[R-e-D]

ok .. now to those of you who know .. i am a firm beliver in tap water (conditions apply.i have been useing it in my salt and freshwater tanks for better then 10 years now with no problems. well as to not conform to another rule of thumb i have add 5 med fish to my tank yesterday(yellow tang,sailfin tang,dot-dash buterfly,2 purple anthas). i know 1 fish ever 2 to 3 weeks so the tanks bioload will adjust. well i am putting that rule on the shelve with the ro water only rule .. i guess there is not much of a question here just a comment huh ..

[e_baer]

Why are you a firm believer or tap water? What makes it better than RO water?

[R-e-D]

maybe not better .. just hate when people say things can only be done one way ... water is water .. this hobby is a lot older the ro units. dont get me wrong ro units have there place (bad tap water areas)i just dont feel i need one where i live

[ilovemash]

Do you live in the Rockies? Or next to a beautiful underground Spring? I use tap water in my freshwater, but when it comes to saltwater I use nothing but pure RO, and if anybody asked I would steer them away from Tap. Yes there is a possibility that it will work out fine but I do not believe it is worth the risks!
As for what you added to your tank, did you add that to your 35 gallon?

[R-e-D]

i have been using tap water for better then ten years now with no problems . you city water quality has to be good to do this .. mine just happends to be good where i live ., others might not be as lucky ... and yes i add the 5 fish to my 36 corner tank

[pogodzib]

Tap water in some areas may be good enough to use in freshwater, saltwater, and even reef tanks. In fact, I think that tap water is fine for most freshwater tanks and many saltwater setups if used properly, but only a small portion of areas have good enough water that I'd use them in a reef tank. The reason being is that many corals (esp. SPS) are very, very sensitive to metals, chlorine, etc... and the strong lighting can make algae blooms virtually impossible to get rid of in a reef tank since the lights make it grow quickly if the water quality is poor. Yes, reef tanks have been around for a long time, but people have much more success now than they did 10-20 years ago thanks to better equipment and using RO water. It wasn't too many years ago that many of the more commonly kept types of LPS and SPS corals were considered impossible to keep. In a non-reef tank, you can treat the algae with chemicals or leave the lights off.

So now that I gave you my opinion, how long have you had a REEF tank setup? Maybe (and hopefully) your one of the lucky few that have really good tap water quality.

[R-e-D]

i make 5 gallons of water every thursday night to use on my saturday water changes . i have have fowlr tanks (w/anemones)for over 10 years now and just started the whop reef thing in november . so far the only issues i have had were nitrates and adding a baffle to my sump for some cheato fixed that .. i dont have a problem with ro water persay .. i have a problem with people saying it is the only way to go and you have to use it ..

[rlcline76]

So use tap water if you want.

El Paso does not have decent water...I know this because I used tap to start and it came with too many problems.

[pogodzib]

Originally Posted by R-e-D

i dont have a problem with ro water persay .. i have a problem with people saying it is the only way to go and you have to use it ..

I agree. It isn't the ONLY way, but it is the best way for most people. Many soft corals do great with less than ideal water conditions. I'd highly suggest a RO/DI unit for anyone housing SPS corals even if the water tested great. As soon as a problem with algae or inverts dying shows up, I'd seriously start looking at if it was the tap water that is causing the problem though. Besides, why would I want to take the chance of killing the thousands of dollars worth of corals because I was too cheap to by a $100 RO/DI unit? (Of course, I bought a $460 unit instead)

[reefcouple]

Using municipal water has "cleansers" in it that would need to be extracted by some form or another suitable for fish tanks. You can actually distill your own tap water simply by letting it sit for about a week prior to using it...

Anyhow, i wouldnt use it, to me its like saying VHS works just fine, but why do so when DVD's are so much better

[pogodzib]

Letting tap water sit while aerated will help get rid of some chemicals out of tap water, but it won't get rid of heavy metals, clays, silts, phosphate, etc...

[e_baer]

I will be sticking with an RO unit, but what about those tap water filters? Will those get some of the heavy metals out do you think?

[reefcouple]

Hey Elliot, I asked a HD guy that and he answered no they will not, and it really depends on so many factors, home, stree, municipal plumbing etc.

At my LFS, they sell saltwater and RO water, my RO I pay about .40/gallon and 1.00/gallon for the saltwater

[gimmito]

R-E-D,

Forget about the tap water. I'm more concerned about all those fish in a 35 gal !

[R-e-D]

8 fish is a lot?? why do you think that?

[gimmito]

R-E-D,

Here are some "minimum" tank size requirements for the fish and adult size attained (according to scott w. michael's marine fishes):

Yellow tang-75 gallons/7.9 inches
Sailfin tang-135 gallons/15.7 inches
Dot and dash butterflyfish-55 gallons/5.0 inches
Purple anthias-55 gallons/4.7 inches

Now, I'll be the first to say I don't always adhere to the 1" per 2 gallon rule. But you have some fish with special requirements.

Anthias need to be fed 2-4 times a day alone.
Most tangs need at least a 6 foot tank.

I know a lot of advanced aquarist who keep a lot of fish in what may be considered small aquariums. Unfortunately, with the type of fish you have I think it's a recipe for disaster !

I hope I'm wrong.

[R-e-D]

if you go by the tank size limits for each fish there are very few of us who would be able to keep the fish we have .. as for what i keep , well i dont keep my fish till adult anyway i olny like my fish small so when the get a bit over med i give them to my lfs and start over .

[rlcline76]

I saw a guy with a 90 gallon who only 3 fish. Looked great...focus was more on the corals.

I do not believe in the fish/gallon rule. Too many factors cancel them out. We get the size of the fish, compatibility, feeding habits, when it will spend most of the time in the tank. However, and I know this will not change R-e-D's habits, 8 fish in a small tank is a bit much, no matter what the size of the fish.

[pogodzib]

And here I though 11 fish in my 125 seemed like a lot. Granted, the tank was packed with corals, but.... I can't imagine that fish combination in a 30 gal tank.

[aquasalt]

I think that part of the challenge in this hobby is to strive for perfection. Sure, we can push the limits and experiment with our tanks--but there is something truly satisfying in knowing that you have done everything possible to create a stable natural saltwater environment.

[R-e-D]

i have kept sw fish for better then 10 years now. this is my first reef tank so i am still new at it but i set this tank up in november and within a few days (NOt weeks) I put rock,coral and fish in it .. i dont have any sick fish,i dont have any fish that ont eat .. bottom line is i dont have any unhappy fish. ..

[rlcline76]

I think we need to take a good look at what we as hobbyists constitute as being happy. There are some manifestations that we see, disease, aggression, etc. And then there are some things that we cannot see. It is not so easy to suggest that every thing is fabulous when our fish cannot give us the thumbs up.

I would never suggest that someone new to the hobby set up a complete system within days. I find it to be extremely irresponsible and the cause of way too many deaths and way too many hobbyists giving up completely. No one here wants that kind of liability.

You might think that we are being hard on you, but if you read through enough of these threads you will find that much BS could have been avoided if the hobbyist was in not in such a rush to have a complete reef tank within the first couple months of starting.
At any rate, I sure hope you are testing on a regular basis just in case something starts to go awry.

[pogodzib]

I'm going to sum up what I've read from your posts so far R-e-D. Your using tap water in a new tank so you are saying that tap water can sustain life for a couple months. Great. Plus you had high nitrates in a tank that wasn't overcrowded. Then you added 5 fish last week and don't think your nitrate problem is going to get any worse. Sound like your well on the way to having a nice looking tank that lasts a couple months before it crashes.

[rlcline76]

I'm good for $20. lol

[NATIVEVAMAN]

I have to say that I am reading this in total dismay.I have to say that it saddens me to know that someone would abuse animals this way.It saddens me to know he is bragging about it.