View Full Version : If RO units didnt exist would you use tap water?
As above
Curious to see responses?
regards
Stephen
disco_dave
01-12-08, 16:34
in 1993 when i first kept marines, we all used tap water.
Many moons ago I did use tapwater. Used to run it through a 'nitragon' and then through some DI Resin (which didn't last very long!). I would add de-chlorinator and other stuff to make it safer.
I used to keep many soft corals, mushrooms etc and a few LPS and all were okay.
So to answer your question, yes I would use it if RO units weren't available. I would just tailor the livestock i kept to the equipment that I had available.
When i first started a long time ago many things that are around today never existed, one was RO water so what we used to use is tap water and treat it with a de-chlorine solution but back then we never had the quality and assortment of corals ect that we had today and success was very limited this could have been down to many things, tap water included.
if RO units didnt exist then this hobby would be a lot harder, but not impossible!
We would go through huge ammounts of phos remover for starters, plus we would probably be buying other so called "miracle products" like ecoaqualizers and other such fantastic devices :D :D
seriously though, I think the majority of us would be using NSW, like the stuff you can already buy in bottles for some extortionate ammount
Nope, I'd buy the DeIonised water from Halfords you can buy. It's £3.95 for 5 litres so not cheap, I'd downgrade to suit.
mike022380
01-12-08, 16:41
natural sea water :thumbsup:
:doh::doh: posted at same time
thats a good point scoob, we could all make our own de-ion water at home, with the kettle on 24/7 and some kind of drip tray catching the condensation!
think we might see the leccy bill increase a tad more though
natural sea water :thumbsup:
:doh::doh: posted at same time
Quite a few people down near me are using this with good results, it could well turn out to be the future source for many people as long as its clean and not full of oil ect.
BionicYeti
01-12-08, 16:49
Stupid question but why is tap water so bad for marines ? Is it mainly to do with the metals in the water ?
I only ask as I dont suffer from algae in my freshwater tanks using tap water so cant see why it should be a problem when using salt water ?
its ok for the fish, but the corals wouldnt be too happy.
ill let someone else explain why, gotta make tea!
ourmanflint
01-12-08, 16:51
Why not natural rainwater? ~Easy to collect, no chlorine, metals, pesticides etc?
Anybody doing this
:D
Why not natural rainwater? ~Easy to collect, no chlorine, metals, pesticides etc?
Anybody doing this
:D
You probably still want to filter it though. It must have some chemicals such as pollution in it.
scaredpassenger
01-12-08, 17:19
there probably is a small amount of nasty substances in rain water as it does come from evaporation from all other the place. just a thought!
^^^^ yeah what he said ^^^^
Try leaving out a glass to catch rain water i did this some time ago, then tested it, it has very high levels of nitrate and phosphate.
Saltyfingers
01-12-08, 19:58
Needs must...
I think if we didn't have RO we would have a lot more algae covered tanks. There are plenty of them as it is so I guess there would be gazillions of them!!
Our tap water has a tds of 45ppm, we started off with tap water, through a nitragon, then carbon plus dechlorinator and algae like you wouldn't believe. The snails didn't last too long. NO3 and PO4 were undetectable but only cos the algae was growing so fast it was using it all up. God knows what a tank with a higher tds would have been like...I don't think we had any corals at the time though...
Sharon
ourmanflint
01-12-08, 23:28
Try leaving out a glass to catch rain water i did this some time ago, then tested it, it has very high levels of nitrate and phosphate.
True.. what I should have said was rain water + DI resin would make a pretty good substitute as even dirty rainwater would only have a TDS of less than 10ppm.
So DI would last a pretty long time.
:D
wayne in norway
09-12-08, 13:57
Swap it round - if your tapwater had a tds of <5 would you bother with an RO?
If we didn't have RO most people here wouldn't be able to keep marines. I see it as one of the advances in recent times that has allowed average Joe to keep marines and corals successfully in a home environment.
If I didn’t have easy access to RO I would have probably kept with fresh water, chiclids in particular.
I would run out of patience collecting NSW once or twice a month.
aberdeen aquarist
10-12-08, 10:13
I would end up running a 500M long hose down a hill and getting a very big pump to supply me with NSW, or get Torryboy to get it when he finally get's his boat working again:whistling:
Something Fishy
10-12-08, 13:55
Nope. My tapwater has very high readings for both phosphates and nitrates. I'd probably use an API de-ioniser.
my tap water has tds of 50+, nitrite and nitrate = 0.
ph=8.4.
In future i'd either just run my tap water through a carbon filter and be done with the ro, or drive six miles to my nearest beach and help myself.
Lucky Eddie
12-12-08, 12:37
I'd use the water out of my dehumidifier.
TDS of <35ppm
Better than some LFS!
yeah, nice!
thats the worst thing you could possibly do!
if RO didnt exist i'd probably try setting up a tank using just NSW, and for topoff, deionised water, or distilled water or anything else i could get hold of that was more pure than tap water. having seen the level of stuff in my tap water, i dont even drink it, certainly wouldnt expect fish to live in it
L3igh 1990
06-01-09, 00:10
id use mineral
id use mineral
which would be useless for top up water.
chrislove01
06-01-09, 16:18
What is this RO you speak of?
I use tapwater all ready
If tap water didnt exist I might consider RO......
Regards
Chris
Your not the first person thats said that..
someone else shocked me when he said that.
He even said his LFS reccomended it because they only used tap water.
Hey does anyone use NSW?
Like if you lived in blackpool couldnt you just go grab a container ful for a water change?
What is this RO you speak of?
I use tapwater all ready
If tap water didnt exist I might consider RO......
Regards
Chris
I live in scotland and have in the past kept marine fish in tap water with water conditioner and the fish were fine for the 7 years I had them. I am now setting up a FOWLR tank and was about to buy an RO unit, does anyone else in scotland use tap water with conditioner only. I also have a tank with 8 large Discus in it that I do not use RO water in, and have had them for 6 years.
griffiths212
26-01-10, 14:12
is the tap water ok to use after dechor chem for a frst fill of the tank then ro for topup and water changes , what quality is the water after the dechor as done it's bit
Hi, I have not done a full test of the water recently but will do and get back to you.
CRAIG WANLESS
26-01-10, 17:30
I have kept marines and freshwater for around 20 years{on and off} water quality has always been very good in edinburgh..think it depends on wot your keeping....but fish and softies were always ok in tap water,though i wouldnt go past ro water now...
ste hughes
26-01-10, 17:34
thats a good point scoob, we could all make our own de-ion water at home, with the kettle on 24/7 and some kind of drip tray catching the condensation!
think we might see the leccy bill increase a tad more though
you can do it with sunshine :D
they sell inflatable things to do it for when people get stuck at sea in a dingy
ste hughes
26-01-10, 17:35
and i used to use aged tapwater when i first started
Tap water....heat to 100C and distil! EASY!!! ;-) Dont come to me with your gas bill though!
I ran a marine nano on tap water and de-chlorinator for ages. My water is pretty good though!
About 8 ish yrs ago I ran a very succesful tank on canister filters and Tap water and a small skimmer.
I had gorgonians so big I was constantley fragging them. They filled the tank.
It was very heavily stocked as well and I only feed about half a cube a day if that! All the fish were very healthy.
I never even knew about RO water back then and I didnt know you had to feed certain corals.
+ I only ever needed to clean the tank galss every 7 days.
Somtimes I look back onto that tank and how beautiful it was and look at all the £0000's ive spent on equipement for my new build, I just hope it was a good a success as the one on tap water.
water is good by me so tap water with carbon would prob be my option but would not keep some corals i do at mo
We would have to, no? ;-)
davethefish
10-02-10, 13:06
reef keeping is a lot easier compared to nearly 20 years ago when i first started,
tap water and decholrinator is how i started with fish only.
massive algal blooms from green through to red carpeting everything.
later got a waterlife DI filter 1/2" hose in and out, would do up to 25 gallon on 1 litre of resin:laugh:
my first RO unit was a 30gpd, combined sediment and carbon block in a single chamber.
with the 30gpd membrane on top. cost me over 2 weeks wages from purity on tap
they're still extortionate prices today :laugh:
So my tap water tests out at 360 ppm, which seems very high indeed compared to some quoted on here. My RO is putting out 26ppm, but I haven't changed any filters in a year (I know, I know....). What TDS should you be looking for in RO?
Hi Red,
Ideally zero TDS, which ensures you aren't pumping phosphates back into the tank (amongst other pollutants). You could change your filters or add a DI resin 4th stage.
richyrich1304
18-02-10, 21:36
As above
Curious to see responses?
regards
Stephen
They do exist, end of:laugh::laugh::laugh:
Distil water over the woodburner :)
Actually, there's a thought :ponder:
So my tap water tests out at 360 ppm, which seems very high indeed compared to some quoted on here. My RO is putting out 26ppm, but I haven't changed any filters in a year (I know, I know....). What TDS should you be looking for in RO?
With an input of 360ppm and decent pressure I would expect a decent RO unit to bring that down to 3ppm at the very most, then reduce to 0 with a DI pod to polish, changing everytime TDS reaches 1ppm.
With an output of 26, I would say your prefilters and membrane are shot......or your TDS meter.
(my input is 450ppm in the summer, 6 stage 100gpd with Di brings it to 0ppm TDS easily)
vBulletin® v3.8.7, Copyright ©2000-2012, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.