store bought saltwater

I am starting a 45 gallon reef, and for the time being I am just going to have to find a store with good water, maybe mix it my self. Later down the road i may get a RO/DI system just right now it is more economical to just buy the water, all though it will be a pain filling my tank for the first time. I need to start collecting buckets with lids so i dont have to make as many trips, the 3 gallon bucket i have now will make for a long day and few trips to the gas station
 
ckwatson;71295 wrote: I am starting a 45 gallon reef, and for the time being I am just going to have to find a store with good water, maybe mix it my self. Later down the road i may get a RO/DI system just right now it is more economical to just buy the water, all though it will be a pain filling my tank for the first time. I need to start collecting buckets with lids so i dont have to make as many trips, the 3 gallon bucket i have now will make for a long day and few trips to the gas station
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Some fish stores (I know Aquarium Showcase is one) sell 5 gallon water containers at a reasonable price. IMO, it's the only way to go (they have handles and a screw-on lid.) You might also want to check your local grocery stores to see if they sell RO/DI water directly from a machine. If you go that route, though, I recommend getting a cheap TDS meter to check the water before buying it.
 
wal-mart sells 7 1/2 gallon aqua-tainers with handles, a lid with a water spout. They are pretty cheap and really durable.
 
When we were still buying water, we got a couple of 5 gallon gas cans (the plastic ones) from HD. They come in colors, so you can even get one color for buying RO and another for buying saltwater (if you're a purist).
 
Stroid;71305 wrote: wal-mart sells 7 1/2 gallon aqua-tainers with handles, a lid with a water spout. They are pretty cheap and really durable.
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do you know how much they are? I'd love to get one for topoffs.
 
This is the company website and I am rather certain wal-mart carries them.
http://relianceproducts.com/consumer/product/79.html">http://relianceproducts.com/consumer/product/79.html</a>
and the rest of their products
[IMG]http://relianceproducts.com/consumer/catalogue/Water_Containers_%26_Accessories.html">http://relianceproducts.com/consumer/catalogue/Water_Containers_%26_Accessories.html</a>
 
They are like $8. Don't get the 6g one (tall and thin), they seem to collapse as water is poured. So make sure to get the cube.

I get my water at Aquarium Showcase. It's .69 a gallon but they put it in my car for me. But I've also bought it from Publics (I have a TDS meter and only buy it if its less than 4ppm).

I really need to buy an RODI system.
 
ckwatson;71295 wrote: I am starting a 45 gallon reef, and for the time being I am just going to have to find a store with good water, maybe mix it my self. Later down the road i may get a RO/DI system just right now it is more economical to just buy the water, all though it will be a pain filling my tank for the first time. I need to start collecting buckets with lids so i dont have to make as many trips, the 3 gallon bucket i have now will make for a long day and few trips to the gas station
Click to expand...

At start-up, we just used tap-water and Prime. (I'm sure this will be poo-poo'd) No livestock in the tank anyway and you're going to let your system cycle for quite awhile, right? Yes, I had diatoms and extra algae bloom for the cycle, but it didn't hurt anything. And when setting up, we were able to mix the salt water directly in the tank by adding all the water, then the salt and then a powerhead.

(NOTE: Someone has said, add the salt to the water and not the water to the salt. Apparently, it makes a difference.)
 
Maybe we were just lucky then... we had moderate algae and a few diatoms and water params were perfect throughout the cycle.

We weren't ARC members then and just followed instructions. On the bag of Instant Ocean salt, it says "use dechlorinated <u>tap</u> water". But what do they know, right?

There were 3-4 days when I had quite a bit of diatoms, but other than my tank being ugly, there were no problems. I cut back on my light cycle and waited it out.

I've seen other tanks that looked a lot worse than mine during cycle that started off with RO
 
I started out using my "tap" water, but I have a well that naturally has high PH. I use a whole house filter and a water softner. Had a small algae problem at first. I bought one of those $50 ebay ro/di units run it into a 25g tub and let the "waste keep my pool level up. The wife also uses the water for house plants with a little miracle grow.
 
I still like
showthread.php
 
i agree with fish store and more. they always test salinity before hand. Also, you can drink ro/di just not for long periods of time. A week at most. Its very good for getting rid of water retention. I believe there is a piece you can connect to your ro/di that makes it drinking water.
 
I bought one of those ebay units (water general). It works great. I bought a tds meter from premium aquatics (in-line) to monitor it. Zero tds for over a year now.

It is a 110gpd unit, but only produces about 75 gpd.
 
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