Do I Really Need Ro/di Water

HI all,
I am finally hoping to get started on my first saltwater tank.
It will be a 29 Gallon tank.
I am going to create a separate thread with my overall plan, but for now, I have only one thing holding me back.
Water.
I can not get RO/DI water
My parents won't let me install a unit
My fish store is a hour away, and I cannot get a ride there each week.
And I cannot afford to spend $0.90 per gallon for distilled water at the grocery store.
Are some fish and corals ok with tap water, or should I just abandon the water altogether.
Would a small brita twist on be good enough?

 

Its a tough question to answer with out know some values of your source water. Ph, kh, gh, tds, well or town water and anything else you may consider relevant.

 

Some fish can go ok with ro/DI water, such as clowns, not the more sensitive ones, and most corals need RO/DI water.

 

Ph I know is 8
Gh is 180
Kh is I believe 6-8, does that sound right?
And I'm not sure about the TDS..
TBH, I kinda was more excited about the corals than the fish so if I couldn't get any, I probably won't do saltwater.

 

I have a RO Buddie unit that's portable. It comes with an adapter that will attach to a garden hose faucet (common 3/4" MGH).



I use mine for a shrimp tank so it doesn't get much use but it's been consistently giving me 5 TDS RO water. You can get a DI attachment to get it down to 0 TDS. The general consensus is that the RO Buddie DI unit sucks so don't waste your money on that.

 

Heres a chart of ideal water conditions for both a fowler and coral aquarium. If your within a resonable range then it might be possible that's why most people go rodI since few people have acceptable tap water, me included.

 

So I am a bit confused.
The reviews for the RO buddy says tap water comes out at 6.7, but the chart david1978 provided says that the water should be 7.9 to 8.3.
It also appears that all of my Params meet these guidelines, but how do I test for calcium, phosphate , and all of those other minerals. Would they be in a water report?

 

It does come out low but when you add salt and buffers you basically reminilize it to what you need. If that makes sense. I couldn't remember off the top of my head all the parameters needed. Some local fish stores will test your water and better ones will help you decide if it would be appropriate.

 

I've been running tap water in my tank for the past 10 months or so and I'm really done with the nuisance algae. My tap water at college is better than the water at home, but even at school I still battle some algae. Tap water can be high in silicates, phosphates, nitrates, and heavy metals such as copper, iron, lead, etc. There is an acceptable level of it found in all drinking water which is fine for a human-sized organism. But in an aquarium, it'll reek havoc on your system; you're live rock can store the metals and then slowly leach them back out again. You might have issues keeping sensitive fish and corals.
If you can't afford to buy distilled/RODI water, how are you going to afford salt, good lighting, corals, general supplies, medicine, etc? Once the bug bites, there's always nicer corals/fish that will catch your eye.
You can try to wing it with just tap water and see how that goes but you may just end up frustrated. While I'm home from school, I'm trying to be good and only use RODI water from the pet store.

 

The thing is, at $0.89 per gallon, I would be changing twenty percent a week, which is 5.34 a week, which comes out to $277 of water per year. All of the other items would be one time cost, whereas this one would be recurring.

 

The thing is, at $0.89 per gallon, I would be changing twenty percent a week, which is 5.34 a week, which comes out to $277 of water per year. All of the other items would be one time cost, whereas this one would be recurring.

Lighting and corals might be a one time expense, but salt will need to be purchased periodically, filter media purchased monthly (unless you stock up), general supplies and medicine as well. The point is that you would be surprised at the number of recurring costs in this hobby. As mentioned by DarkOne you can pick up a portable RO/DI unit that hooks up to a garden hose for just under $60 shipped from Amazon. You would need to periodically replace the filter resins/cartridges but but it would be much cheaper than the distilled (and distilled is IMHO NOT a good option as it doesn't remove all the TDS like an RODI unit does and many times it is run though a copper based unit, which can be deadly to corals and inverts).

 

So if I got the RO unit, that would be good?

 

So if I got the RO unit, that would be good?

Yes, the RODI unit mentioned above would be good. Just be aware that it will produce a fair amount of "waste water"
(it will take about 6-7 gallons of water to produce one gallon of RODI). They have the 3 stage RO unit 50 gallon per day for $58.49 and the 4 stage RODI unit 50 gallon per day for $59.49. Given the whopping $1 price difference I would say the 4 stage RODI is a no brainer. Either way, much better than distilled or tap water.

 

The 4 stage is a waste of a dollar as the DI (4th stage) doesn't last 5 gallon of water. The 3 stage 50gpd was $49 when I got it and the price changes often. If you need DI, there are other DI units that last much longer and will connect to the RO Buddie since they're all connected via 1/4" push connectors.

I get about 4-5g of waste water to every gallon of RO water.

 

The 4 stage is a waste of a dollar as the DI (4th stage) doesn't last 5 gallon of water. The 3 stage 50gpd was $49 when I got it and the price changes often. If you need DI, there are other DI units that last much longer and will connect to the RO Buddie since they're all connected via 1/4" push connectors.

I get about 4-5g of waste water to every gallon of RO water.

Good to know. Thanks.