subsea Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Looking closer at the City of Austin water report ( http://www.ci.austin...sinthewater.htm ) and looking up "Saltwater" on Wikipedia a several contaminants listed are found in saltwater naturally. It may be stuff we don't want to consume but corals are exposed to it all the time. The simple solution for copper and lead is to run your tap a short period before using it. The report left out phosphate and iron which is what I would think people would find issue with. Since iron is so important for chlorophill it doesn't bother me especially after seeing how much is in the mud products for refugiums. Like I said in an earlier post in this thread phosphate levels are much better now than they used to be. To give an idea of how much phosphate is added in tap water and in food I did a small experiment. I took two 1 gal containers and filled each one with 1 gal tap water. In one container I put .5 g pellet food (about 1/8 teaspoon) in the 2nd container I put .5 g frozen krill (slightly less than 2 individual krill) I let both containers set for about 20 hrs. The results were: Tap Water .08 P / .25 PO4 mg/l Pellets .75 mg/l PO4 (.25 from tap, .5 from pellets) Krill 1 mg/l PO4 (.25 from tap, .75 from krill) My Elos test kit only went to .48 PO4 so I used Mercks to test the higher levels in the pellet and krill samples. An interesting follow up to this would be to determine the total amount of phosphate added to a tank during a water change and the total amount of phosphate added for the time period between water changes. As I see it many of the contaminants in tap are things that are bad or distasteful to us not necessarily corals and clearly reef systems can be maintained for years with tap water with little remediation. (and thanks Bay [ Doma ] for almost getting my thread locked ) Tim, you know giving you a hard time is one of the perks of being your friend. By the way, you probably need to get better test kits. I did those tests 10 years ago with food and phosphates and things havnen't changed much from your current results. That's why I'm using Tap water with Chaeto to export excess nutrients. I used to worry about phosphate. I do not even test for it anymore. The beauty about nutriant export using a "vegetable filter" is it is automatic. If the nutriant level rises during excess feeding then the macro grows faster. When I leave for weeks at a time, the vegatable filter feeds the reef tank. If ediable seaweeds are included in the refugium vegatable filter then the fish and or people can be feed from the refugium. I like it like that. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 28, 2011 Author Share Posted June 28, 2011 Bay (DoMa) I certainly agree a picture can convey a lot more information. Just listing all the corals you have in your tank while it would be an impressively long list does not have the impact of the picture you posted or the video you posted last year. I still think this discussion helps people get some idea of what is a problem in tap water for corals and what is not a problem. Patrick (Subsea) I'm intrigued by the idea of edible seaweed growing in my sump, I'm just wondering if I should tell my friends before or after they've had dinner . It definitely tweeks my curiosity setting up a system that produces fish, corals and seaweed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 I sold off my RO/DI unit about 6 months ago when I sold off another tank of mine. It's been 6 months on city tap water, zero water changes in at least a year, no feedings in about 4 months or so, and I can promise you that my tank has never looked better. Basically I was seeing a little hair algae and I was considering selling the tank anyways so I just stopped taking care of it and instead of getting worse, it got much better. Oh and did I mention that I turned off my skimmer at about the same time I started using tap water? My SPS all look great and my LPS that just wouldn't grow have started taking off. In fact I have an 8" diameter Hollywood stunner chalice I need to sell since it's been growing faster than I can keep up with and it's long stingers killed a few other SPS. Zoas that never grew are thriving and multiplying. I swear the less I mess with the tank, the better it becomes. So let me recap, City water for make up absolutely no skimmer absolutely no water changes no feedings Excellent growth and colors. I will take some pictures in the next day or so and post them up. Only problem with pictures is you will still argue that I am lying and I can't possibly be using city water and not running a skimmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted July 1, 2011 Author Share Posted July 1, 2011 I'd really like to see pics of your tank. This is what I learned by trial and error many years ago, a minimalist approach is less likely to get in the way of mother nature. Can't say I'd stop doing water changes though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 I'd like to see pictures too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoMa Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 (edited) Here you go Tim, mostly Acropora but I have a mix of everything. I use tap water and my tank seems fine. I do at prime declor to get rid of the chloramines though. Edited July 1, 2011 by DoMa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 Thats awesome! Is that clam in the top middle as big as it looks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbharlan91 Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Here you go Tim, mostly Acropora but I have a mix of everything. I use tap water and my tank seems fine. I do at prime declor to get rid of the chloramines though. I was wondering why no one mentioned chlorine - I'm very, very new to saltwater and coral keeping, and was considering using tap water. Thanks for mentioning the chlorine!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 I was wondering why no one mentioned chlorine - I'm very, very new to saltwater and coral keeping, and was considering using tap water. Thanks for mentioning the chlorine!! jbharlan91, welcome to the addiction and good point, like most municipalities Austin uses chloramines in the water. The carbon filter on a R.O. unit or dechlorinator will deal with the chlorine. Both will leave ammonia in the tap water. If you test it when you do a water change you'll see the ammonia is consumed by the animals in just a few hours. You'll hear people talk about Total Dissolved Solids, TDS. Here in central Texas calcium and magnesium carbonate are the main components and most of the others are also found in salt water so while people will say it needs to be removed it clearly isn't neccessary. I'm using R.O./D.I., R.O. and tap water in different tanks and can't say that one is better than another and obviously corals can be kept for a long time with tap water. I'd say consistant husbandry techniques are more critical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Bay (DoMa) I certainly agree a picture can convey a lot more information. Just listing all the corals you have in your tank while it would be an impressively long list does not have the impact of the picture you posted or the video you posted last year. I still think this discussion helps people get some idea of what is a problem in tap water for corals and what is not a problem. Patrick (Subsea) I'm intrigued by the idea of edible seaweed growing in my sump, I'm just wondering if I should tell my friends before or after they've had dinner . It definitely tweeks my curiosity setting up a system that produces fish, corals and seaweed. Tim, If you eat the seaweed raw or lightly blanched, you may want to tell your friends that the pods are extra (lagnappe). Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Bay (DoMa) I certainly agree a picture can convey a lot more information. Just listing all the corals you have in your tank while it would be an impressively long list does not have the impact of the picture you posted or the video you posted last year. I still think this discussion helps people get some idea of what is a problem in tap water for corals and what is not a problem. Patrick (Subsea) I'm intrigued by the idea of edible seaweed growing in my sump, I'm just wondering if I should tell my friends before or after they've had dinner . It definitely tweeks my curiosity setting up a system that produces fish, corals and seaweed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Tim, If you feed friends I would tell them that they may get some lagniappe (free pods). I was on a Reef Central thread about eating seaweed fron our refugiums and a chef asked me what did I do about the pods. When I told him that I eat the pods, he went on for a long time. I just told him that I was a Cajun and we eat everything. I must tell you thank you about the blower. It is working on multiple tanks. I am burying the fourth 100 G tank in the gound tomorrow. I have some filtration issues with all the particulate matter that gets in the water with an open top. When you get back down on this end, come by and visit. I would appreciate any advice. I am getting some new seaweed in. Now that I have more in ground tanks, I can keep the tangs away from my red ogo. Come by when it works for you. I eat the first cantaloupe that I grew today. It was bodacious. I have many more getting ripe. Come get some before the deer get to it. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 . . . lagniappe (free pods) . . . Shrimpy crunchy thingies, MMMMM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Just to add my experience, I added tap water from my house in north austin to my reef once and two of my sps began to melt. I got a RO system right after that and never had the same incident happen again. I can't prove it was the tap water, but I'm not willing to take the risk again. The chemicals in tap water and all the antibiotics and medications that accumulate in our tap water can't be very beneficial to animals that have to live within that medium. But, that's just my opinion.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 GigEm, I can not deny your experience. I drink municipal water from the tap. It combines with some of the most complex chemistry on earth, the human body. If you trust municipal water enough to put it in your body, I see no problem putting my corals in it. I know that municipal water has much higher standards than bottled water. I have been using well water for the last thirty years on the two properties that I have lived on. The water that comes from my well in Hays County stinks of sulfur and is loaded with calcium anbd magnisium. It is good for irrigating my plants outdoors and it is good for my reef tans. I presently have more than 500 G in an extended growout system and ground water works just fine. Since your handle implies that you are a Texas Longhorn, I thought I would let you know that I am an Aggie from the class of 973. Patrick Owner, CCR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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