RO/DI A Must??
 

Can you maintain a successful reef tank without using a RO/DI filter or running out to buy special water for evry water change?

Just curious.

I do not use any special water and have had my tank for 3 years, maybe four. I know it
can work fine. I treat my water and that is it. I do not keep any sps's though.

My simple theory on this is: if you start with pure water, you can easily isolate problems if they appear.


Therefore I am a strong believer in RO/DI. In fact, I am anal about it (backflushing membrane, changing your DI resin, switching your prefilters every 6 months).

i would say it depends on the water quality of your area. in abbotsford the water is only 11 tds which is extremly low for tap water. but even so i use an rp/di just because i like the peace of mind haha. if the quality of water in your area is good then you can probably get away with treating it. but if your not mixing up to much water you can look into those tap water purifiers that just run the tap water through a cylinder with a de-ionization filterinside. those work fairly well and are a cheaper alternative to the full ro di.
hope this helps and if im way of someone will correct me im sure haha

far from a must, take a look through this recent post/poll

It all depends on your water quality. I assume Blackfalds gets it's water from the Red Deer river so the quality will change in the spring when you get the run-off, pesticides leach into the river which is high in phosphates, etc. If you test it and TDS are good give it a shot, if algae is uncontrollable them maybe you will have to switch, if all works well then you can save your money and the hassel of producing RO/DI water and storing it.