Started A New Tank...

[Musho3210]

RO water is definately something i would keep away from plants, its not no nutrients for the plants, do you mean you use RO waste water for plants?

 

[LineDropper]

RO water is best in all aspects, FO, FOWLR, and Reef, it takes out both good and bad, but nearly all saltmixes contain all the needed good stuff at a good amount, and the salt mix does not contain bad stuff. So no matter what RO water would be better.

Now if you only want an FO or FOWLR tank, you dont have to get RO water, but be prepared for algae out breaks, and one day, you will be tempted for a coral.... So you are going to make a switch one day.... IMO it is always best to use RO water from the start.

And what if your tap water contains high amounts of copper or other deadly things to invertebrate, then you cant keep a CUC which means even more algae, you cant keep decorative shrimp which, well, i wouldnt like, and other invertebrate in your tank may be effected.

Thanks Musho. My obsession with this hobby has gone to a new extreme. I don't like the latest stand I purchased and have decided to just build my own! With this change, I'll be able to support a bigger tank so I'm going to exchange the 29g I just got for a 55! Crazy. The filter I got was for a 75g tank so I'm assuming I'll have to throw a little more firepower at it. I have a spare filter that was rated for a 30g tank (forget the exact model, it came with the other 30g I bought). Another question I have is - "is it ok to run two filters on one tank".

Ok, so for now I see myself going to FOWLR so RO is still recommended by people on this site. The other thing I have to consider is I have 4 other freshwater tanks so if I am understanding this correctly... I should probably stick to tap water for the freshwater tanks and rely on the salt mixtures to add whatever the RO water needs to keep my saltwater fish healthy.

Thanks again for all of your help. If you're not, you guys should be getting paid!

 

[Musho3210]

Since you have a FOWLR, filtration isnt as nessicary as water flow. Read up a bit on nitrate factories, mechanical filtration IMO and experiance is one of the best, but it requires work, if you dont clean it on a regular basis like every 1-3 days, it can get clogged up with junk, constant water level going through it it can steadily start to raise nitrate level. Because of that many people dont choose to use mechanical filtration, but i still do and i love the extra clarity of the water and i dont mind cleaning it all the time.

Powerheads are your friends , you can use the filter for many many many things, like a chemical filter where you put carbon, GFO etc in, it can be a refugium, it can just be something that creates flow.... Anyway its fine to use as many filters as you want, just be sure to clean/replace if you are using them for mechanical filtration