Tap water to cycle a tank?

[Gseclipse02]

i can say that a lot of the tanks we have set up we generally start up with tap water.... most times its not really possible to bring 100+ gallons of water

AI am only 14 years old .

this explains alot sorry if my post ever came off as mean

[Roo&Lis]

Starting with tap sets a bad trend imo

[tony]

the only absolute in this hobby, is there are no absolutes

a lot depends on the water quality, size of the tank, etc . . .

[tiger_eyed1]

Just note that any impurities in the tap water will be absorbed by the rock, only to be leached back into the water over the year(s). Compare the TDS coming out your tap to what comes out your RO/DI. What are the results? Remember that the water will evaporate; the impurities stay behind unless removed. Guess where the impurities are being stored over the years.
In my opinion, the cost of using RO is far less that your time and pain of resolving the potential consequences of using tap.
I guess the question we should have asked is, how big is the tank and what do you plan to keep? For a fish only, not so bad to use tap and water conditioner for cycle. If you plan to keep reef, I’d only use RO/DI.

[DarkHorseMBA]

The tank is 75G, reef. Since it's my first reef tank I'll stick to RO water. I can get RO from HEB, Windmill, until I figure out my RO unit.

[neogenix]

I started off with water from Walmart actually, it was really easy to go in at like midnight and fill up a few buckets as they have usually 2 of those water machines in the back. You don't have to worry about shoving coins in or anything, just full yer buckets up, and go to the register... what was more complicated was getting 20G of water into a 350Z...