Water ?

sharky

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Mar 14, 2003
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kentucky
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Getting ready to fill my tank up , (180 gal ) do i have to have RO water , or can I use my tap water , and use some kind of water treatment chemical ? This is going to be a fish only tank , but don't you have to have a little bit of live rock for it to cycle correctly , I just have standard lighting ,2 twin lights.:confused:
 
You'll need to tell us a bit about your water before we can help you decide if it's suitable for filling the tank. Most people use a mixture of RO and tap, but it really depends on what is in your tap--phosphates, DOCS, ammonia/nitrates (nitrites aren't as common, for some reason), chlorine/chloramine, ect.

As for LR--you can use LR in a FO tank for biological filtration. It is not required for the tank to cycle. Adding cured LR won't help very much, since there won't be a food source for the bacteria, and the resulting spike when ammonia becomes available will kill off much of the critters. Using uncured livr rock can be great, but for 180, you'll need copious quantities of ammonia for a good cycle, and I gotta say,I doubt you're going to want to buy that much LR. If it were my tank, I would go buy about 1/2 of cocktail shrimp, and throw that in. Maybe buy 10 lbs of rubble LR--not much life to worry about, but it will provide a good innoculation of bacteria for your tank.
 
Orion , sounds like you know your stuff . Ok so I need to test my water to see whats in it . Should I check it with out any salt mixed in first to see whats in it , or should I go ahead and make a batch with the salt , I have a bag of Instant Ocean . I also have a Master test kit .When you say rubble LR what do you mean? Also what kind of substrate should I use sand or crushed coral ? I have about 50 to 75 pounds of sand that the guy had in this aquarium , I brought it home with me , all he had in the tank was a nurse shark .
 
While you can try testing yourself, a more reliable method is to contact your local utility and request the test results--it's public information, and may even be available on their webpage. This will give you a better idea of what is in your water, and without forcing you to buy a load of test kits you'll seldom use. Once you have this information, you can decide a) what water treatments are needed to deal with chorine/choramines. b) If phosphates and silicate levels will necessitate using filtered water (either purchasing filtered water, or buying an RO filter unit for yourself). c) gives you a base value to compare your salt mix to. Most slat mixes contain buffers and such to raise pH, calcium, alkalinity ect in addition to creating the salinity. Sometimes, addition treatments will be needed, especially if you want a reef (where calcium levels can be very important). So, I would get the stats from your utility, see what treatments are needed, and then mix up the SW and test again.

If you are on a well, you can still get the water analysis--think it's through the county. This will take one step out--well water usually isn't treated with chlorine/chloramines, but you may have a water softener, which may use phosphates for softening, in which case you'll want to get water before it hits the softener.

LR rubble means little chuinks of rock, 3-4 in a handful. Many LFS will sell these small peices cheaply--something like $5 for 10 pieces. They aren't as decorative as the larger pieces, but they will have the bacteria you want to kick start the cycling process.

Sand is great--preferred by most. A good 4-6 inches of it qualifies as a deep sand bed (DSB), which will allows the bacteria that break down nitrates to help keep your water quality up. I don't think you have enough for this depth--think that's probably only 2-3 inches deep. You can pick up more cheaply at a big box store (Home Depot, Lowe's)--look for a fine grained play sand, or blasting sand. Think it's usually around $4-5 per 100 lb bag.
 
That's why we're here! :) Before long, you'll be helping others who are just starting out. ;)
 
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