Help with water choice (stupid question)

[huskerreef54]

Hey all,

I get RO water from Culligan for my reef tank. Culligan offers RO water, and they offer DI water, but they do not offer RO/DI water unless DI water is RO/DI? Anyways I have been getting RO water for months and I had this epiphany that I should have been getting DI water from them? Should I make the switch? Corals and fish seem to be doing "fine". But I have lost some corals along the way. Might not have anything to do with the RO or DI choice though.

Sidenote: I know people are going to respond with buy my own RO/DI unit but I rent. I will eventually when I own a home. Not an option for me right now.

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

In theory RO water would still have some TDS and you are adding that to your tank.

I am guessing the DI water is RO/DI or else they would be burning through a ton of DI resin. I would go with the DI water as it should have everything stripped out.

If you can get your hands on a TDS pen/meter you could test their water and see what the TDS comes back at. You want zero or as close to zero as possible.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I know you said you can't get a RO unit because you are renting, but I wanted to share with you how I got around it. So I live in a town house and obviously I can't redo the whole plumbing to to set up an RO unit. I was able to get around this by simply putting a splitter valve on my downstairs bathroom sink. This allowed for me to still be able to use the sink, but also use an RO unit at my house. I can share pictures of how it looks like if you are curious!

 

[Fish Fan]

You really want RODI water if you want to keep corals. Another option might be to use distilled water.

I think @Gumbies R Us is talking about a value similar to this one. This is a great option, this is a very, very easy install, and you could easily switch the valve back when you leave the apartment:

Another way you could go is with an adapter that would let you connect to nearly any kind of household faucet, there's a wide variety of these adapters to work with a wide range of faucets. You simply hook up your filter when you want to make water, and unscrew it when done. Something like these would work:

This one simply screws on to any facet that has a garden hose type outlet:
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/mur-...D=2039&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products
And this one easily connects and disconnects to most kitchen and bathroom faucets:
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/chro...ID=106&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products
I hope this helped! Let us know if you still have questions!

 

[Crabs McJones]

I would call Culligan and verify, but I would think DI water would be RO/DI water otherwise they'd burn through DI resin like crazy.

 

[Üter]

You really want RODI water if you want to keep corals. Another option might be to use distilled water.

I think @Gumbies R Us is talking about a value similar to this one. This is a great option, this is a very, very easy install, and you could easily switch the valve back when you leave the apartment:

Another way you could go is with an adapter that would let you connect to nearly any kind of household faucet, there's a wide variety of these adapters to work with a wide range of faucets. You simply hook up your filter when you want to make water, and unscrew it when done. Something like these would work:

This one simply screws on to any facet that has a garden hose type outlet:
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/mur-...D=2039&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products
And this one easily connects and disconnects to most kitchen and bathroom faucets:
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/chro...ID=106&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products
I hope this helped! Let us know if you still have questions!

I second just get this attachment that you can screw right onto your faucet head. it would make things so much easier for you and it's not doing anything you shouldn't in an apartment. (but some rentals have in their lease agreement, no fish tanks over a certain size. )