What kind of Water do you use?

[RobbAdams]

RO, Distilled Tapwater? I was wondering , as our local tapwater was great for my African cichlid tanks for its High pH, and buffering ability. Seems this would hold true for marine aquaria as well. anyone using the packaged "Ocean Water"

Robb

[Pisces]

:redface: What does RO stand for? :redface:

[Delphinus]

RO = reverse osmosis RO/DI = reverse osmosis & de-ionized :biggrin:

As to what water to use, you're asking a question that is sure to provoke a lot of strong feelings. You can use tap water and have good results, but, you're at the mercy of your municipality for any kind of consistency in your water parameters. Spring runoff, or whatever, and suddenly you can have sludge in your tank. Using RO or RO/DI gives you a consistent starting point.

As you get into more advanced areas of the hobby you may find that it becomes less of a luxury and more of a necessity to go into RO or RO/DI. But for simpler tanks where maybe all you have is mushrooms and other hardy soft-corals, you might be able to get away with it.

I have found, over time, that the hard water aspect of our water is less useful than you might think. Calcium in the water column is meaningless without a corresponding alkalinity factor. Without trying to get too complicated, think of "alkalinity" as the measure of "the ability to draw calcium out of the water". So if you have high calcium but zero alkalinity, it's useless because nobody can use the calcium for themselves, it's sitting in the water column basically inert. Managing your alkalinity is something that requires effort (i.e., it won't happen on its own). You can maybe manage it with water changes, buffers, kalkwasser, or the pinnacle is a calcium reactor. Don't worry if this sounds all over your head for now, it takes a while of reading before it all starts to make sense. :mrgreen:

PS. In answer to your question, I use RO. One day I'll switch into RO/DI but for now it's just RO for me. :mrgreen:

[martym]

RO/DI from Aquasafe :biggrin:

[Bob I]

I use Calgary tapwater. I always have, and it works fine for me. Although the poster did not ask, I must qualify my answer. I do not keep any stony corals except for a few digitata. The rest is softies, and some LPS.

[EmilyB]

RO/DI

[DiscusZ]

I use RO water in all my tanks in the past.. Right now I only have 1 reef tank, I have a fish room but it is not in operation at the moment. I used RO in all the Fresh Water tanks as well (I was breeding Angel fish and Austrialian rainbows)


Jim

[trilinearmipmap]

Ordered an Aquasafe RO/DI unit today.

The cost for a 75 gpd reef unit with replacement cartridges and TDS meter added on was about the same as the cost for a package unit which included 100 gpd RO/DI, replacement cartridges, TDS meter, as well as pressurized storage tank and faucet unit to attach to your kitchen sink for drinking water. So I got that unit instead.

[AJ_77]

Calgary tap water for changes, and RO for daily top-up. If you want to know everything I keep, send me a note.

Cheers,

[Canadian Man]

RO/DI

[whaase]

RO when it's not overflowing on the floor... :eek:

Walter

[Lofus]

RO

[Gujustud]

Tap Water Purifier (DI only I think?)

[medican]

RO/DI the same system you just got.......
works great TDS before 160, After 1