View Single Post
  #16  
Old 12-12-2016, 03:05 PM
mike31154's Avatar
mike31154 mike31154 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Vernon
Posts: 2,073
mike31154 will become famous soon enough
Default

TDS, total dissolved solids. While the number is of interest, more importantly it's useful to know what those solids are. In most cases since we are talking about potable water, the solids deemed potentially harmful to our health need to be below a certain threshold. All water suppliers test their output into the system & produce reports that should be available on line to the user. I guess what I'm implying here is that your TDS could be as low as 5, but if that 5 includes copper (not considered harmful to humans), there could be consequences for your salt water livestock long term if you don't take steps to filter it out. Good idea to look up the info on your water source & that should help make a decision as to what level of filtration is appropriate to your situation.

As other folks have mentioned, your water source contaminants may change over the season and/or if the utility is flushing the lines or performing other maintenance. Here in the greater Vernon area there are 2 main sources, Kalamalka Lake & Duteau Creek. The city/regional district occasionally switches my tap water source from Kal Lake to Duteau. A heads up is usually published in the local newspaper. In fact this happened just recently when they were working on extending the intake of the Kal Lake source. I was on the Duteau Creek supply & enjoyed much softer water, 46 TDS as opposed to 180 or higher from Kal Lake. A good percentage of the TDS from Kal Lake is calcium, something many of us dose into our reef tanks. Leaves ugly stains on porcelain appliances (read toilets) in our homes & causes us to use more soap to get stuff clean due to water hardness. This reminds me I should check the latest report to see what's in the Duteau TDS, but since I do use an RO/DI system, I can sort of let that slide. A worthwhile investment in my case.
__________________
Mike
77g sumpless SW
DIY 10 watt multi-chip LED build http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=82206
Reply With Quote