Water for tank/ water change

[bherbstm]

Can some one give me advice or point me to an article that can help me to figure out what water to use for setting up a tank and for water changes.

Should i use mineral water, tap, reverse osmosis?

I have always used tap with an additive called water safe. I'm just now sure if that is really the best way to be doing this.

 

[dsaavedra]

i've been using tapwater and treating with stress coat for a year and my fish are fine

 

[poly-nomial]

i've been using tapwater and treating with stress coat for a year and my fish are fine

Well i have been using stress coat for about a month now and no problems, beneficial bacteria is growing strong etc. Tap water in new jersey is very hard.

 

[Pharaoh]

Sounds like you are changing your water correctly. Is there something else you are trying to achieve?

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

it all depends what you are trying to acomplish. ordinarily tap water is fine but if your dealing with fish that require a certain pH its a different story. sometimes you need really soft and acid water in which case R/O would be the way to go(you will need sometihng to buffer it with though wether its a small amount of baking soda or a aquarium buffering mix just enough of either so that there is some hardness becuase there are very few (If any) fish that can survive water with no hardness and the osmotic imbalences that would occur) but other times you need hard/basic water which you would simply need to store in a big tub and add some baking soda prior to doing the water change to get the correct pH.

 

[sostoudt]

depends on what fish your keeping, but tap with conditioner(i like prime) will work for 95% of the people out there

 

[superleggera123]

tap water anyday!
salt water people use RO
i prefer tap water with PRIME just because prime is so concentrated

 

[bherbstm]

I don't have a problem with tap and an additive but I was trying to plan my next setup and i figured it there was something better that I could start looking into it.

 

[bherbstm]

Do any of you know an expert article that might be able to reafirm what all of yall are saying?

 

[MadRussian79]

What are you looking to keep and how bad is your tap water.
Tap water parameters to test before proceeding:
pH, KH, GH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Phosphate. You want the last 4 to be zero if possible. The first three will determine how easy it will be to keep African vs South American species. You can either get the kits or you can take a water sample to your LFS.

I use RO/DI water while I like it for several reasons it does take more effort, is more of a hassle and makes my water bill higher. I get more consistent water parameters, my fish are all large and happy and no matter where I move the water is always the same.