# Treating tap water ??



## Birdmann_az (Dec 27, 2007)

Is it safe to use tap water that has been treated for Chlorine/Chloramine and metals from those water treating supplements for tap water? I have used one to treat all 3 in my tank (i have no inhabitants due to the desire of further study before initiating such plans) Is this a reliable/realistic approach to decontaminating the water from my West Australian tap?.. Otherwise I'll just empty my tank and buy distilled water..


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## frymaster (Nov 28, 2007)

*Tap water*

Well Birdman I have always had to use Tap water. There are several different water conditioners that you can use. Aquasafe seems to do the job great, at least it has for me. In the past I have also filled up containers with tap water, let them sit for days, and then added them to the tank slowly. Chlorine should be evaporated after a day or two, and hard sediments should settle to the bottom.


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## caferacermike (Oct 3, 2006)

FryMaster please be advised that hardly any municipalities continue to use chlorine to treat water. Most use chloramine. Chloramine is stable for over 6 months up to a year. Gassing it for 2 days does absolutely nothing to lower the content of chloramine. If you are not planning to run RO/DI water then you should definitely use a treatment such as Prime or Amquel. For everyone's sake you should all be using chloramine safe treatments these days. If you use a chlorine treatment with chloramine it will help but creates massive amounts of ammonia. 

Birdman are you planning on a fish only or reef? Fish only I'd use tap water, reef I'd use RO/DI as corals are very sensitive. Treated tap water could easily contribute to a massive algae outbreak that will kill your corals.


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## Birdmann_az (Dec 27, 2007)

My tank is going to be a reef, Featuring Pink Malu Anemone for the clownfish i was going to purchase. Also maybe some small hermits.


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## caferacermike (Oct 3, 2006)

Birdman here is what I'd do. Write to your local water supply and ask for a guaranteed analysis. At least where I live they must mail it to you once a year. They must provide a copy at your request when you ask. It outlines what they consider to be safe parameters. It will tell you what they test for and what is present and in what volume say per gallon of water. They may use a formula like "per million". This means anything from a million drops to a million gallons the ratio will be the same. TDS is a reading of Total dissolved solids, typically per gallon. It will tell you how much copper is present, any can kill a reef. Copper can accumulate over time doing tap water water changes. It may not kill today but could over a year. Once copper enters the system it is nearly impossible to remove. It attaches to the rock, to the silicone, the sand etc... So doing water changes does not remove it, it actually adds to it each time.  They will tell you what they use to "sterilize" the water be it chlorine or chloramine. 

Personally I have an 8 stage 300GPD RO/DI unit that is attached to a 125g holding tank. I can guarantee EXACTLY what I put in the tank as I make it myself.

Not to mention it makes great coffee, tea, and Kool-Aid.


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