Guys I am using ro water (from supermarket) for top offs and would like to switch to store brand water because its cheaper. The label says "conforms to all existing federal, state, and local standards for bottled water purity". Does this mean Reverse osmosis and/or distilled?? and is it safe to use without chems? Thanks dudes!!
Bottled water purity is great for human consumption but not for a marine tank.
The 2 things that totally contribute to and fuel nuisance algae in a tank are excess feeding and high TDS(total dissolved solids) water. Distillation and reverse osmosis just doesn't cut it when trying to achieve a TDS of zero.
My tap water has a TDS of about 70. The measurement after sediment, carbon and r/o still reads about 3-5 TDS. Only after going through the first DI (deionization) cartridge does it finally measure 0 TDS.
An Ro/di filter should be the first piece of hardware purchased for any marine tank, 2nd should be a good skimmer.
A lot of people end up giving up the hobby due to hair algae that they can't get rid of. RO/DI water is not a cure all but it does take a big problem out of the equation.
Pick up a cheap $15-$25 TDS meter and check the RO and distilled water you are using. You will be surprised.
Click on RO/DI systems. The first choice for $124 is perfect but you would need to order the DI replacement cartridge for about $15 and use it to replace with the 3rd canister.
good info man.............i am useing RO water from wally world right now.....my hair algae is at a minimum but still shows it's ugly head now and again ....but not the lush green lawn it used to be by any means, algae hermit crabs have made a huge difference in my algae control -almost non exsistant.....................wal-marts "always" brand water comes in two types....green label is UV filtered and the blue label is RO {not Deionized} and they are both 66 cents a gallon.......Serieal32 and I found a Culigan dispenser at a different walmart and we pay 1.97 for 5 gallons of RO {again not DI} water {the first bottle is 15 bucks but then you own the container and refills are cheap......we take turns every other week or so and get 30 galons for the tanks in the house} @ 11.82 per week...................it's livable for now......glad to hear about the RO/DI vs. just RO......no one has been able to explain it to me until now.........so now the house RO unit will get a DI unit as well when it goes in......thanks SCHIGARA....................Boss
A few months back, before I bought a TDS meter, I started to get quite a bit a hair algae. I got the meter and the water out of my RO/DI was reading 16ppm TDS. I was feeding sparingly and the HA was still trying to get out of control.
I had never changed my RO membrane and all the filters were kinda old as well. Got a new membrane, sediment and carbon filters and added a 2nd DI canister and new color changing DI resins.
Just using pure 0TDS water was not stopping the HA because any ammount of waste from the fish continues to fuel the algae. I added 4 huge Turbo snails that would actually eat the 2in long HA and put a PhosBan Reactor in the sump and started running Pura PhosLock which is a grannular ferric oxide that absorbs the phosphates from the water.
Within 5 days, there was no trace of hair algae anywhere. Now I run Pura Complete in the reactor which has Carbon, GFO and Beta Ferric Hydroxide. It runs constantly and change out the media every 3 months.
No more algae problems or occasional diatom outbreaks.
i have a question about RO/DI filters it may be different for me since i am freshwater, but since a RO unit only filters 75- 150 gallons a day where does it fit into you filtration system is it filtered directly into your tank, inline with your other filters, i use a canister filter. Or is it strictly for say a resivior tank. Not keep in mind i am a freshwater guy and really have no clue about how saltwater is set up but i figured since you were talking about it i would ask a few.
There are other options when it comes to saltwater quality without having to buy the water and salt seperate. If you dont have an RO/DI unit then why not try Natural Sea Water by Natures Ocean. It costs about 12 bucks for 5 gallonsand comes with natural sea water parameters and is phosphate and nitrate free. You can use this water as an alternative untill you get yourself a nice RO/DI unit.
i have heard of the sea water in boxes ...but for me it just seems to expensive with water changes and such on 3 tanks.....................i am assumeing you are useing it..........do you have algae and diatom issues like the rest of us or is it that good?
Beautiful tank by the way .....welcome ....Snowboss
Diatoms and algae will grow on all marine systems even with the best RO/DI unit on the market. Algae is just a part of nature and excess nutrients will undoubtly result in algae blooms. To be frank with you, good quality water will only serve as a non contributer to algae growth, but in the end, the food we feed fishes, and the nutrients released by the fish waste all contribute to a never ending battle with algae. The only true way to make a huge impact on the algae growing on your tank is via a UV sterilizer which I am thnking about buying soon.
As for the Natures Ocean Natural Sea Water, I used it on my first system for over 2 years and it is a great product. I used it mostly to eliminate having to mix the water and to eliminate having to buy and RO unit. Now that I have a 90 gallon, it is too expensive to get 3 or 4 of these every month for water changes. But on a smaller system such as my old 45 G, I would recommend it. I only bought one monthly for a water change which was equivalent to a 10% water change.
good points on water being only one contributor to the algae food chain ,....never really looked at it that way......................we always spend so much time dealing with water.............ever seen that eco-aqua thing ? sorry ill post a link for ya
