Alberta Tap Water
 

Starting my first reef tank and I initially ordered a Spectrapure RODI system, it came in defective so now I have the opportunity to return it and get my money back or replace it.
The plan was to replace it and use RODI water, the tank is a 250 Gallon.

However talking to a few members in Edmonton, all of them are saying return it, get my money back and just use tap water with prime. Their tanks looks amazing, and they're growing plenty of different coral.

Is that a popular opinion in Edmonton or Alberta? Have you had success with tap water or have you seen the difference RODI makes?

Thanks!

You can always query the city for a copy of the latest water report, it will tell you near everything about what is coming out of that tap. I'm in the Vancouver area, but one of the nicer SPS tanks I've seen is run very low-tech and entirely off tap water + prime, so it's obviously possible.

Do you have other tanks with RODI?
How do they compare?

I would always use rodi myself and my media gets pretty grimmey in it , so AI cant see prime taking any of that stuff out meaning all thats just going in your aquarium . Any steps I can take to help keep the water cleaner for my fish / corals / inverts worth it for me .

Edmonton city water is good but the problems you will run into is in the spring and when heavy rain falls . The water comes from the river and run off from the mountains bring many elements that will not be in a realm of optimum reef leaves. RO water or even better RODI is a clean slate add reef salts mix and good to go for any corals. I have seen softy and lps tanks do fine with city water.
But who wants to struggle with nitrates and phosphates or take chances when doing there water changes . Dirty water could kill sps or give nasty algae problems.

If runoff from the farms gets into the water you will get high nutrients and tons of algae. I had that problem in Saskatchewan. With the amount of coin and time going into livestock, I wouldn't risk it. Plus like Razor says, the water quality probably won't be constant, therefor you could have an unstable system.

Edmonton has horrible run off in melt times of year, prime is an additive that helps with conditioning chlorine and Ammonia but does not get rid of the impurities/dissolved solids in your water column.

I’m starting a new system in Edmonton and will not use tap water at all.

Thanks for reading my 2 cents!