Ro Water

[Queen Bee]

Getting ready to move saltwater tank from friends place to mine. New at saltwater tanks.

I was at the lfs and they sell RO water. They have 2 types. Freshwater and saltwater. Since the old tank is 20 Gallon and the new tank will be 30 Gallons, should I buy 10 Gallons of the saltwater and keep some extra freshwater on hand for top ups? I will have to test the water once I receive everything, but not sure if the saltwater is a new useless product needing more salt added, or a better choice. The salt RO water mix is more $ and I don't want to waste what could be spent on fish.

Also, maybe a dumb question, but... do I still add dechlorinator to the RO Water?

Question about the sand. I bought a bag of CaribSea Aragonite sugar sized sand. The bag says to rinse the sand, I've read several posts about people not rinsing and putting straight into tank. Is the rinsing only to stop tank from going cloudy, or is it really necessary? If I am to rinse it, do I use RO water, or tap water? (Tap water has lots of chlorine in it.)

Move will be taking place Sunday or Monday. Really want to be prepared so all goes well.

 

[seffieuk]

Getting ready to move saltwater tank from friends place to mine. New at saltwater tanks.

Queen Bee

I was at the lfs and they sell RO water. They have 2 types. Freshwater and saltwater. Since the old tank is 20 Gallon and the new tank will be 30 Gallons, should I buy 10 Gallons of the saltwater and keep some extra freshwater on hand for top ups?

You will need fresh ro water for tops and the salty stuff for water changes - if it were me I would ask them what salt they use and what SG do they make it up to. If the salt is a good brand and they mix it to the desired sg, which will be different according to your needs, reef or fowlr?

After your cycle you will need to do a large water change of 50% and you will need to top up most days with fresh water

I will have to test the water once I receive everything, but not sure if the saltwater is a new useless product needing more salt added, or a better choice. The salt RO water mix is more $ and I don't want to waste what could be spent on fish.

You will quickly get fed up of lugging water from lfs, consider buying an ro unit

Also, maybe a dumb question, but... do I still add dechlorinator to the RO Water?

No - the RO unit takes out all inpurities, like heavy metals etc

Question about the sand. I bought a bag of CaribSea Aragonite sugar sized sand. The bag says to rinse the sand, I've read several posts about people not rinsing and putting straight into tank. Is the rinsing only to stop tank from going cloudy, or is it really necessary? If I am to rinse it, do I use RO water, or tap water? (Tap water has lots of chlorine in it.)

If you rinse it use RO water - you do not want to add any heavy metals, phosphates etc to the tank. I didn't wash mine!

Move will be taking place Sunday or Monday. Really want to be prepared so all goes well.

Good luck, plan everything and then plan again

Seffie x

 

[drsquirrel]

Getting ready to move saltwater tank from friends place to mine. New at saltwater tanks.

I was at the lfs and they sell RO water. They have 2 types. Freshwater and saltwater. Since the old tank is 20 Gallon and the new tank will be 30 Gallons, should I buy 10 Gallons of the saltwater and keep some extra freshwater on hand for top ups? I will have to test the water once I receive everything, but not sure if the saltwater is a new useless product needing more salt added, or a better choice. The salt RO water mix is more $ and I don't want to waste what could be spent on fish.

Also, maybe a dumb question, but... do I still add dechlorinator to the RO Water?

Question about the sand. I bought a bag of CaribSea Aragonite sugar sized sand. The bag says to rinse the sand, I've read several posts about people not rinsing and putting straight into tank. Is the rinsing only to stop tank from going cloudy, or is it really necessary? If I am to rinse it, do I use RO water, or tap water? (Tap water has lots of chlorine in it.)

Move will be taking place Sunday or Monday. Really want to be prepared so all goes well.

You will need to use saltwater for the new volume or for any water you replace.
You can use plain RO water just for evaporative losses.

RO water has no chlorine(or chloramine) in it.

Saltwater isn't a special product, it's required... the most important thing in a saltwater tank?

Rinsing in RO will waste a lot of money (or time waiting for it to generate), considering how long it can take to clean sand, talking 500L for 20kg etc... that's like 48 hours from an RO unit.
Chlorine doesn't last that long in water, although you have other traces, you could always pass it (tap water) through just sediment filters if you are that worried.
Lots of people wash in tap water, and some don't...

 

[Queen Bee]

Thanks for the info. Giving some serious thought to buying a RO unit. Cost is $14 per 5 Gallons. That is quickly adding up.

Good to know that just saying salt water is not enough. Need to know the amount and %.

May post pone for a week. Researching things everyday, and still lots to learn.

It is a FOWLR setup.

 

[seffieuk]

I expect their salty water will be ok SG wise then, they usually keep it lower than we do at home but if no corals it should be fine.

I would ask:

What salt do you use?
What SG is the water (take a refractometer and check, if they are a good lfs they will not mind) - buy a TDS meter as well and test with that as well

To be honest, for the cycle it probably will not matter too much, as long as they do not have very high phosphates in the water. You will be doing a large 50% water change at the end.

Always better to do things slowly on the salty side

Seffie x

 

[Rumpy Pumpy]

Thanks for the info. Giving some serious thought to buying a RO unit. Cost is $14 per 5 Gallons. That is quickly adding up.

I think having a RO unit (and preferably a RODI one) is essential. They don't cost much (check out Ebay) and will pay for themselves easily over time.

Also, some fish shops RO water leaves a lot to be desired. I went around several local places with a TDS meter (something else you can get on Ebay cheaply) and found readings from 17 to over 100 ppm total dissolved solids.

My cheap RODI unit produces water at 0 TDS for pennies per gallon.