Tap water that has TDS between 24 - 29 okay?

[sally666]

I bought a TDS device from Amazon and I tested my tap water at home and my kitchen faucet has a TDS reading of 29 ppm while my bathroom faucet has a TDS reading of 24 ppm. Can I use my tap water for my saltwater FOWLR tank, or should I stick with distilled water?

 

[KrisReef]

Probably fine for fish. Back in the day we all mixed tap with instant ocean and it was just fine

An ICP test it your tap water would help to determine if there might be long term effects depending on what the tds actually is?

It might be great for fish and coral but without knowing it’s a guess.

Are you on a municipal water supply? They can give you a report of what is in your water.

But big picture, it’s probably fine for fish without further investigation.


Our tap is 300+ TDS because it comes from the Colorado River and the Coors people dump their empty cans into the river downstream.

 

[Fish Fan]

That's a pretty low starting TDS, I think you'd be fine for a small FOWLR like you're planning.

 

[KrisReef]

That's a pretty low starting TDS, I think you'd be fine for a small FOWLR like you're planning.

^This^
Butt, if you love your fish you should ICP test your water at the well and at the faucet that you use to make your tank water from.

Again, low TDS is probably wonderful for a reef or fish tank.

We recommend a test to determine what those “TDS” numbers mean. If you have copper or arsenic or CO2 or something else that is making the low TDS measurements if we don’t test it once to determine what it is then down the road it might create problems, or we might waste DI resin to remove the ions, or not, but we need a positive I’d to make the proper response to your water situation.

that’s a promise.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Don’t forget there is chlorine in tap water. Needs to be addressed before adding fish.

 

[Fish Fan]

^This^
Butt, if you love your fish you should ICP test your water at the well and at the faucet that you use to make your tank water from.

Again, low TDS is probably wonderful for a reef or fish tank.

We recommend a test to determine what those “TDS” numbers mean. If you have copper or arsenic or CO2 or something else that is making the low TDS measurements if we don’t test it once to determine what it is then down the road it might create problems, or we might waste DI resin to remove the ions, or not, but we need a positive I’d to make the proper response to your water situation.

that’s a promise.

Very true that a low TDS doesn't mean that what you do have in your water isn't bad for your tank. An ICP test would probably confirm that your water is safe.

You can also buy jugs of distilled water at your local grocery store or Mega-Lo-Mart, a little over a buck/gallon, if you're at all worried about your tap water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you want any inverts, remember that a number one problem with tap water, copper from your own pipes, won’t be lower in lower tds tap water than in higher tds tap water.

IMO, tds is mostly useful to know that an RO/DI is working properly, and not to know whether tap water is suitable or not.

 

[BryanM]

RODI setups are not that expensive compared to the hobby as a whole, and its a whole lot of peace of mind IMO.