Well water

[dabandit]

Ok,just moved to a farm on a well. The water is brownish,but it tests at 0nitrate,0nitrite and 0phosphate am I safe to use this in my tank without running it through an ro/di I mean a well is mother natures biological filter is it not? I have a 4 stage ro/di unit but its down at the moment and my fish desperatelly need to get back into my big tank currentlly I have a blonde naso,mandarin,2 clowns orange and black ocelaris and a niger trigger sharing my 10g nano lol

[rocketlily]

We're also on brownish well water. Lots of iron and sodium. Never really know what else is in the well water. I would never use it on any of my tanks.

[dabandit]

ahh iron. Thank you. Living on a farm is like visiting mexico,its beautiful but dont drink the water lol

[brizzo]

Yeah you can never be too sure of the metal, and heavy metal content of well water. You may even want to get it professionally tested for your own health. (Bacterial infections in wells are more common than you might think)

[rocketlily]

We never drink or cook with well water. Only for laundry (white's will yellow fast), showers, toilets and dishes. Water can change overnight depending on what's happening a few miles away. Not worth taking the chance with your health. We had alot of stomach problems with the kids until we finally figured out it was the water.

[hillbillyreefer]

Mine sounds similar to yours. I wouldn't use it in a salt tank without running it through the ro system. I have used my tap water in my freshie tanks without any trouble, but never tried it in my salt tanks.

[dabandit]

All the water coming into our house passes through a massive ro/di then is stored in a pressurised holding tank,the system is currentlly down at the moment and the supply water is bypassing the ro/di. Problem is the pump guy wont be out for a week and my fish are starting to look very unhappy.
I'll have to go buy some bottles for now gets kind of pricey when your filling a 100gal system lol 20 5g bottles at 11$ each.

[rocketlily]

Check around. We have 2 retail water outlets here that sell it for $2.50 per 5 gal if you have your own containers and you buy a card for 25 at a time.

[dabandit]

Thats the thing,I live waaay out in the country and only own 1 bottle,I believe the 10$ is just the deposit on the bottles. I am too far out to try it with just one bottle it would be 20 1hr drives lol

[rocketlily]

30 minute drive for us to the city. Currently stocking 7 bottles.

[hillbillyreefer]

All your water is treated with ro/di? Drinking,and washing? That must be one heck of a system. Maybe you should pick up a small system just for emergencies. It'll cost you a couple hundred bucks but would probably be cheapest in the long run. Trips to town are expensive. On the bright side you can get ro/di in your town unlike mine.

Good luck with it.

PS I'm playing with my lights as I type this. Think I found the problem.

[superduperwesman]

We're also on brownish well water. Lots of iron and sodium. Never really know what else is in the well water. I would never use it on any of my tanks.

Why would the sodium be a problem?? So will and r/o system remove the iron??

[rocketlily]

Why would the sodium be a problem?? So will and r/o system remove the iron??

Sodium is bad for your health if you drink alot of water. Really makes the coffee taste bad, makes fizzy lemonade and kills houseplants.

So will and r/o system remove the iron?? - not understanding

[superduperwesman]

Sodium is bad for your health if you drink alot of water. Really makes the coffee taste bad, makes fizzy lemonade and kills houseplants.

So will and r/o system remove the iron?? - not understanding

No I mean why would sodium be bad for your fish tank?? and you also mentioned iron.. do r/o systems remove iron??

[hillbillyreefer]

They do remove iron and sodium.

[Doug]

My well water passed through a large main line filter. Then to the water softener and then the ro, for the tank, drinking and fridge/icemaker water.

BUT !!!!! Here the mistake I made which led to down sizing and selling my 225g. The ro does not remove any excessive alkalinity. DUH ! I never knew that, kind of naive I guess about ro units. Got spoiled in Thompson with our good water. :lol:

Took me forever to figure our what kept screwing up my alk. and preventing me from keeping sps corals. Here all I needed was a DI on the backend of my ro unit. Geez, now someone tells me. :lol:

So thats my advice for filtration of well water and the only way I would ever use it for my systems. FWIW, of course. :lol:

[superduperwesman]

SO as long as your using an r/o well water should be fine??

[Doug]

SO as long as your using an r/o well water should be fine??


RODI.

Plus remember, without a softener, hard cold well water is very hard on membranes.