New setup (to be)

[toddbrown]

Hello!

I just built an 80 gallon stand and canopy and now I need to know if I should use RO water to fill it or tap water with water conditioner?

[MichaelD]

Are you going to mix the salt in the tank, or are you just checking for leaks. If this is the water your mixing with the salt use ro, if its just a wet run and your going to take it out later use tap. By the way nice job on stand/canopy.

[toddbrown]

Well, that is a good point. I never thought about doing a test run. I guess I was just assuming my new tank would work. I will rethink this and do a test run. I heard somewhere that if you use RO as the fill water then you miss out on some of the good elements that are in the water. Maybe that is really not the case. Thanks for the comment on the tank. I worked hard on it:)

[Limpit]

When you add your salt mix to the water it incorporates all the "good elements" you are talking about so do not worry about the RO filter removing them. If you do not use RO water you are adding a lot of impurities into your tank that you will have to deal with later down the road when your algae is out of control, especially if you are using tap water. But like MD said use tap water for a leak test. You cannot take anything for granted and fresh water is a lot easier to clean up than salt water is if you did have a leak.
Good luck with your tank and welcome to Reef Central.

[toddbrown]

That is true! Have you ever had a tank leak? Also, the tank is not sitting perfectly on the stand. There is about an 1/16th inch space in some areas. Will that cause unneeded stress on the tank?? I would hate to have it shatter!

[avshockey311]

Actually, I was told that when filling the tank to begin, you can us regular tap water. That is what I did, with a little water conditioner, added salt, mixed, then added sand and live rock. Didn't have any problems. Then I did weekly water changes with RO water until my tank cycled. Added fish with no problems.

[avshockey311]

Oh, and <img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

[98riv]

I would use tap water to test for leaks, once you found there is no leaks I would empty the tap water and fill it up with RO water.

[toddbrown]

Ok, I guess it is time to buy an RO unit. One other guestion, what GPH pump and overflow box should I use? I was thinking 600 GPH