Fowlr Water Quality, Do You Really Need Ro Water?

[Ahoy89]

Question is in the title really, i've been trying to keep a habit of doing water changes with RO water but seeing as I have no coral in their it won't be any harm to use dechlorinated water with salt mix will it?

Are there any benefits for the fish from having RO water or is this just for coral only. It will save me a lot of time going back and forth between the petshop if I can just use home treated water as I have no plans for coral just yet. Many thanks!

 

[rabbut]

If you plan on corals eventually, I'd stick to RO. Copper and other contaminants in tap water are hard to get out of a tank once they are in If you don't ever intend to keep corals though, tap water will be fine

 

[STD]

I'd stick with RO

If u use tap water u are likely to suffer from cyno & or hair algae

 

[-Nemo-]

Not going to lie, i've been putting off using RO water for.... 3 years now. Though I did suffer for a while from HORRIBLE hair algae that got itself under control, and since I haven't had any problems, but i'm a bad example. I'm switching to RO when I get my next tank up. Use RO

 

[kj23502]

I'd use R/O because of the algae reasons too. Plus, you never know when your water company might change what they do with the water supply. I know I'd hate to find out the hard way

 

[MT2009]

RO water is NOT always necessary. Your water chemistry will be the judge whether you need to use RO or not.

 

[kj23502]

RO water is NOT always necessary. Your water chemistry will be the judge whether you need to use RO or not.

It's easier to start out w/ro than to have to deal with things like algae and then have to change it over and fix the issues.

 

[MT2009]

Again, testing your tap water parameters will tell you if RO water is necessary. Just because you use tap water does NOT mean you'll have algae problems.

 

[kj23502]

Again, testing your tap water parameters will tell you if RO water is necessary. Just because you use tap water does NOT mean you'll have algae problems.

I'd use R/O because of the algae reasons too. Plus, you never know when your water company might change what they do with the water supply. I know I'd hate to find out the hard way

Always a possibility for water conditions to change. It's his/her choice to use R/O of course and I never said he/she HAD to. Just pointing out relevant information and letting them decide.

Ahoy89-
Have you looked at the local municipality water report? I'm not much to decipher it, but other people on here can help

My city does have high phosphates which in all likely hood could contribute to more algae problems. Look up your cities

 

[MT2009]

Not everyone has "city water".

 

[kj23502]

I know. That's why I asked about a report. Figured they'd tell me.

(In fact, we used to live on a acreage w/horses/pastures and used ground water not city water.)

 

[Ahoy89]

I'm not sure how I would find out that information, I've been told at my lfs that using tap water is completely fine just make sure it's full RO when it comes to having coral in the tank. I will only be getting coral if I upgrade my nano tank, which isn't likely any time soon as I love it too much!

 

[SkiFletch]

Well remember, if you do use tapwater, do yourself a favor and use low lighting to discourage algae