Bottled water questions

[Pisces]

I really miss having a community tank (we've got 2 reefs) so I'm seriously considering either setting up the 20g again or buying a 55g or larger tank.
We're on a bad well right now so all tank water has to come from the store. Which is the best kind of bottled water to buy for a fresh tank? Spring, drinking, purified or distilled?
This may be a stupid question, but does bottled water still require the use of a chemical water treatment to make it safe for fish?

[125gJoe]

A R/O DeIoninzing system will be cheaper in the long run....:)

Here's one...

http://pic4.picturetrail.com:80/VOL59/715239/1510346/16394180.jpg

[slipknottin]

spring water doesnt neccissarly mean its any better than tap water... its still treated with chlorine also.

distilled water is commonly stored in copper vats, copper is extremely deadly to all inverts and if the levels get high enough, fish. If you want to use distilled water you should do a copper test first.

RO is great, 95-99% as pure as distilled but usually cheaper and isnt stored in copper vats.

Regardless, a RO/DI unit will be cheaper in the long run, not to mention simpler than having to go to the store if theres ever a water problem. RO and distilled water do not need to be treated with any chlorine or chloramine remover. However, you must mix RO or distilled with tap water, or add some salt to the water. Fish cannot live in water without electrolytes.

[Pisces]

I forgot to mention that we already have an RO/DI unit on our kitchen sink and I honestly wouldn't use it for our fish tank. We've tested it and it still lets quite a bit of silicate and phosphate through. Our well water is VERY dirty and it's on a softener system. I'd rather be safe and use bottled water. Using our tap water for anything is out of the question.

[slipknottin]

Replace the cartridge in the RO, and add a DI unit for the output to the tank.

[Richer]

If you use RO water, mix it with your tap water. Freshwater tanks usually don't have anything in them to buffer the water (ie. coral, and whatnot). Experiment with the mixing till you get a good KH level.. I suggest a KH of 4-5.

-Richer

[Pisces]

Slip, there already is a DI unit after the RO. All filter cartridges were replaced within the past 2 months.

I just tested the RO/DI water and the Phosphate is reading 0.1 ppm and Silicate is basically off the chart, 2 ppm and above. We live in Florida, the water is in sand so what can you expect, Right? On the bright side I tested the RO/DI water and a jug of distilled water for Copper and they were both 0.
Would you use this water in a fresh tank? Wouldn't the Silicate cause major algae problems?

One store sells Purified water which says it is RO water, is that my best option to go with? Sorry for all the questions.

[slipknottin]

I doubt thats a DI filter, your not supposed to drink DI water. Maybe its a carbon filter?

if the distilled water is testing 0 for copper than its fine for your tank. You need to add salt or a little bit of your tap water however. Remember to buffer well also, distilled water has no alk.

You can always add another DI unit after the first one and lower phosphates and silicates...

[wetmanNY]

A splash of your own untreated wellwater would give you all the electrolytes you need. Why would you buy r/o water and avoid your own? High silicates won't be a problem; silicates don't "cause" diatoms. Plants will use the phosphate, if you'll give em a little potassium, perhaps in the form of "Nu-Salt" from the diet aisle at the market.

Check with your Culligan Man or whomever to be reassured, but if you'll recharge your water softener with potassium chloride instead of "salt" sodium chloride, you can use it in fishtanks and the garden etc. without adding sodium to the aquarium or the garden soil. A simple adjustment that can be made with any brine-charged ion-exchange resin.

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by wetmanNY
A splash of your own untreated wellwater would give you all the electrolytes you need. Why would you buy r/o water and avoid your own? .....Hmmm, yeah, why buy R/O water? Seems like your R/O system is not working properly.

[Pisces]

Thanks for all the advice guys but here's the deal.
Yes there is a deionizer unit, we put both the RO and DI on there ourselves in order to use the water for our tanks, no we don't drink it. Right now we are having to use a very shallow, very DIRTY well for the time being so the RO/DI units do what they can with the sludge coming out of the well but it's not removing everything because the well water is so dirty to begin with, like I've been trying to say. I would never add this untreated well water to a fish tank for any reason.
In order for us to consistently get very pure water we'd most likely have to add another RO or DI unit and would have to change all the filter cartridges very frequently and as expensive as that would be, I might as well just buy the water and be done with it.
For now, the RO/DI is useless for our tanks UNTIL we get a new, deeper well drilled that has cleaner water and I can't see that happening anytime soon, unfortunately.

I guess I'm sticking with distilled water that has been tested for copper and I will add buffer and electrolytes by using R.O. Vital, R.O. Right or something like that. Thanks again! :)

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by Pisces
....In order for us to consistently get very pure water we'd most likely have to add another RO or DI unit ... There wouldn't be enough pressure to have another R/O unit after the first one...

Surpising to hear of your water problem... My brother lives near Vero and his well is ok.. :(

[Pisces]

Hi 80gJoe. How does your brother like living in Vero? My husband always says he'd like to move up there if we ever decided to move. It's a very pretty area and it doesn't seem as congested traffic-wise as we are around here and the Stuart, Jensen Beach area.
We actually did have a decent well when we moved into the house in 1997 but the main pipe developed a large crack in the bottom of it (not fixable, we tried) and it basically started sucking in sand and mud so that well had to be closed down.
My husband hand-drilled (meaning manually shoving a pipe into the ground...not easy!) an emergency well all by himself and he estimates that he got down about 30 feet and then he hit rock and had to quit. We've been using the "emergency" well for about 2 years now. You know how it goes, as long as we're getting water it's ok for now, other things come first moneywise. We know we need to have a new, professionally dug well done at some point, but it all takes money.
We could hook up to city water now (for a large hookup fee) but it's so loaded with chemicals I still wouldn't drink the stuff without some major filtering. Although with city water the RO/DI unit would function so much better and we could use it for the fish tanks. Another drawback to hooking up is that they aren't allowing people to stay on their septic systems, so that means a very high water bill, the sewer portion is usually much higher than the water usage part, utilities are outrageous around here.
I am going to check with the water utilities this coming week just to see what the actual fee is to hook up, I know it's upwards of $1500 or more, but we may have to bite the bullet and do it.
I'm SOOO tired of having water problems and dealing with a well, water softener, pump, and so on.

[valerie]

So what water do you use in your reef tanks?

[Pisces]

I need to correct myself. I had said that the water I tested recently was RO & DI filtered but NOW I find out the DI isn't even running right now. My husband just informed me that the membrane of the DI was getting wore out so fast with this dirty water that he totally disconnected it for now and the water is just being RO filtered, that's why the silicate level was so bad.

Sorry for arguing with you guys...geez, I feel stupid. :rolleyes:

[Pisces]

Originally posted by valerie
So what water do you use in your reef tanks?

We've been using distilled water all this time and copper has never been a problem. I didn't even know to test it for copper until recently reading that on this board. The LFS people never mentioned it even though we've always said we use distilled water in our tanks...but anyway, it is coming up 0 for copper content so we'll keep using it. It's 59 cents a gallon so that's not too bad I guess. The RO purified water is 69 cents a gallon.

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by Pisces
Hi 80gJoe. How does your brother like living in Vero? My husband always says he'd like to move up there if we ever decided to move. It's a very pretty area and it doesn't seem as congested traffic-wise as we are around here and the Stuart, Jensen Beach area.
..... He likes the area... There's not much traffic - no comparison to here in Orlando.