Well Water??

[reeferman00]

i am setting up my tank and im new to saltwater. we have well water at my house will it be safe to put that in there.
if not what should i do??
thanks

[fishworm]

test the water.

I thought my well water would work, but it was very high in phosphates and caused a large algae bloom.

get a RO/DI unit!

[iwishtofish]

I'd avoid any water from the tap like the plague. If you don't want to spend the money for an RO/DI unit yet, I have found pretty good results with distilled water from the grocery store.

If you are planning on keeping any corals or other inverts, you might want to get a copper test kit and check the store water first - some distilled water makers might use copper plumbing.

[reeferman00]

did it give you alot of problems?? is it that bad. i dont think ill be able to get the RO

[sjj80]

Local fish stores sometimes sell RO/DI, mine does, but it's more conveinent for me to buy distilled water at wal-mart. Also, my LFS water quality went down for a while, I guess they weren't testing as often. I'm planning on buying an RO/DI unit from the filter guys (RCsponsor), they are priced reasonably and offer filters specifically for well water. Definitely use some form of purified water. HTH

[iwishtofish]

Originally posted by reeferman00
did it give you alot of problems?? is it that bad. i dont think ill be able to get the RO

If this was addressed to me, I haven't really noticed any problems yet that I can attribute to the store-bought distilled water. I haven't tested it for copper yet - although I know it would be wise to do so - but all my inverts seem very healthy and I have not had much of an algae problem at all.

[AZDesertRat]

Without having a complete chemical analysis of your well water no one can accurately answer your question. In general its not a good idea as wells can be high in minerals, nitrates and often have trace levels of pesticides and herbicides. I would recommend buying your water to start with and eventually get a RO/DI unit of your own.

[mcauley]

I use well water and everything is ideal. I was worried at first, but my tank is 3 years old now and the coraline algae looks great and the only thing I add is calcium. I use an ecosystem refusium and couldn't be happier.

[rickh]

My well water is loaded with iron, etc.
Well, to water softener, to RO unit, to happy fish. R

[mg426]

I would get an RO/DI system.

[Sk8r]

walmart sells ro water from their machine unit. Many groceries do. THere are kiosks in some shopping centers that do.

Do not buy other bottled water: all sorts of things can be in it.

A TDS meter [total dissolved solids] can answer a lot of questions for you.

[WaterKeeper]

I think what we are trying to tell you Reeferman is that your water is not all that well when it comes to a Marine tank. With a small tank you can use store bought distilled until you can get an RO/DI unit. Here is more on Water.

[harryk]

I have well water, i used it right from the tap and never had a problem. I am now keeping coral so i am using RO/DI. but it all depends on the quality of the water.