Los Angeles and the water is undrinkable. So, it is very possible to have a well running tank and good water quality when using tap, however there are inherent risks when doing so.

 

My tap water has nitrates and phosphates in it. I used tap water in my initial setup 3 years ago and as a result, I could never keep my cyanobacteria or green hair algae in check.

I have since restarted my tank using distilled water and my parameters are glorious.

 

Nothing wrong with it if your water quality is good. However, just like Incognito said, there is risk because you are relying on the quality control of the city in which you live.

 

I have well water, it's been very consistent and we get that tested for health reasons.
No, this set up is at least that old, I parted my 2009 set up for the most part.

 

I use distilled water now and again to add to the tank (I have to add very often, our house is extremely dry)

 

Just a few decades ago, all we had was tap water. There were many, many successful SW aquariums running with well or dechlorinated city water.

The big problem is that there were also many that failed, and one can really never know until they try at the risk of crashing their tank...

 

When I was using tap water, I never de-chlorinated it.

I was told that the salt mixes buffered out the chlotine, no problem.

It seemed to work well. My tap runs 150ish TDS.

I've been using RO/DI now at least 6 months, TDS of 0, and still have a slight amount of cyano, despite API kit reading ot 0 for nitrates and Phosphates.

 

Define "great water quality"? I am betting they are testing for nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, pH, calcium and alkalinity.

Take a sample of your tap water in and ask them to test it with a TDS meter. If they are not testing for things like phosphates, silicates, copper, trihalomethanes, volatile organics, fuel byproducts, synthetic organic chemicals etc then of course they are going to say it is great. Out of sight, out of mind in other words, if they don't see it then they are ASSUMING it isn't there when in fact it probably is.

Contact your water utility and request a copy of their Consumer Confidence Report that is sent out annually to all users and should be posted on a website or published in the local papers. This will give you a better indication of water quality but it is only a snapshot in time and not completely accurate since it is only required to list what was tetsed for in that past calendar year and not everything gets tested annually plus the utility can manipulate the system a bit. I have found it is better to make friends with someone who works there and let them know you have a reef system so they clue you in on specifics, in my water treatment career I was contacted like this dozens of times.