Ideal TDS

[Subsea]

It scares me, because I know how sketchy bottled water has been in recent, hopefully past history. This was especially true in grocery store water vending kiosks that would put tap into your bottle and they called it purified.

Kris,
Twenty years ago while working on a drill ship, our medic checked a shipment on sealed bottled spring water and it was contaminated with fecal bacteria.

 

[FlameangelLover]

After 55 years of Reefing, when I hear makeup water has to be zero TDS, I say b.s.

My ground water has a TDS OF 950 ppm and it goes straight into the tank. I use less synthetic salt mix. The Edwards Plateau was a shallow inland sea which was heavy with diatoms which means it is high in silicates which suits me because the sponges need it.

Something im finding out about this hobby is a lot of people say a lot of things like it’s Bible that really isn’t . For example “you can’t have a nem for 8months” like that’s maybe a good rule of thumb but it’s more than one way to slide a apple

 

[Fish Fan]

It scares me, because I know how sketchy bottled water has been in recent, hopefully past history. This was especially true in grocery store water vending kiosks that would put tap into your bottle and they called it purified.

I mean, you do have a point. I cannot say if this is really steam distilled water, or just something out of the drinking fountain at the Wally-World store room they bottle and sell :-)

 

[Fish Fan]

Something im finding out about this hobby is a lot of people say a lot of things like it’s Bible that really isn’t . For example “you can’t have a nem for 8months” like that’s maybe a good rule of thumb but it’s more than one way to slide a apple

Agreed there is no one bible or recipe, but I would encourage you to go slowly with the addition of your future anemone.

 

[FlameangelLover]

Agreed there is no one bible or recipe, but I would encourage you to go slowly with the addition of your future anemone.

Yeah I will take it slowly

 

[fish_collector]

We (everyone back before 1990 or so) used dechlorinated tap water to make our saltwater with, we had no issues. Being told not to use water with a TDS of 18 is just an untruth!

For you peeps that live by ICP testing, I'd be curious to see the difference in salt water mixed with 0 tds rodi and tap water. I wholeheartedly agree that 0 tds rodi is the best thing to use to mix fresh saltwater, using rodi with a little higher tds is not going to do any harm.

 

[FlameangelLover]

We (everyone back before 1990 or so) used dechlorinated tap water to make our saltwater with, we had no issues. Being told not to use water with a TDS of 18 is just an untruth!

For you peeps that live by ICP testing, I'd be curious to see the difference in salt water mixed with 0 tds rodi and tap water. I wholeheartedly agree that 0 tds rodi is the best thing to use to mix fresh saltwater, using rodi with a little higher tds is not going to do any harm.

Yesss this! Bro so many older reefers always tell me these new products and rules are cool to keep in mind but they are not the Bible and don’t treat them as such. Someone told me I shouldn’t start unless I have a skimmer

 

[FlameangelLover]

We (everyone back before 1990 or so) used dechlorinated tap water to make our saltwater with, we had no issues. Being told not to use water with a TDS of 18 is just an untruth!

For you peeps that live by ICP testing, I'd be curious to see the difference in salt water mixed with 0 tds rodi and tap water. I wholeheartedly agree that 0 tds rodi is the best thing to use to mix fresh saltwater, using rodi with a little higher tds is not going to do any harm.

I’ve learned to accept everyone advice and I am thankful for it but remember that it’s just one way on how to do something and I can do things differently and still have a healthy aquarium

 

[fish_collector]

There's far more impurities in salt mix than the 18 TDS in imperfect rodi. It's comical because we spend a fortune for the equipment and resins to make 0 TDS rodi, then we put it into a trash can or bucket, add salt and then mix it with a pump that was probably rinsed the last time with tap water, all the while our new salt water is absorbing who knows what from the air around it. Unless we follow strict clean room protocols with sterilized equipment and isolate it from the atmosphere, that 0 TDS loses it's meaning rather quickly. In the big picture of things it doesn't matter one bit, I wish everyone would stop throwing out warnings about things like this.

 

[davidm777]

After 55 years of Reefing, when I hear makeup water has to be zero TDS, I say b.s.

My ground water has a TDS OF 950 ppm and it goes straight into the tank. I use less synthetic salt mix. The Edwards Plateau was a shallow inland sea which was heavy with diatoms which means it is high in silicates which suits me because the sponges need it. And because it is a limestone formation, both calcium & magnesium are high.

Hello, I am new to reefing. I think the main thing is understanding what's going on in the aquarium. I know some people still use just tap water with prime, but you see their system: an old mature reef seeded with live rock.
If I on the other hand that only have 4 corals and all man made unmature rock try to use my San Diego tap water at 650 TDS... I might have a different result than they guy guy with the mature reef.
I went on this rabbit hole when I learned Jake Adams only filtered his water with activated carbon.

 

[fish_collector]

Hello, I am new to reefing. I think the main thing is understanding what's going on in the aquarium. I know some people still use just tap water with prime, but you see their system: an old mature reef seeded with live rock.
If I on the other hand that only have 4 corals and all man made unmature rock try to use my San Diego tap water at 650 TDS... I might have a different result than they guy guy with the mature reef.
I went on this rabbit hole when I learned Jake Adams only filtered his water with activated carbon.

I'm in Phoenix and I wish my tap water had 650 TDS :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:. Last weekend was the last time I made any rodi, and it was 1170.

 

[davidm777]

I'm in Phoenix and I wish my tap water had 650 TDS :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:. Last weekend was the last time I made any rodi, and it was 1170.

I thought I had it bad!

 

[Fish Styx]

Zero. Full stop.

 

[KrisReef]

After 55 years of Reefing, when I hear makeup water has to be zero TDS, I say b.s.

My ground water has a TDS OF 950 ppm and it goes straight into the tank. I use less synthetic salt mix. The Edwards Plateau was a shallow inland sea which was heavy with diatoms which means it is high in silicates which suits me because the sponges need it. And because it is a limestone formation, both calcium & magnesium are high.

I wish I had your water supply. Our TDS is 4-6 hundreds/1000 and it is the color of rust sometimes, with added Cl- to keep the bubbly sludge from growing in the supply lines. The taste is like fancy imported bottled water with some Kambutcha and grey water contamination thrown in to make it taste and smell like authentic down stream Rocky MTN toxic mining tailing pond delight.

You got GARF, we got Barf.

 

[Thuan]

I'm in Colorado. My tds from tap avg 45. I run 7 stage rodi. Sediment, 2 carbon blocks, 2 resins, dual membranes, and booster pump and 3-line tds meter. Change membranes 2x a yr. For me, only 0 tds goes into my tanks

 

[JonErik]

Hello guys I’m new to reefing and I measured my TDS for my saltwater today and the reading was 5 ppm for one of the buckets and 18 for the other . Is it okay to use the 5 in my tank?

Not sure how your measuring your tds but the hand held ones are **** and the inline ones that connect to your rodi only work when they are connected to the tube of the rodi. It should always read zero if not you need to change some or all of your filters

 

[Fish Fan]

No. Full stop.

^^This!! What the cats are we arguing about here??

I wish I had your water supply. Our TDS is 4-6 hundreds/1000 and it is the color of rust sometimes, with added Cl- to keep the bubbly sludge from growing in the supply lines. The taste is like fancy imported bottled water with some Kambutcha and grey water contamination thrown in to make it taste and smell like authentic down stream Rocky MTN toxic mining tailing pond delight.

You got GARF, we got Barf.

Agreed!!

I'm in Colorado. My tds from tap avg 45. I run 7 stage rodi. Sediment, 2 carbon blocks, 2 resins, dual membranes, and booster pump and 3-line tds meter. Change membranes 2x a yr. For me, only 0 tds goes into my tanks

^I like this

Hello, I am new to reefing. I think the main thing is understanding what's going on in the aquarium. I know some people still use just tap water with prime, but you see their system: an old mature reef seeded with live rock.
If I on the other hand that only have 4 corals and all man made unmature rock try to use my San Diego tap water at 650 TDS... I might have a different result than they guy guy with the mature reef.
I went on this rabbit hole when I learned Jake Adams only filtered his water with activated carbon.

Jake Adams (RIP) was in Golden Colorado, one of the very rare places where you can trust the
tap water. Most of us can't.

For you peeps that live by ICP testing, I'd be curious to see the difference in salt water mixed with 0 tds rodi and tap water. I wholeheartedly agree that 0 tds rodi is the best thing to use to mix fresh saltwater, using rodi with a little higher tds is not going to do any harm.

For a FOWLR, perhaps. But depending on your tap water, this would be not cool for many corals.

 

[Fish Fan]

We (everyone back before 1990 or so) used dechlorinated tap water to make our saltwater with, we had no issues. Being told not to use water with a TDS of 18 is just an untruth!

For you peeps that live by ICP testing, I'd be curious to see the difference in salt water mixed with 0 tds rodi and tap water. I wholeheartedly agree that 0 tds rodi is the best thing to use to mix fresh saltwater, using rodi with a little higher tds is not going to do any harm.

I'm old enough to remember saltwater tanks before 1990, in fact I could go back to the early 1980's. Back then, I used dechlorinated tap water, and I had nothing but a farm of algae. I'm not sure who "we" would be, but I am here now to tell you that "we" had "issues" in the pre-1990's when we used tap water.

Best practice in the year 2025 would be to use RODI filtered water.

 

[winxp_man]

I wish I had your water supply. Our TDS is 4-6 hundreds/1000 and it is the color of rust sometimes, with added Cl- to keep the bubbly sludge from growing in the supply lines. The taste is like fancy imported bottled water with some Kambutcha and grey water contamination thrown in to make it taste and smell like authentic down stream Rocky MTN toxic mining tailing pond delight.

You got GARF, we got Barf.

You sure never leave a good opportunity to get some laughs going hahahaha!

 

[Mark Goode]

Yes. I bought two buckets of rodi water from my LFS. One bucket said 18 and one said 5 ppm

Get a refund.

Ignore, posting before I read through the thread again.