Reef nutrition

Tap water

jamie

jamie

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hi guys, so im going to run out of rodi water here soon and i am trying my best to self isolate. question is what can i do to help prevent the algae growth im going to get when i switch to tap water in two days. all i have is a little prime.

i was thinking that ill turn the lights down to 1% for most fo the day and up to 40% for about two. to help stop the growth. any input would be great thanks
 
jamie said:
hi guys, so im going to run out of rodi water here soon and i am trying my best to self isolate. question is what can i do to help prevent the algae growth im going to get when i switch to tap water in two days. all i have is a little prime.

i was thinking that ill turn the lights down to 1% for most fo the day and up to 40% for about two. to help stop the growth. any input would be great thanks
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Bring some buckets by. I’ll hook you up. I got about 55 gallons.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I used to just get the 2.5G jugs of distilled water... but if you are near the Los Altos Whole Foods, they sell RODI refill for $0.49 / gal. Bring your own jug of course... :). ( or pay through the nose for one of theirs in a pinch. :). )
 
Pure water and ice usually has an external kiosk spot to refill water, and they might have that working still.
They sell RO.

Tap is OK if you neutralize chlorine, and watch CA/ALK carefully.
 
I am not sure but... - If you don't have something to neutralize the chlorine, I think you can wait for 24 hours for the chlorine to evaporate off.
 
Patio said:
I am not sure but... - If you don't have something to neutralize the chlorine, I think you can wait for 24 hours for the chlorine to evaporate off.
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Waiting 24 hours is doable for letting chlorine to evaporate. But not 100%. it won't solve for chloramine issues either.

In a pinch:
Best way is to boil the water if you know for sure your water contains only chlorine and not chloramine. But to be safe, you throw in carbon in a mesh bag or run thhe water through carbon media after it cools. this will remove the chloramine (and typically chlorine as well -- so you can double down on chlorine removal, if you don't have water conditioner). The side benefit of using boiling plus carbon is you also kill off algae and bacteria, and reduce unwanted chemicals. your TDS may still be high, and you may have phosphates and the like, but you avoid the pain of significant blooms and what-not while having alternative means to deal with the excess in your tank...

In case you don't have access to RODI \ distilled from the stores... cuz COVID-19.

Oh, Neptune also sells RODI and are open for $0.75/gal
 
If I’m understanding correctly, you are trying to NOT go out to stores or other people’s homes in an effort to self-isolate, which rules out all the suggestions to go buy or pick up something. Unless you yourself have had an exposure and have been told to self-quarantine for 14 days, or have a personal factor increasing your risk, you could consider a limited shopping trip to just buy what you need. Pet stores and supermarkets are open (Check hours).

I think getting an RODI system is a great option if you were already considering it.

I’ve skipped water changes for long periods of time without ill effects, so that’s an option. Of course the newer the tank and the more reliant on water changes for addition of required elements, the more important they are. For me, I absolutely would skip water changes and just supplement elements as needed before I’d use water I wasn’t sure about.

Lots of people have used tap water either directly or with minimal treatment for chloramine with success. I haven’t tried it, so their advice is more useful than mine in that regard. If it helps at all, the Steinhart Aquarium uses city water let to sit for a while and run through carbon filters only!
 
thanh510 said:
TBH, Bay Area tap water is pretty clean. Minus the chlorine. I get 3 TDS off the tap.
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This is largely dependent upon the plumbing from the water company, to your house, and inside your house. If you go out to Crystal Spring reservoir and get a sample, chances are you're going to have more than 3 TDS. Besides, thinking of TDS as if it's some sort of contaminant is probably not a good thing to do, if you had chlorine in your system a TDS meter would not pick it up one bit.

treylane said:
Confession:
I only use tap. Fill up a trash bin from the kitchen sink, pour in salt, mix and heat 24h.
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Noooooo!!!!! My image of you has been shattered ;) But do you even put in any sort of dechlorinator? Are you on the city's water? Or some well? I wanted to try this experiment once in my "super cheap reefer" days, but considering the number of SPS corals I have in my 200G tank now, I'm not sure I would feel safe doing it.
 
JVU said:
If I’m understanding correctly, you are trying to NOT go out to stores or other people’s homes in an effort to self-isolate, which rules out all the suggestions to go buy or pick up something. Unless you yourself have had an exposure and have been told to self-quarantine for 14 days, or have a personal factor increasing your risk, you could consider a limited shopping trip to just buy what you need. Pet stores and supermarkets are open (Check hours).
Click to expand...
Another thing to limit contact which is something I'm noticing out there, is porch pickups, either drop off on someone's porch and send them a text it is there, or have them come pick something off your porch (assuming you have a porch). Not sure how that could work out with water, maybe a 5G jug exchange program if this is a small tank or something.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Another thing to limit contact which is something I'm noticing out there, is porch pickups, either drop off on someone's porch and send them a text it is there, or have them come pick something off your porch (assuming you have a porch). Not sure how that could work out with water, maybe a 5G jug exchange program if this is a small tank or something.
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Yup that's what I was thinking. I have enough rodi if someone near by urgently needs. I can open the garage, come inside fill up and leave.
Same with Neptune as an example. Thay are open and their reservoir is outside the ship. They are requiring ppl to wear mask and go in and out quick without contacts. So potentially you can fill up, go pay and leave while keeping social distancing.

Either way, am here for whoever's needs help.
 
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