RO water is it a must

well setting up a marine tank soon and just gethering all the info first. Was just wonder as I dont have an RO unit would it be possible to fill my 400 litre tank with tapwater and run it for a few days thru carbon instead of filling it up with RO water (nothing will be in the tank). is it a must to use RO water in a marine so far I have not heard a definite answer just that its better.

Also is there anywere I can buy RO water?

cheers for all the help in advance folks

hi what are you intending to keep? a fish only system, fish with liverock or a reef etc???? call up to us, we sell r/o water, ask for Alan!

no not a must at all

intending to keep FOWLR system then might go into reef later on.
Think I may fill the tank with tapwater and run it thru carbon after that ill use RO water for water changes

hi tetra.
i have run a marine tank for the last 8 months or so using tap water....and so far no problems. the tank houses clownfish, shrimp, firefish, hermit crabs, snails, featherdusters, live rock and some mushroom corals. i age my water for a week in a plastic dustbin and also add a dechlorinator called sechem prime (carefull which one u use). i also run carbon 24/7 in the filter.

there are people who swear by ro water, and to be honest of course its better, but the book i read when i was setting up the tank said in the grand scheme of things it wasn't vital.....and as i said tap water works for me.

the book is called the conscientious marine aquarist and id highly recommend it.

www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type...%20Fenner&page=1

cheers lampeye was just gettin a bit confused because I was reading that an RO unit is a must if you want to keep marine which prob is the case if u intend setting up a reef.


might invest in that book cheers for the help

no worries....yeah id def read it before u set it up.....loads of info.

call up to us, we sell r/o water, ask for Alan!

Seratus. Qes. What salts and minerals are you enchorging the beginner to take out (non desirable for marine) of the the freshwater water, that will not be put back in again when you sell him the salt and adds it back to solution? :roll:

well it all depends on your tapwater, as you know there are hundreds of metals, chemicals etc. not to mention nitrates, phosphates !! yes you do need minerals but at the correct level, that would not be good for a marine system!
We sell Redsea Coral pro salt specially formulated for use with r/o water. I would not consider r/o water essential for marines, beneficial yes, especially reef systems.

well it all depends on your tap water, as you know there are hundreds of metals, chemicals etc. not to mention nitrates, phosphates !! .

May be for London water yes, with high nitrate it could be useful for a reef tank, in Ireland with all the rain and low population and movement of new rain water replacing the old water table, I doubt nitrate and phosphate would be a problem, heavy metals yes as you have a copper pipe from the main street wide plastic pipe to your house, that's why you always run to waster the cold water tap for 1 minute to flush out the standing water out of the pipes. The hardness that R/O water takes out of the water is beneficial to keep the pH at 8.2-8.3pH that why through evaporation I would encourage african and marine tanks to top up with tap water and not R/O water.

If you had a client that wanted to keep wild caught amazon fish, well yes of course I would encourage the sell of a R/O system from you shops its the only practical way of getting the hardness down failing collecting bog water up the Dublin mountains.

There are at least 3 ways to successful keep fish and your way will of course work to, its just the guy does not need it unless he is on well water with high nitrate from a run off from slurry in the country side it he is on mains water you are basically selling him something that the same money could of been used to benifit him more, e.g drilled tank with wet and dry filter with live sand filter in the sump to stop nitrates, or thicker glass thank which is stronger against children knocking the tank, or suspend halide lights. This is IMO with no bias or gain in my views.

I bought new RO. filters today but might just chance the tapwater.Waiting till I move to go for the Reef.

F.O.W.L for now so tapwater will do.

When i started i just used tap water. I only got the RO unit when i decided i wanted to get into corals. I didn't add corals till i felt the tank was nearly all RO WATER.