Why you NEED RO/DI!!!
 

Nuff Said:
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q...9/IMG_1750.jpg

That is awesome. A picture can say it all.

On a serious note, are many reefers NOT using RO/DI?

After all of the money we spend on our tanks, why would anyone use tap water and potentially cause so many problems?

-pictures like that reassure me that the $ I spent on a DI was worth every penny! -i totally agree with andrewsk on that one, if your already spendin' large coin on a reef, it's more than worth your while to invest in at least a simple DI-

So is the top bucket right out of your tap? If that is the case I think there is something wrong with your water :O

ditto

And why all the references to spending a lot of money on your tank? That's not necessary, and neither is RO/DI. I just can't justify all that 'excess' water going down the drain.

-i agree 100%, i know tap water isn't the best but definitely shouldn't be brown!

I'm no scientist, but I think it has more to do with how the light hits, refracts, reflects on/around/about the particles in the water, than something actually wrong with the water itself. Note that the bottom bucket has a colour too. A bluish tinge. My last draw of Victoria tapwater to my RO/DI metered 20ppm going in. Not bad. But there definitely is stuff that gets removed. Before RO/DI, I used to get a brown ring in my changewater totes. Now that I use RO/DI....no brown ring.

I've seen a few tanks that actually look spectacular on just tap water + conditioner.
Regardless that is quite the photo comparison! Did you happen to measure the TDS in both buckets?

Sorry don't have a TDS meter.

I think if everyone filled up a 5 gal bucket of their tap water...it would have a tint to it.