plain dechlorinated water is full of phosphates, nitrates and metal particles...Which is what will cause bad algae blooms in the tank. And if the above are buried in the sand bed, they are not going to be removed for a very long time...And in that long time, you are going to be suffering bad algae which is a PITA if you cant stop it...
If you have a good friend who works in a lab, buy some plastic containers and have the friend fill them from the "Milli-Q, Barnstead, Labconco, Ultrapure Analytic" or similar system. Depending of the size of your tank, you may want to invest in your own RO system. They (fairly inexpensive, low volume ones) can be had on ebay any day of hte week. If your tank is big, you'll also want some sort of large plastic tub or drum and a power head so you can stock up on RO water ahead of your water changes.
In NJ, good water systems should be a part of almost every lab - lotsa pharma labs in NJ.
Thanks for all the responses. This is certainly helpful to know. I was just gonna rinse it in my dechlorinated tap water.
I will look into an RO unit. I thought they were expensive. And yeah, when I do water changes it will be with my tap water.
however, when I work at the public aquarium I told them about the RO water vs dechlorinated tap water. They told me to try my regular tap water and it would most likely be fine. Some of them live near me and they don't use RO units on their tanks at home... But if I had huge algae blooms they advised me to use RO water.
well, i cant disagree with that approach, but, i am always a stickler for stopping a problem before it starts...and that i used an RO unit right from the start...
Some people do have very good quality tap water, it boils down to finances and personal preference at the end of the day dont it mate....
