Tap Water Or Ro Water?

[nathanxjr]

Hi. Ive just bought a book to help me research befor I buy my first marine nano fish only setup. I thought you had to use RO water with a marine setup. but the book states you can use either. Could i have a second opinion on this matter from you guys please. Thank you.

Nathan.

 

[garybuk]

Hi. Ive just bought a book to help me research befor I buy my first marine nano fish only setup. I thought you had to use RO water with a marine setup. but the book states you can use either. Could i have a second opinion on this matter from you guys please. Thank you.

Nathan.

Im only a newbi so wait for someone eles but even if you havnt got an ro unit you can get ro water in big water containers for free over hear(uk) or for a small price!! if its only a nano you shudnt need much soo ro water would ok!

 

[PortValefanjosh]

Hi. Ive just bought a book to help me research befor I buy my first marine nano fish only setup. I thought you had to use RO water with a marine setup. but the book states you can use either. Could i have a second opinion on this matter from you guys please. Thank you.

Nathan.

RO without doubt you buy a 25 lit container from aqua shop and they charge you £2.50 to fill it when ever you want.

 

[garybuk]

Hi. Ive just bought a book to help me research befor I buy my first marine nano fish only setup. I thought you had to use RO water with a marine setup. but the book states you can use either. Could i have a second opinion on this matter from you guys please. Thank you.

Nathan.

RO without doubt you buy a 25 lit container from aqua shop and they charge you £2.50 to fill it when ever you want.

Or free depands how good your lfs is really

 

[SkiFletch]

Depends on a lot of things nathan... Especially, the livestock decision

 

[andywg]

Essentially you can use either, though (as always in life) there are areas to take into consideration.

If you are keeping a reef then you really want to try and use RO water. Lynden discovered the hard way (and he will be the first to admit this) just how much work you can find yourself doing to combat the effects of phsophates and silicates in a high light tank with sensitive inverts conatined therein.

However, when keeping FO or FOWLR then you have more options. The problems from tap water only really affect inverts or those wanting clean looking tanks with large amounts of light. A FO or FOWLR only needs light enough for you to be happy to see the fish and any minerals and elements found in tap water are highly unlikely to cause issues with fish so long as you use a decent dechlorinator (with Seachem's Prime being the dechlor of choice here).

If you run multiple tanks then you can do as I do; use the "waste" water from water changing a reef as the "new" water in a pred tank.

So, broadly speaking, my recommendations are:

FO: Either
FOWLR: Either
Reef: RO

 

[Eversurf]

I use tap water and I don't have problems out of the ordinary.

 

[sophos9]

What about the copper/chloride aspect? Is there any evidence to suggest that copper/chloride levels in tap water will adversely affect lifespan of fish and inverts?

 

[andywg]

What about the copper/chloride aspect? Is there any evidence to suggest that copper/chloride levels in tap water will adversely affect lifespan of fish and inverts?

Copper is unlikely to have any major effect on motile inverts (such as shrimp) though it could be an issue with corals. For this reason I would advise against tap water when attempting a reef tank.

Fish are more then fine with the copper levels in tap water. I can't help but fgeel that many marine keepers have made out copper to be like some hyper concentrated cyanide which kills all life if 0.001ppb is found in the water.

 

[sophos9]

Thanks for the reply, do you know of any experiments to test levels of metals acceptable to the normal functioning of organs?

I have found several sources that state chloride prohibits mucus secretion and have a large negative impact on fish skin tissue although I'm unable to find what conditions and what levels the fish was subjected too...

 

[SkiFletch]

Sure you got your suffix right there Sophos? I mean when Chloride (as in Sodium Chloride, aka salt) is in such high concentrations in seawater in the first place, I can't imagine marine organisms have trouble with it . ChlorINE, ChlorAMINE, ChlorATE, sure, but ChlorIDE is what's in there normally...