Reef Safe Water?

[Plecc]

Hi all,

I'm starting to slowly get the bit's together to setup my first saltwater tank.
Just a few rookie questions

What are my options for water supply?
The area I live in has very hard water, is an RO filter my only option or is there a beginners alternative? like say a brita water filter! lol

What is the loudest part of a saltwater system?
I would like to have the tank and sump in the living room or bedroom, is there such a thing as a quiet setup?

Oh and skimmers! On constantly or just before and after feeding?

 

[StandbySetting]

Skimmers should be on constantly really, and you need RO if you intend on keeping corals, RO is beneficial even in a fish set up as the nitrate and phosphate in tap water will accelerate algae growth, and is also unsuitable for invertebrates.

 

[fishguy2727]

If the tank is small enough (you don't need as much water) distilled water is also 0 TDS and just as good.

What size tank are you doing?

A sump is usually the noisiest part, unless you have a noisy overflow box.

 

[ben1987]

i would reccomend RO water, especially if you wish to keep corals now or later.
if its a small tank a local fish shop would usually do it for you cheaply. its so much easier and cleaner than tap water and there less risk of intoducing a poloutant compared to sea water. water is the most important part of any fish tank so you may aswel get your tank the best possible start

 

[dannywrc]

depends what size your tank is. if your buying loads of ro from the lfs it would probs be cheaper to buy an ro unit.

my tank is in the front room and its almost silent. it was noisy at first until the overflow got its algae coating. the skimmer made a little noise but i dont use one now. i put carbon/phos/nitrate reactors in the sump and it stopped pulling stuff out.

if you live near the sea you can use NSW. im gonna start using it next week and best thing is its free

 

[Plecc]

Thanks all,
I thought that was probably the case! my main intention is to keep corals and invertebrates.
I don't have the tank yet but will most likely go for a cheep and cheerful 70L Clear Seal, with my 50L sump and an external filter, so total volume will be just over 120L!
Actually the sump wont be full, so probably more like 100L
Sry but what does NSW mean? all i can guess is neat / normal salt water!

 

[ALW]

Sry but what does NSW mean? all i can guess is neat / normal salt water!

To me NSW mean Natural Seawater, but could also be Non Synthetic Water. Both are the samething. For marines we have two choices either we use water collected from the sea or we make our own synthetic water using RO water and a salt mix of our choice.

 

[Plecc]

Sounds a bit risky using normal seawater, especially collecting it from the coast.
Is the chance of transferring disease and pollution quite high?

Sry to be a pest,
But i have had a good look around at RO units and to be honest i am more confused now than i was before.
Can anyone recommend a good budget one?

 

[StandbySetting]

Yes, there is a high risk of pollution, especially in the UK.

An RO unit is likely to set you back 50-70 Pounds, the membranes are the most expensive.

 

[fishguy2727]

Just use RO or RO/DI water.

 

[Plecc]

Can you clean the membranes or do they need to be replaced regularly?
I also heard they need to be kept wet constantly, is this correct?

 

[ben1987]

they should be kept wet to keep your RO nice and clean, i use a little valve on my RO unit inlet that allows me to turn the flow right down to a little drip, then i just leave it running all the time and switch it up to full flow after.

My ro unit is 2 years old and ive nev er replaced the membranes. I just keep them nice and wet and flush it for an hour before each batch. I still get 0 TDS water and the only thing i do is replace the DI resin once every 6 months or so at a cost of about £4

 

[GrayScale]

Dont mean to hijack the thread or anything but what do you mean by "flush" it? let it run on full for an hour into a container?

 

[ben1987]

Yeah, just turn it up to full wack down the sink. usually the first bit of RO is really high TDS and it takes a few gallons to come down.

 

[dannywrc]

theres quite a lot of people using natural sea water around where i live and a lot of the beaches are blue flag. http/www.blueflag.org/Menu/Criteria. weve just started a google map for collection points and water parameters in the north east.

some people are even successfully climatising hermits and snails. free clean up crew

i collected my first batch yesterday and the tank seems to be loving it. saved a tenner already. why but the stuff if you have access to the sea.

stats:
no3 - 0
po4 - 0
ph - 8.2
kh - 7.7
alk - 2.74
mag - 1230
cal - 370

it was raining and the waves were a bit rough so think this has diluted the good stuff a little. gonna collect from the rocks rather than the beach next time.