AbbeysDad
Fish Gatherer
It's true that many SW fishkeepers tend to do few partial water changes. I have a Nephew with a SW tank with deep sand, live rock, and a refugium and he does very few partial water changes, just top offs. Then too, many SW systems use a protein skimmer and some leverage algae scrubbers. It's a slightly different world.
I think that many hobbyists get convinced that they need RO water and this might be debated. In many cases, regular tap water would be fine.
As for storing water. I pre-filter water (API Nitra-Zorb) to remove nitrates, filtering into a 45g Brute trashcan that's held for several days (aerated to gas off CO2) before pre-heating and use. So although not designated as "food safe", I've never seen any issues...so I believe that storage in 5g buckets would be fine.
However, I would question the need for RO water as it's too often used when not really necessary...and if you're using RO water and adding minerals back in, maybe tap water would work just fine.
I think that many hobbyists get convinced that they need RO water and this might be debated. In many cases, regular tap water would be fine.
As for storing water. I pre-filter water (API Nitra-Zorb) to remove nitrates, filtering into a 45g Brute trashcan that's held for several days (aerated to gas off CO2) before pre-heating and use. So although not designated as "food safe", I've never seen any issues...so I believe that storage in 5g buckets would be fine.
However, I would question the need for RO water as it's too often used when not really necessary...and if you're using RO water and adding minerals back in, maybe tap water would work just fine.
