How Important is Reverse Osmosis

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Depends on what your water quality is like to begin with.
Some will say it is very important. Some will disagree.
If the water you use is more well water (coming from underground) I would say it is very very recommended. Even with treatment from your local water utilities, it still may contain more unnecessary minerals than what you want to put into your tank.

Best thing is to do more research into your local facilities to get the real information you desire.
 
As Skene said, you need to check what your local water quality is like. I am in Bris and although i havn't checked the water quality i use RO water anyway as it is 95-98% pure. My first reef tank i didn't use one and never had nitrate or phosphate problems, but was a few years back and wouldn't know how much our water quality has changed.
 
The only way of finding out how necessary one would be, you would have to contact your local water utilities plant. All of this information should be readily available to the public, as farms and other businesses related to agriculture (mind you not gardening centers) will usually need this information.
So I am sure they should be able to shed more light on what is in the water than any one person here would be able to.
 
What I found within 3 minutes of searching.

Click here

This should shed a bit of light, but you will need to investigate further. I would say that it would be recommended that you do get an RO/DI or at the minimum get yourself an API tap water filter and use a product that will neutralize chloramine, like Prime.
 
If you have a reef tank, I would say yes 100%. If you are keeping fish only you can get away with regular tap water but you might not be able to keep crusteceans. The problem with tap water is that some tap water has high phosphate levels and that will contribute to hair algea in the tank, and trust me, it is a pain in the *** to get rid of. Two things you cannot skip on for a reef tank, a good quality light fixture and a good RO/DI unit.
 
a TDS (total dissolved solids) meter could tell you how pure your tap water is, and subsequently if you need an RO unit, and then when you'd need to maintain the filter

for being only $10-15 i think it's worth it if you're considering buying an RO unit
 
BIGgourami;2679043; said:
a TDS (total dissolved solids) meter could tell you how pure your tap water is, and subsequently if you need an RO unit, and then when you'd need to maintain the filter

for being only $10-15 i think it's worth it if you're considering buying an RO unit
Click to expand...

I will agree that a TDS meter could tell how bad your water is but it does not specify the amount of copper, Phosphate, Nitrates, etc, the water has. Copper will kill any inverts and crusteceans. Phosphates contribute to the grow of hair algae. Tap water has essiential elements like magnesium, calcium and other good chemicals. The problem is the bad chemicals and metals found in tap water. Last I saw there is no clean tap water for a reef tank, maybe safe for humans but not safe for a reeftank. So in conclusion if you want your tank to thrive, you will need a RO/DI Unit.

Check out www.melevsreef.com and www.reefcentral.com you can find a lot more information there.
 
if you're serious about your reefkeeping you should have most of those test kits anyways..

magnesium and calcium etc can all be buffered by either the salt or additives (even the rock in the tank iteself)
 
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