Neptune Aquatics

Tap water

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.
Absolutely, everything is very dependant of everyone's personal situation. It's best to send the water samples to get tested before even trying to use tap water. I know the water treatment guy for SSF. He tells me to just drink the water from the faucet LOL.

The TDS is what my BRS built in meter on my ATO is telling me. 3 TDS is quite low compared to others. It's pretty impressive for what we have out here.
 
I also can make a large batch if someone needs it for a larger tank water change. You will just have to bring a big enough container that can hold it and I can set up a hose to get outside as well.
 
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.
Don't forget, covid19 is believed to live for up to 24 hours on cardboard and 2-3 days one hard surfaces like plastic and doorhandles.

So porch pickup is not 100% guarantee
 
Don't forget, covid19 is believed to live for up to 24 hours on cardboard and 2-3 days one hard surfaces like plastic and doorhandles.

So porch pickup is not 100% guarantee
The key is to wash your hands and wipe surfaces if possible. But washing the hands and not touching your face till you wash hands will protect you.
 
TBH, Bay Area tap water is pretty clean. Minus the chlorine. I get 3 TDS off the tap.


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Are you sure you TDS meter is working?

Most municipal waters tend to center arpund 150TDS.

SF however , have been reported in the 30s. Sources from Hetch Hetchy tend tonbe the cleanest but most South Bay come from other sources and TDS and contaminats through the roof.

I test in Mountain View and TDS is right around 150, drinking target. Sunnyvale was about 250+

Summers are worse btw
 
Don't forget, covid19 is believed to live for up to 24 hours on cardboard and 2-3 days one hard surfaces like plastic and doorhandles.

So porch pickup is not 100% guarantee
Porch pickup makes it a "you" problem, meaning if YOU are careful with cleaning hands, not touching your face/mouth/etc before washing your hands you're probably not going to be in any issue. Compared to breathing the same air which might contain aerosolized droplets laden with virus. But if you're really that worried, put on a pair of gloves, take them off before you get in your car to drive, put on a new pair when you get home to take it out of your car, toss it in your garage for 3 days before using.
 
Bring a 10% bleach solution with you in a spray bottle for hard surfaces. Bleach will kill all sorts of stuff including covid-19.

you can use a less concentrated solution as well, but you know, burn baby burn. ;)

From CDC:
  • 5 tablespoons (1/3rdcup) bleach per gallon of water or
  • 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water
 
Bring a 10% bleach solution with you in a spray bottle for hard surfaces. Bleach will kill all sorts of stuff including covid-19.

you can use a less concentrated solution as well, but you know, burn baby burn. ;)

From CDC:
  • 5 tablespoons (1/3rdcup) bleach per gallon of water or
  • 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water
10% bleach solution is way overkill. CDC recommendation you linked to is 2% (1:50 dilution), which is still strong. 10% is much more likely to cause damage than 2%, and not particularly more effective for this use. Coronavirus is actually relatively easy to kill outside the body because it has a membrane envelope.

And bear in mind we aren’t talking actual percentages of bleach but rather percentages of the already-diluted bleach you get from the store (which is 5.25% to 6.0%). So it’s really more like 0.1% bleach.

FYI pool bleach (called liquid chlorine) is 2-3 times as strong, and is more readily available many places, but you’d dilute 2-3 times as much (and be careful).
 
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.

When I lived in San Diego, tap water TDS measured 750, soooo I ran RO/DI there for mixing saltwater as well as topoff.

When I moved up here, the tap water measured 103, which seemed low enough that I wasn't too concerned about it wrecking a simple softies tank. Kinda just never looked back. My SPS are growing plenty well enough that I'm happy with them, and I always felt bad wasting all that water.
 
When I moved up here, the tap water measured 103, which seemed low enough that I wasn't too concerned about it wrecking a simple softies tank. Kinda just never looked back. My SPS are growing plenty well enough that I'm happy with them, and I always felt bad wasting all that water.
Maybe I setup the frag tank and see what happens in there with tap water. I sure as hell wouldn't object to never having to make RO/DI water.
 
I considered running just prefilters and di resin to see how long it would last since I get pretty good (low) tds to start with at one point, but since I run three membranes I get really close to a 1:1 ratio
 
10% bleach solution is way overkill. CDC recommendation you linked to is 2% (1:50 dilution), which is still strong. 10% is much more likely to cause damage than 2%, and not particularly more effective for this use. Coronavirus is actually relatively easy to kill outside the body because it has a membrane envelope.

And bear in mind we aren’t talking actual percentages of bleach but rather percentages of the already-diluted bleach you get from the store (which is 5.25% to 6.0%). So it’s really more like 0.1% bleach.

FYI pool bleach (called liquid chlorine) is 2-3 times as strong, and is more readily available many places, but you’d dilute 2-3 times as much (and be careful).

I wouldn’t say it’s that dangerous - no more dangerous than lugging around and pouring the non-diluted bleach in the first place. Ten percent (1:9) is recommended for bodily fluids/bloods spills (https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/aquatics-professionals/cleaning-body-fluid-spills.html) so you can be sure most everything will be dead on the jug and comes with the benefit of killing any Palytoxin that someone is trying to assassinate you with that they put on the jug handle (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6431a4.htm). ;)
 
my building is pretty old. and i dont have a tds meter. when i had my first tank we used the tap and we had algae all over for a long time. then i switched to rodi. i don't want to let the algae get a hold. i will call and see if john is open at ultimate aquarium tomorrow. if not im going to have to take someone up on the rodi.

i personally have been using bleach mixed with water to wipe things down.
 
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