Do you Use RODI water?

[CM125]

I went through the search and cant find an answer to my questions. Mainly do I need RODI water? But also why? and is it proven to be better? I live in Airdrie so we use Calgary water supply. Both tanks seem to have some algae issues since our move and I haven't been able to curb it. My tap water tests fine but maybe there is something im missing. I added the poll because they are fun and im curious. Please post if you have actually seen a difference.

[chef]

It's a no-brainer. Especially if you have coral.I wasn't very happy about dropping over $300 for a unit, but way worth it in the long run.

[Dearth]

The problem is with tap water most cities and townships add trace chemicals to the water to help keep it safe to drink and depending on where you live there can be anything from heavy metal traces to chlorine to copper and so on.

The tap water may be perfectly safe to use but at the same time with RO and RODI water we get to control the variables and with tap water you might be able to use for years on end but that one time could cost you dearly. Most of those who use RO and RODI water will probably agree that it is better to control the factors and not leave it to chance because realistically we have a lot invested in our tanks I would rather be safe than sorry.

[hillegom]

What's your TDS? Here in the lower mainland, we have between 10-18 TDS, depending on the season. I don't think we really need RODI, but I wanted RO as well for drinking, no chlorine.

[CM125]

It's a no-brainer. Especially if you have coral.I wasn't very happy about dropping over $300 for a unit, but way worth it in the long run.

You say that, but why? what is in the water that I need to filter out, I don't have issues with things dying or suffering, only algae

What's your TDS? Here in the lower mainland, we have between 10-18 TDS, depending on the season. I don't think we really need RODI, but I wanted RO as well for drinking, no chlorine.

4-7

[hillegom]

I think you should check your meter. I heard Calgary water was around 200?

[jhj0112]

I'm following this thread closely.. My tap water TDS is from 8-14ppm..
I know this has been discussed many times here in GVRD..

some says it makes difference in coral growth.. some says they are fine without one..

I have not used it yet. I can't justify spending money to take out 14ppm....

[CM125]

I think you should check your meter. I heard Calgary water was around 200?

Hopefully someone else from Calgary chimes in, but I have heard Calgary is one of the best water sources in the country.

[Aquattro]

Hopefully someone else from Calgary chimes in, but I have heard Calgary is one of the best water sources in the country.

It's good water, but lots of minerals. Most people there report really high TDS.

However, the point of RO is consistency and insurance. There's always the possibility of something getting into the water mains and wiping out your collection of corals. Until then, you're probably fine running tap water. Mostly. Lots do without tank implosions. For me, it's worth the extra peace of mind.

[canadianbudz604]

I've always used ro water at the least but the one time I used tap they were fixing plumbing around my neighbourhood and I didn't know, so it crashed my tank and I lost slot of very nice corals. Not worth chancing in my opinion. However In the past 3 weeks my tapwater is testing at 3ppm so it's pretty damn clean.

[Trigger Man]

Calgary does have some of the best water in North America, I have a close friend that used to be in charge of monitoring water quality in Canada and the US for a major company a bit back. I always used RO water in my main display tank, and my office tank that got filtered water had more algae problems.
Thinking back the reason I got started on it really came down to others who had nice setups making a good point, do I want to risk it and then have to battle the possibility of algae and other problems, or try to nip it in the butt before it appeared.
On my current tank I have moved to a RODI unit, and there are many great ones on ebay at a reasonable price now a days. I am going on over 600 g through my current one and it is still showing 0 for tds after running it for a bit (it now shows 1 for Tds for the first bit whenever I start making water), as well as 0 for copper, chlorine.

[gregzz4]

I went through the search and cant find an answer to my questions
Have a look here The City of Calgary - Water quality parameters (http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/Water/Pages/Drinking-water/Annual-water-quality-report/Water-Quality-Parameters.aspx)

All that stuff is going into your tank without using at least an RO system. RODI would be better as I see your TDS is on average 177-294 according to the list.

Sure the #s are small, but I wouldn't want to be adding to my tank;
- aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, chlorine, chromium, copper, fluoride, nitrites, nitrates ...
The list goes on :surprise:

We have similar stuff in our water here in the GVRD (my tap TDS averages below 10), and I use an RO system that takes it to 0 TDS.
Makes me feel better about my tank, even though I drink my tapwater :lol:

[Myka]

I'm assuming this is in relation to reef tanks? I use tap water in most fish only systems and it works just fine. I've used RO/DI for the last 15 years or so.

[CM125]

Yes full reef tank, although good to know about fish only.

[reefwithareefer]

My TDS runs about 8 to 10 so, I use it for my top off only.

For my 55 gal salt mix, I add Prime or Amquel to get rid of the chloramine. BRS did a study and it found that almost all brands of carbon did pretty much nothing to take out the chloramine, which can be deadly to the livestock.

[CM125]

It seems the results are quite in favour of using it, although I wish more local people would chime in.

[Aquattro]

It seems the results are quite in favour of using it, although I wish more local people would chime in.

You don't need locals to chime in, lots of people in Calgary use tap water. It's fine, almost always. It's "what if" you need to think about. Or, you want the absolute best you can get and don't mind spending a couple hundred bucks. Can you run a reef without RO? Sure. Will it be fine forever? Ya, likely. Will something in the water kill all your corals one day? Could happen :) So you decide how much risk you're willing to go with.

[SteveConn]

...but wouldnt it be nice if we could keep the Calcium and hardness of Calgary water!

I'm in deep SE Calgary. TDS is high 200's. Sure go through DI resin fast. I found I need dual DI canisters to get my TDS down to zero.

Keeping my spent DI resin to recharge once I have enough to make it worth the hassle. See how well that works.

[Karsten]

I live in NW Calgary.

I always have used RO (2-5ppm tds) or RODI (0-1ppm tds). I didn't see a difference.

My tap water right now reads over 200ppm tds.

Hope this helps

[crimper]

I used to raised/bred Discus, the most sensitive fresh water fish that you could ever keep. Most discus keepers use RO/DI as discus is very sensitive to Chlorine and Chloramine, however based on my experience water here at the Lower Mainland is almost pure and Chlorine is the only thing that you need to watch out during Winter/Spring months.

A pinch of Prime during Winter/Spring time is all I use.

[Travillion]

I used to raised/bred Discus, the most sensitive fresh water fish that you could ever keep. Most discus keepers use RO/DI as discus is very sensitive to Chlorine and Chloramine, however based on my experience water here at the Lower Mainland is almost pure and Chlorine is the only thing that you need to watch out during Winter/Spring months.

A pinch of Prime during Winter/Spring time is all I use.

This is true, our tap water is brilliant. Especially Richmond's (less time traveling through pipes). Tested at only 12TDS, and didn't even register for chlorines.

However, I switched to RO/DI water a couple of months ago. I switched without knowing what our tap water was really like, I just assumed my tanks could benefit from higher quality water. I would actually still stick with my decision though. I ran a waste bucket for the first few weeks as a comparison, and let me tell you, that water STUNK, while the reservoir water had no scent and registered 0TDS. Even though we have very clean water, there are still clearly some nitrates floating around in there that could have an impact. I would also like to include that since making the switch, an algae problem has drastically decreased.

All that having been said, I have been keeping freshwater for nearly 10 years without RO/DI (obviously not as substantial of an ordeal), and never even questioned my water quality.

[SanguinesDream]

As we had a huge Pembina oil spill about 10 yrs ago upstream of our water intake, I have almost always used a tap RO unit.

However, as I move from a softie dominant tank to a sps dominant tank, I am upgrading to a 5 stage RODI unit.

[hfp75]

I live in the SW and my TDS here at home is 150-200'ish. Ive always used tap water - no issues that I know of. I recently was given a RODI system and will be installing it when time permits.

I'll run with it for a few months and see how my main tank responds...

I am guessing that there will be nothing noticeable. However, if there was ever a problem with the water you'd never notice if your running RODI.

Its that 1-2% chance.

[Ginu]

I maintain two tanks one in West Vancouver and one in North Vancouver and use RO/Di for both tanks.
The water quality is amazing in my opinion, North Van TDS out of the tap is 8-9 and west van 7-8.. only issue is the PSI on both lines which is 43PSI; from all my research I found out that most older buildings are required to run a top of 40-45 PSI due to old lines which can easily burst if higher pressure runs through them along with drastic temperature changes.

I am assuming that's low enough to use for a reef tank, however I will not take any chances which can potentially take months to remedy if not longer and in some cases it can never be reversed if there is ever a loss of livestock.

Every tank I've seen using tap water has some sort of algae issue and the owners have never been able to keep it down... for example Aquariums West in DT uses tap water and the guy there doesn't quite understand why his main display RSM S500 has algae... I like the shop and I bought a RSM S500 there but the guy should really know not to top off the water with direct tap water treated for chlorine and use tap water for water changes...

Now while we test for TDS and get a reading, how does one know what exactly is in the water at any given time?? parameters change all the time and I'm sure the water quality changes on regular basis as well and the ones using tap water have absolutely no idea what is in the water today vs last week vs next week and so on...

A decent RO unit runs about 300$ mark which is well worth it considering how much we invest in our tanks. Also why spend hundreds of dollars on testing kits and refills etc if the water used is from the tap??


In my opinion, the savings from using tap water vs RO/Di water are just not worth the risk.

[gobytron]

Pretty easy to see what's in your water...

http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/Water/Pages/Drinking-water/Annual-water-quality-report/Water-Quality-Parameters.aspx

[Aquattro]

I think that's a good sample of what is supposed to be in your water. If something else enters the water mains post testing site, it's invalid. Having RO protects against that. Also, the city doesn't test everything that might impact a reef.

[Ginu]

I think that's a good sample of what is supposed to be in your water. If something else enters the water mains post testing site, it's invalid. Having RO protects against that. Also, the city doesn't test everything that might impact a reef.


Also how often do they test the water? i doubt its daily and I doubt any reefer would log on to see whats in the water on any given day...