my boiled tap water has no chlorine so…??

[Nate Chalk]

Send in an ICP for us all... If you have enough money to blow on Brita filters.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Silicates are actually good and a lot of old timers dose silicates to keep Dino’s at bay to run low nutrient systems.

Yes, silicate feed diatoms, which can outcompete dinos, but aside from that and to feed sponges, having excess silicate is not particularly desirable.

 

[Ballyhoo]

ok i'm convinced it's a bad idea. but i needed to know why. it's been pretty well explained. It's much easier just to go get ro di water from the LFS.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I have a Britta filter and i poured a bunch into a kettle and boiled it. Then I tested it for chlorine and there's zero chlorine in it. The non boiled Britta water does test positive chlorine . So what's the deal? Why can't we use boiled Britta tap-water for our reef tanks?

Sure, boil 35g weekly

 

[EricR]

Sure, boil 35g weekly

I had the same thought,,, well, I was thinking 30G/month,,, but same sentiment

 

[VintageReefer]

I put a home water filter system on my incoming water pipe into the house. It is the size of a scuba tank and filters all the water inside my house. The water from any faucet I use has been through a sediment filter and carbon filter - first two stages of rodi. This is good enough for me. Now I can refill any tanks evaporation with tap water from a faucet.

I don’t do water changes either so I almost never have to mix sw. I do keep a bucket of salt in case a situation arises

It doesn’t get easier than this

 

[Ballyhoo]

ahh the wonderful world a protein skimmers. They do seem to make water changes obsolete from what little I've learned so far. But the most beautiful coral tank I've seen at my LFS, owner insists he does a small water change every week just so corals can get the elements they need.

 

[VintageReefer]

ahh the wonderful world a protein skimmers. They do seem to make water changes obsolete from what little I've learned so far. But the most beautiful coral tank I've seen at my LFS, owner insists he does a small water change every week just so corals can get the elements they need.

I don’t use a protein skimmer either

 

[Bruttall]

owner insists he does a small water change every week just so corals can get the elements they need.

Adding 10g to a 150g+ system a week is not what i consider a water change and that is what he is probably doing. Adding just enough new salt water to introduce the trace elements, you get the same thing if you dose a Reef Complete type product when you need to raise Calc.

I joined the No Water Change club after salt got to be $90 a orange IO Box, I used a box a month if I do WC's.

 

[Reefering1]

well, as usual, if it were practical everybody would be doing that. So that answers that.

I have another problem. My blue damsels I thought were sweet fish, but they're terrors. and I got a brand new fire shrimp, and they tore it to shreds in a day. I met somebody at LFS He was telling He has 40 in this 100 tank and I thought I can have 4 in my 40. Now I'm doomed.

The cult would have told you that, question is would you listen to the "folklore" or just assume you 1st guess is better than what it took many people many years to come up with..

 

[KrisReef]

The cult would have told you that, question is would you listen to the "folklore" or just assume you 1st guess is better than what it took many people many years to come up with..

Petrochemical dosing is underrated. Natural seep oil puts a lot of hydrocarbons into the ocean and is food for microbes that eat it.
Everyone knows that microorganisms are the bottom rung of the food chain and they process the waste products of fish into energy that feeds our fishies.
Still, I would not drink them if other carbon sources were available.

 

[Reefering1]

Petrochemical dosing is underrated. Natural seep oil puts a lot of hydrocarbons into the ocean and is food for microbes that eat it.
Everyone knows that microorganisms are the bottom rung of the food chain and they process the waste products of fish into energy that feeds our fishies.
Still, I would not drink them if other carbon sources were available.

Soooo.... diesel instead of gasoline?

 

[KrisReef]

Soooo.... diesel instead of gasoline?

Diesel is also degraded by microbial activity. I think vodka has a better taste so I would use it before diesel for human consumption or in a reef tank. The skimmer is good for removing the bacterial bloom from vodka but I don’t think it would remove the smell of diesel very quickly.

 

[saltytanked]

Yes, silicate feed diatoms, which can outcompete dinos, but aside from that and to feed sponges, having excess silicate is not particularly desirable.

Randy Holmes doses 3mg a week I believe

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Randy Holmes doses 3mg a week I believe

Does Randy currently have a tank? I thought no...
(Happy to be wrong though!)

 

[Ballyhoo]

I was thinking that I could just mix my ATO with salt mix and call it the day.

 

[KrisReef]

I was thinking that I could just mix my ATO with salt mix and call it the day.

Not sure how that would work unless you want to increase salinity in the system?

 

[Reefering1]

Not sure how that would work unless you want to increase salinity in the system?

That's cult talk. Who decided that top off needs to be fresh water?

 

[tbrown]

Standard disclaimer: DON'T FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE!

I don't use RO, I don't use DI, I don't use RODI. I use tap water straight from the front hose bib on my house. With that said, the water in my area is decent water but high in TDS. That TDS MOSTLY comes from calcium and magnesium resulting in highish pH and alkalinity.

Copper and lead are ALWAYS a concern but they also test both copper and lead at the first pull from a house in the morning (meaning before any water has moved for several hours) through the most likely fittings to contain lead. This is because lead and copper leach from the pipes SLOWLY and if you flush the faucet before pulling the sample you will likely end up with a false negative or a false low. This also means that the amount of copper and lead reported by the municipality or utility provider is not what you're putting in your tank unless you have leaded solder at the hose bib and don't flush the pipe first to remove any contaminants that may have built up prior to use. It's probably a good idea to do this anyway as water stagnates in the pipes as it sits for longer periods of time - this also lowers the chlorine levels though which can actually create chloramine naturally and disinfectant byproducts which may actually be worse for your tank than chlorine and chloramines - I know it's worse for humans...

Ok, I'm off my soap box now.

People do successfully use tap water but others fail because of the garbage water provided by their utility providers. As mentioned previously by others here on this thread, find out what's in your water and either use it or use RODI.

Also also, silicates can come from not changing your DI resin frequently enough so keep that in mind. RODI is great if you keep the filters changed but it starts releasing junk back into the water once the filters are "full".

 

[NanoNana]

no, the Brita did not remove the chlorine unless boiled. I tested that. I thought it was chlorine was the main reason why we can't use tapwater. What would be the second and third chemicals we would want to test for in our tapwater to see if boiling would be OK? The whole ro-di water " is preferred". " is reliable," is not really scientific. and it's OK if you wanna say hey dude do whatever you want. Don't listen to us, but I'm trying to approach this scientifically here without sentiment. Because yeah sure ro di water is preferred but there's gotta be a reason, specific chemicals. Is it fluoride ? what else? because you know what, maybe in some circumstances for some municipalities boiled water would be OK. Maybe not. But there's gotta be a way to measure, rather than being sentimental and loyal to one culty method.

Dude that’s pretty insulting. It’s based on science not cult practices. Do what you want with your tank. Cycle with fish if you choose, use your scammer skimmer or don’t, boil your fish in tap water, dump copper on your coral, make water a gallon at a time with a brita pitcher, dump 4 yellow tail damsels in your tank without researching aggression.

Or you could just follow some of the scientifically based well meaning and very accurate advice you get on this forum.

You do you. I’m using RODI cuz we Illuminati do it that way.