Make-up Water

[ChelseaBidwell]

HI guys! I am new here and new to the saltwater aquarium hobby. I am pretty experienced and successful with freshwater. But this is all new to me. We just bought everything needed to start our 80 gallon saltwater aquarium. And we are going to build our sump this weekend. I've been reading a lot about how tap water is unsafe for the livestock in the aquarium. I am wanting to go ahead and start my cycling process when I finish the sump and have come across an article explaining how to shock tap water with chlorine and then dechlorinate it. Once I have done that, I have to filter it with activated carbon to rid of any metals that may have been in my tap water and it says I need to make sure all of the essential nutrients are present. I have purchased a dechlorinator that also removes all copper, iron, ect. My question is, how do I make sure that my make-up water has all the nutrients my livestock will need? I am doing this because I cannot get a RO/DI unit at the moment since I have spent well over $4,000 to start this tank. I want to start the cycling process and make sure I am cycling with water that is sufficient for the life of my future fish/corals. Has anyone done this and been successful or is there an easier way to do this besides buying pre-mixed water? Any help would be great! Thank you!

 

[Tony_097]

I think you should be pateint and save up for an rodI unit. You can get water from the lfs but I would not trust thr store. In a salty tank you want 0 tds (total disolved solids ) and that is easier to acheive with your own unit. The store's water may not have 0 tds which will lead to alage growth and you cannot completly trust tbe store as they want to profit from you.

 

[ForceTen]

Good luck Chelsea. I have always loved salt water tanks and reef inhabitants for as long as I can remember.

 

[Jesterrace]

HI guys! I am new here and new to the saltwater aquarium hobby. I am pretty experienced and successful with freshwater. But this is all new to me. We just bought everything needed to start our 80 gallon saltwater aquarium. And we are going to build our sump this weekend. I've been reading a lot about how tap water is unsafe for the livestock in the aquarium. I am wanting to go ahead and start my cycling process when I finish the sump and have come across an article explaining how to shock tap water with chlorine and then dechlorinate it. Once I have done that, I have to filter it with activated carbon to rid of any metals that may have been in my tap water and it says I need to make sure all of the essential nutrients are present. I have purchased a dechlorinator that also removes all copper, iron, ect. My question is, how do I make sure that my make-up water has all the nutrients my livestock will need? I am doing this because I cannot get a RO/DI unit at the moment since I have spent well over $4,000 to start this tank. I want to start the cycling process and make sure I am cycling with water that is sufficient for the life of my future fish/corals. Has anyone done this and been successful or is there an easier way to do this besides buying pre-mixed water? Any help would be great! Thank you!

That would be a terrible choice. Shocking water is great for pools and hot tubs, but not for fish tanks. The active ingredient in shock is either chlorine or bromine and it's usually a concentrated dose and you can't simply dump in dechlorinator and remove the issues with it. The problem is that saltwater tanks in order to function well need a pure water source. RODI removes all minerals and solids from the water so there is no question as to what is in your water source. You then re-mineralize with something like Instant Ocean, Red Sea, etc. and therefore your water has only the stuff in it that is specifically beneficial to a marine aquarium.

A cheap 4 stage RODI unit costs a whopping $60:




A solid RODI unit with 6 stages or more costs $150-$250. By your own admission you have spent $4000 on this setup, is it really worth it to risk at the very least out of control algae issues from the random minerals and solids in tap water and at worst putting stuff in that could kill everything in your tank? Especially when you could fix the issues for as little as $60.