Tap water discussion

Damian reef boi

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Yes yes I know tap water does NOT go in reef aquariums but I'm out of rodi water and lfs are closed and my parents dont trust people like local reefers (cause of "cough" "cough" you know but I might have to use tap water in my reef tank my salinity is .32 right now pls help
 

Potatohead

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Dude, it's been five minutes.

What do you want someone to say? It might be ok and it might not, it really depends on your water. If you don't have a choice then roll with it I guess.
 

r20crazy

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try to find distilled at the store (not drinking)... u would need to find declorinator from a fish store to even attempt to use tap... and if you do the tds and possible dissolved heavy metals in the water will cause algae issues or worse. or post an SOS and hopefully a local reefer near you can make u some and just wipe the exterior of the container down safely.
 

dreamcatcherr9

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I live in Las Vegas. My water is 450ppm. When I did FOWLR I used tap a lot. I conditioned it with Prime. Again, no corals!

For the record I use RODI from LFS (or even drinking water) now. I’m finally looking into buying my own RODI system.
 

xxkenny90xx

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I live in Las Vegas. My water is 450ppm. When I did FOWLR I used tap a lot. I conditioned it with Prime. Again, no corals!

For the record I use RODI from LFS (or even drinking water) now. I’m finally looking into buying my own RODI system.

Rodi from the lfs can be terrible ime. I live in tacoma, wa. My tap water tds is 26ppm. I used it when my tank was fowlr but these days I only use rodi.
 

Matt Carden

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Some reefers on here only use tap water because they want the trace minerals. The danger with tap water is that water companies sometimes use Chloramine which is not affected by prime. Distilled is your best option short of buying your own RODI.
 

dreamcatcherr9

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Rodi from the lfs can be terrible ime. I live in tacoma, wa. My tap water tds is 26ppm. I used it when my tank was fowlr but these days I only use rodi.
I even test the water I get from my LFS. I bought a TDS meter, not expensive at all and I highly recommended to anyone. I stared testing all the water I could, bottled, tap, filtered. It was fun. Lol
 

AndyinAtlanta

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General comment, good luck finding distilled water. Stores sell out of water pretty quickly, and because most people think distilled water is just...well...water, it got snatched up just as fast. The store manager at the grocery store I frequent said they weren't restocking distilled water because people think its safe to their main source of drinking water.
 

AquaholicAquariums

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General comment, good luck finding distilled water. Stores sell out of water pretty quickly, and because most people think distilled water is just...well...water, it got snatched up just as fast. The store manager at the grocery store I frequent said they weren't restocking distilled water because people think its safe to their main source of drinking water.

What a shame.......
 

92Miata

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Yes yes I know tap water does NOT go in reef aquariums but I'm out of rodi water and lfs are closed and my parents dont trust people like local reefers (cause of "cough" "cough" you know but I might have to use tap water in my reef tank my salinity is .32 right now pls help
You should get a water report from your water company and make an educated decision. They're usually required to post regular ones online.

I ran an sps reef on tap water for a couple of years when I was living in Boston, but the tap was like 15ppm TDS and they weren't using chloramines.

The well water I'm on in VA now would be a totally different story.


Rain water is a pretty good option if you're careful about how you collect it, and avoid the first minute or two if collecting from a gutter (lots of oil and debris comes off asphalt shingles right after it starts raining)
 

Apotack

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In the old days we used tap water. We would let it “age” for a day or two in a bucket sometimes I would run some carbon in the bucket. I believe the ”aging“ was supposed to give the chlorine time to dissipate.
 

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