Do you successfully keep any corals in your tank using only tapwater?

[-Nemo-]

IMO get the cheapest RO/DI unit you can that at least has some positive reviews. It is more the filters, media, and how many stages your running though that makes a good RO unit vs the brand, they all look and work pretty much the same. I am personally not up on brands of RO units, one of those items you buy once and never really worry about it again. I paid $400 for a Seachem Pinnicle+ unit but I am the type to buy the more expensive just to be safe. I know there are many good units that run in the $150 range though, hopefully someone else will chime in with good links for you.

As far as how they work, well, I went to super simple route and just screw on the intake right to my bathroom sink faucet and have the waste water go down the drain, RO/DI unit sits to the side of the sink and good water goes into a 32G Brute trashcan. Most people hard mount them by screwing them to a piece of plywood then screwing that to the wall.

As far as media, I change out the prefilters, carbon block, and DI resin every 6 months and the RO membrane every 12 months, but I go through a lot more water than you would, about 50G a week myself. I buy a "kit" from www.bulkreefsupply.com that has the filters and DI resin in a package that runs around $30. It depends on how much water your making but most filters tell you they are good for "x,xxx" amount of gallons.

I agree with Ace in that any unit (for the most part) will do. Some are designed a bit better, with better connections, etc. Brands I have seen or used and liked:

www.airwaterice.com --I am currently using a modified version of their Typhoon III

www.purelyh2o.com

www.spectrapure.com--expensive, but guaranteed to be the best

www.buckeyefieldsupply.com--great place for the best sediment cartridges, other than spectrapure

www.bulkreefsupply.com--great place for cheapest membrane prices

www.thefilterguys.biz--great place for the cheapest semiconductor-grade resins other than spectrapure.

The cheapest decent units can be had at bulkreefsupply. However, I tend to prefer to buy my filters at a number of different places--I basically piece them together. My setup uses, in order: .2 micron pleated sediment cartridges to prolong all other filter life; .5 micron 8,000 gallon rated carbon cartridge; .6 micron 20000 gallon rated carbon cartridge; Dow Filmtek 75 gpd 98%+ rejection reverse osmosis membrane; 1 canister of semiconductor-grade resin (better than normal nuclear grade--to 18 megohm resistivity); a final 1/2 semiconductor resin 1/2 specialized phosphate adsorption resin cartridge. Besides spectrapure, who can be a bit inflated price-wise, no other place carries evey single one of these items. So I tend to go to BRS for membranes, filterguys for resins, and buckeye for sediment and carbon cartridges (sometimes thefilterguys for carbon also--they carry the same ones).

ty guys. i'm going to do some looking, ty for the links too. :thm:

 

[Emg]

I have successfully kept soft coral for about 2.5 years with only tap water. My water out of the tap is very soft and the PH comes out at 7.8 and tests at 8.2-8.3 in the tank.

I also don't use a protein skimmer. I couldn't afford one when I started out and things were going so well that I never bothered to get one. I just have 2 AC 110 HOBs running for water movement on my 50gallon. One of them is setup as a small refugium with rubble and cheato. The other just runs for flow and to run carbon as needed.

:huh:


50 gallon

29 gallon

 

[-Nemo-]

very nice emg. do you add anything to the water supplements etc?

 

[GregAW]

I have only used tap water and do supplement and here's how my little frag tank looks as of 30 minutes ago.

 

[Dan06]

According to my LFS, my towns water supply is 'top-notch' and a vast majority of the customers use tap water with no issues. I initially started with tap water, but I had the typical Diatom outbreak & I panicked and just switched over to RO/DI to play it safe.

If I had my own testing kits & TDS meter, I would probably give tap water a chance again, just to see what happens. I'm going to be setting up a frag tank in the near future and I'm going to give my tap water a shot and see what happens.

 

[mcsassy]

I boil my tap water before I put it in the tank, but yes I do use it and it tests positive for nothing.

 

[ToeJam]

which water parameters do you check regularly?

@Ace & toe
what kind of RO unit would i need to support a 20 gallon tank? i change 3-4 gallons a week. how do they get installed and how often to replace it's media?

I am sorry I missed this question: I don’t know about brands very well. I bought a Whirlpool 3 stage RO unit from Lowes (homedepot competitor) it was roughly 100+ dollars.

I found it very easy to install. I put a Y splitter on the coldwater under a sink and ran a adapted hose to connect the high pressure line to. From there you just turn it on (the water that is) .

The unit I have has a 2.5 gallon storage tank. When I need water I just turn on the tap and drain that. Once used I just leave it on for an hour and it trickle fills up the rest of the water container im filling. Or I just shut down and come back in a hour and fill the rest up.

The 3 stage I have goes through Carbon I believe, then the RO membrane, Storage tank, then passes through another filter before it goes out the tap. [FONT=&quot]
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[lanimret]

I bought a 4 stage airwaterice unit and it was one of the best purchases I ever made.

A) 0ppm water for the tank, and since i no longer have an LFS, this is my only option. Rules out water at a potential cause of any problems making them easier to solve.

B) Takes the place of distilled water from the store for my humidifier and CPAP, which is incredibly convenient and cheap (Also works for iron's or anything else that recommends distilled water).

C) Bypass the deinonizing canister provides 3ppm clean fresh water that is 4x as clean as what my refrigirator produces. The filters are also a lot cheaper.

It's worth the $150, especially for me.

 

[ToeJam]

I bought a 4 stage airwaterice unit and it was one of the best purchases I ever made.

A) 0ppm water for the tank, and since i no longer have an LFS, this is my only option. Rules out water at a potential cause of any problems making them easier to solve.

B) Takes the place of distilled water from the store for my humidifier and CPAP, which is incredibly convenient and cheap (Also works for iron's or anything else that recommends distilled water).

C) Bypass the deinonizing canister provides 3ppm clean fresh water that is 4x as clean as what my refrigirator produces. The filters are also a lot cheaper.

It's worth the $150, especially for me.

Oh yah CPAP water from the tap is the suck... and cleaning that water chamber is a pain.

I am glad I use the RO water in that now.

 

[Amphiprion]

Wow, a humidifier. We use dehumidifiers down here. Like today, the humidity is 75%