Tap water use.... Does anyone use treated tap water?

[TXSea]

I was just checking to see if anyone uses just plain treated tap water. I don't but sometimes I wonder how much would it hurt if say you treat the water and then mix your salt and let it circulate for a day with a powerhead. Just curious.

[Scream311]

I use regular old tap with salt mix on my fowlr and rodi with salt on my reef. No problems

[tebstan]

I used tap water for a long time in my reef. Never had any problems, until the tap water started reading at 10 nitrates and I was over feeding trying to keep some NPS alive. I started using RO, but I hate lugging the jugs around.
My tap water is back to reading 0 nitrates. I no longer have NPS or nitrate problems, so I'm considering switching back to tap. I noticed my tank had a lot more cool filter critters when I had tap water. I don't have as much sponge or feather dusters since I'm using (too) clean water.

[ramsey]

I'm far too scared and paranoid to use tap water. I'm sure it would work but what if there was a ton of contaminants that suddenly showed up in the water and you polluted your whole tank. I have too much invested in my tank to NOT use a $150 RO/DI unit. If it was a FOWLR or freshwater tank, I'd likely be brave enough to use tap.

[ShAgMaN]

It kinda trips me out how people are paranoid of tap water. I would understand if it were serious alk or ph issues...but contaminants? Personally I would be worried for my own well being if contaminants such as heavy metals, ect. were strong enough to kill my coral. I guess my 7+ years using tap water have been so uneventful that it just doesn't concern me too much.

The only thing that concerns me with tap is higher phosphates - which I treat for. Otherwise my biggest concerns for salt aqua are nitrate levels - from waste, and temp swings - both primarily unrelated to tap. This is based on 15 gal. water changes every other week on my 150 gal., so not a whole lot of tap going into the tank.

That being said, I'm thinking about adding an RODI just to check the difference. I guess you never really know till you try. I just have a feeling my softies will suffer from even cleaner water. I can barely keep my shrooms as it is. And I feed pretty heavily.

[TXSea]

It kinda trips me out how people are paranoid of tap water. I would understand if it were serious alk or ph issues...but contaminants? Personally I would be worried for my own well being if contaminants such as heavy metals, ect. were strong enough to kill my coral. I guess my 7+ years using tap water have been so uneventful that it just doesn't concern me too much.

The only thing that concerns me with tap is higher phosphates - which I treat for. Otherwise my biggest concerns for salt aqua are nitrate levels - from waste, and temp swings - both primarily unrelated to tap. This is based on 15 gal. water changes every other week on my 150 gal., so not a whole lot of tap going into the tank.

That being said, I'm thinking about adding an RODI just to check the difference. I guess you never really know till you try. I just have a feeling my softies will suffer from even cleaner water. I can barely keep my shrooms as it is. And I feed pretty heavily.
Yeah.... I have seriously contemplated just using tap water. I do have a water softener that takes out the calcium in the water but the salt mix would just put it right back in and at the right dosage. I don't think that the water would be that bad if treated and left cycling in a container with salt mix for a day. I dunno... I may give this a shot again since I pay 5 bucks a week for the saltwater from aquarium designs. Tap water and salt mix, I would save some $$$. My original tank mix was tap water so maybe I'll give it a go with proper precautions of course. I already have the treatment for the water to take out the contaminants.

[TXSea]

Well, I just did a nitrate test and phosphate test on my tap water and it's reading 10 for nitrates and .5 for phosphates. So do you think this is "safe" enough?

[BuckeyeHydro]

The EPA limit for drinking water for nitrates is 10 mg/l (ppm) - if it we me, and assuming those readings are accurate, I'd not let my family drink the water and I'd be on the phone tomorrow to my water utility. USEPA indicates: Infants below the age of six months who drink
water containing nitrate in excess of 10 mg/l Nitrate could become seriously ill and, if untreated, may die. Symptoms include shortness of
breath and blue-baby syndrome.

With that much phosphate, be prepared for significant algae issues.

[alton]

Since I like to keep my tanks Nitrate below 5, it would be real hard if i started at 10 at the tap. Here are the issues with water from Marion to SA. Where is your water coming from? This month it could be Canyon lake, Dunlop Lake, Gonzales County, Edwards Aquifer, others? As the Aquifer gets lower the quality gets harder and worse. The biggest problem is water coming from Gonzales county although low in TDS sits in pipes for weeks, months before you get to use it. Sometimes when I take a shower after the water is heated it smells like sewer water. Lets look at Lake Dunlop because my sister lives on the lake except when it floods and then she lives in it. A lot of the homes around the lake have septic tanks and there lines run into the lake. Of course it is treated before sending it to you but? I try to only drink filtered water from my home and here at work because both stink. Thanks to the rains we had yesterday our quality should go up a little with the fresh water. On the last comment when my office was on West Ave in SA our tap was at 10 also.

[tebstan]

Thanks to the rains we had yesterday our quality should go up a little with the fresh water.

What's this? You got rain? All I got was lightning and frizzy hair! :cry_smile:


I tested my tap water 4 or 5 days ago, it read 0 nitrates. It definitely jumps around throughout the year, and throughout the city. I stopped using tap when I read 10.

I don't bother to test for phosphates, since I can't read the color variations on my cheap test. I don't mind a little phosphates though, since my clams and fuge handle that pretty well. (Never had hair algae past the new tank syndrome phase.)

People who buy RO... do you test it to check? If it's not maintained properly you're buying peace of mind and expensive tap water.

[Mr Cob]

low level review...

I used San Antonio tap for a year or two when I first started the hobby and ALWAYS had algae issues and difficulty keeping SPS (could obviously be because I was new), but when I switched to RO/DI, the algae problems left and SPS began to look purdy.

I guess for me, using RO/DI just rules out one source if things go bad or it at least limits the possibility of some potential problems. I can think of several people that have successfully used tap water on a reef....but they also had a few battles and they had to keep a strict water change schedule.

[roscozman]

Let me fist ask you what kind of corals are you keeping. That might make some difference.

[Jeff]

if you have sps or lps use rodi but for softies and planted macro tanks use tap. i ran a tank for a year using only tap water and very few fish in a planted macro tank and was very sucessful.

[TXSea]

if you have sps or lps use rodi but for softies and planted macro tanks use tap. i ran a tank for a year using only tap water and very few fish in a planted macro tank and was very sucessful.
I just have a couple of softies and one LPS. I already decided to not screw myself over by going cheap on the water. I've been very patient in setting up my tank and don't want to risk all the work because I wanted to save a little money. I may look into my own RO/DI unit down the road but for now I only spend 5 bucks a week roughly changing the water.

[hobogato]

jeff! nice to see you around :) i agree, for the best color and growth on sps, tap wont cut it. i use tap (run thru a carbon filter to remove chlorine) now and have used it on a mixed reef tank. everything lived and everything but the sps thrived. i also did not have a skimmer on that tank, so i am sure that had something to do with the less than perfect conditions for the sps as well