Phosphate???

[donk18]

I know this may be dumb but, why are phosphate's bad? Is it just because they promote algea growth or does it do something to coral's and fish.

[vorlx]

I think its mostly due to the bad algae they promote.

[donk18]

one more dumb question. why do i need to use ro or distilled water instead of tap water. is it because of the copper and other trace elemints that could be in it or is it because of the phosphates. i am on a real tight. i mean tight budget. but i want to do things right. so if i need to use ro or distiled water i would have to but if i could get away with treating my tap water that would be better.

[vorlx]

Depending on the overall quality of your tap..then you can probably get by. You just need to purchase a water condition like seachem prime.

The main reasons you want RO/DI water is so that you can rule out the source to most every problem. The better your water quality the healthier overall your reef can be. Tap water can be full of nitrates/phosphates/silicates/copper/etc etc etc. Mine is nitrate/phosphate free (well low enough not to register anyways) but I have battled major diatom blooms over the course of many many months. You can also fuel a bunch of other types of nuisance algaes.

The bottom line is you will eventually at some point want to invest 170-250 dollars for quality RO/DI unit. In the long run it will be worth it. In the short term you can get by without it if your tap water is of good quality.

[donk18]

thanks for your help. i only have a 10 gallon so buying ro water from like walmart or something isn't that much i think 37 cents a gallon. but my wife is haveing a hard time with my newly found hobby. i have gotten 3 tanks (55g, 29g, 10g) in less than a year and she thought the two fw were bad but she has totaly flipped on the sw with how much the rock and sand has cost. so i will keep her calm by using tap water for a while.

[vorlx]

thanks for your help. i only have a 10 gallon so buying ro water from like walmart or something isn't that much i think 37 cents a gallon. but my wife is haveing a hard time with my newly found hobby. i have gotten 3 tanks (55g, 29g, 10g) in less than a year and she thought the two fw were bad but she has totaly flipped on the sw with how much the rock and sand has cost. so i will keep her calm by using tap water for a while.

Most of the cost is the up front startup. I won't lie and say anything in the hobby is cheap compared to FW but once I overcame the initial cost the rest seems moderate.

[bluegrizzlies1]

I use the walmart purple cap distilled water for my 12 galon aquapod. I have not had any problems with it.

[kryptic4l]

dont use tap water ever, I had a bit from my original filling of my nano, and im still fighting with it 4-5 months later only using ro water... I regret ever introducing it to begin with.

[Charlesr1958]

Excessive phosphate will promote some algae species and cyanobacteria but also acts to limit coral growth as well as some species of algae. It can also become stressful to corals and cause tissue recession.

Chuck