RO Water/Tap Water

[mike31154]

The two gents from the West Coast have pretty much nailed it. Heavily dependent on your source water TDS. I ran treated tap water here in Vernon for a couple of years and am glad I finally saw the light & began using RODI. TDS here is over 200. Some of the dissolved solids are good, like calcium & magnesium etc. but most of the rest are just going to build up in your system & cause issues long term.

You should be able to pull some sort of report online from your water supplier that shows the breakdown of TDS in your tap water. This will give you a better idea of what's going into your system if you decide to use treated tap water.

[Cal_stir]

south western ontario here, TDS is @ 180ppm, water treated with chloramine so RODI is a must

[fishytime]

RO/DI here

[Coralgurl]

I only have an ro unit and need to pick up a tds meter. Thanks for the replies!

[megs_clark]

RO/DI water.
Our water has a low tds reading to begin with but when ever I use the tap water I end up with green hair algae. When I stick with RO/DI or just DI water it clears up. Also I dont have to clean the glass half as often using the purified water. Totaly worth waiting for it to fill with RO/DI water!!

[Coralgurl]

I'm waiting, not going to cheat.... I remember what our current tank went through with the set up and not going to repeat the same mistakes!

[kien]

the way I look at it, using RO/DI water with a TDS of 0 means you know exactly what you are putting into your tank, nothing. That is, pure water and nothing else. With non-zero TDS water you don't quite know what you are putting into your tank. Most likely a little bit of this and a little bit of that which may or may not be good for your tank. You just don't know :-)

Granted, you end up mixing your perfectly clean water with salt, but one would assume and hope that the salt that you are mixing into your water has been tested and is suitable for saltwater tanks and their inhabitants

Having said all that, there are plenty of people who use tap water with success.

[gregzz4]

You haven't mentioned what TDS meter you're considering, but I'd suggest the dual in-line style so as to measure Tap and RO water results.
I actually bought a second meter (single style) so as to measure DI results as well, but that's me being lazy and not wanting to move the meter around.