Phishies Inn

I'm going to be starting a 10 gallon tank nano, pretty basic reef tank ("easy" inverts since I'm pretty new to SW)...anyway, right now I'm trying to decide what to do about my water.

With my freshwater tanks, just using my tap water + water treater works perfectly fine, no real issues. But since SW parameters are so much pickier, I just don't know if I can trust the same method for this tank...so far my 3 choices to decide on are:

1) Getting an RI/DO unit - if I'm going to this, I need a cheap, cheap one, and one that I'm able to hook up to my sink...I know that RI/DO units are supposedly easy to install but considering this is just a 10 gallon tank and this isn't going to be a permanent installment (In a couple years I'll probably be moving), I don't want to go to all the trouble really. So something I can just hook up to my sink would be perfect.

I have seen that small unit with replaceable filters (Forget the name, but it goes for $40), however I hear if your water is really hard it tends to need replacing often, and my tap water tends to have a really high alkalinity, so I'm not sure it's a good investment. It'd probably be better (long term) to get an actual RI/DO unit

2) Distilled water? Could I get away with it? I know people say RI/DO is the best but...just wondering if I could get away with it lol.

3) Just going to the LFS or Walmart and using their water. I'd only be replacing 1 or 2 gallons for each water change so it'd be really cheap that way.

Right now I'm actually leaning towards option 3. It just seems so much cheaper right now, and the LFS is not out of my way, I can easily pick it up when I go across towns for viola lessons on Wednesday. So gas isn't really a factor either.

My only thing is, how much am I going to need when setting up the tank? Could I just use some treated tap water while I'm doing the initial rock curing and cycling, and then go to the LFS for water once I'm down to weekly water changes? That would save me the hassle of hauling bigger containers

agsansoo

I think choices 2 and 3 are good. I used distilled water until I purchased my RO/DI unit. Lugging water bottles is a small price to pay for a healthy tank. I would also discourage you from using treated tap water. This will almost always lead to nuisance algae outbreaks.

rado316

walmart distilled water says its been through RO/DI treatment. thats what ive been using till i decide on the right ro/di system for me.
Does distilled water still need a remover like prime? When i was adding the distilled water for the fisrt few times, i had a sudden ammonia spike, small but still detectable. then i started adding prime with the water, and the ammonia disapeared.