tap water

[pinklouelen]

I'm getting confused. I've been leaving my water out for 24hrs before adding it but also adding some tap safe. Do I have to do both?

[mellowvision]

not really, but it's great to do it. the dechlorinator should work fairly quickly, some people put it in the tank and add tap water straight from the tap... I personally don't... I let my water sit with dechlor for at least 15 minutes before using it... sometimes overnight if I think ahead.

[Rbishop]

No need to. So many water systems use chloramine now, the aging doesn't help at all, which is the reason for a conditioner that handles it.

[Weezer]

Tap water can be added directly to the tank along with a good quality water conditioner.. water temp should be as close to tank temp as possible.....:)

[Broham]

Who uses RO water here? It then is a matter of RO vs distilled vs Spring (conditioner?) , tap (conditioner) RO is said to be the best but spring water contains very small traces of certain minerals which i wont go into detail here and tap requires conditioner. so the question is, which water is more economical? will you buy RO everytime you need to change water? or condition the tap and change?

[spirals]

I would say unless you have fish which are really picky about their water or breeding, just use regular tap water with a good conditioner such as Prime. I always advise ppl to use Prime even if they do let the water sit. While the chlorine may evaporate, I'm not sure about the chloramine and the other crap they put in our water which the conditioners will remove.

[dieselman]

Most tap water will work for a tank as long as the lights are kept off to prevent algae growth. If you like the lights on like I do then use a RO/DI system for a cheap supply of water and use something like Kents RO water treatment to replace the good stuff that was filtered out. For a small tank like 30 gallons and less buy distilled water.

[Broham]

Thats a good point because Who can afford buying RO water from a store every single water change? IF you do the math you can get a bottle of prime for cheap and treat a lot of water but RO is 1 dollar a gallon and that may not seem like much but it adds up say you do 20% water change twice a week. One persons 20% may be 10 gallons so thats 10 dollars x 2 = 20 dollars a week x 4= 80 dollars a month and trip to the store and gas. $$$ henceforth, i renounce RO as the ultimate choice due to impracticality. I'd rather use that money on conditioner, filter pads,lighting, plants etc and fish also.

[jtburf]

You can get a good 7 stage RO unit for 70 bucks.

[dieselman]

You can get a good 7 stage RO unit for 70 bucks.

That is an excellent price, do you have a link?

Thanks! :)

[Broham]

how in the world? the prices of ro systems range from 200$ to 8000 dollars. this of course is not including maintenance. even a 2 stage filter can be 150 dollars. now if this thread has turned to RO system thread then okay, but for the purposes of aquarium water changes, i can not at all agree with paying that much for water period.

[Mgamer20o0]

hose into tank plus prime = my water change