Anyone filter tap water before putting it in tank?

[MalcolmV8]

A buddy of mine has a really nice 125 gallon saltwater tank and he has a 5 stage water filter setup that filters the tap water of all TDS (total dissolved solids) before putting it in his tank. The first is your standard 3 stage filtering with something similar to this

3 Stage Whole house water filter - Cottage Water filter - eBay (item 330353373066 end time Mar-16-10 21:03:13 PDT)

Then he runs it though an ro/di setup which requires a water collection tank as it fills slowly. It also dumps dirty water it can't filter. So for every gallon of fresh filtered water 3 gallons go down the drain. Using a TDS meter his tap water is 247 and after the 3 stage is 242 then after ro it's down to 54 and after di it's 0.

I don't have the space to store water in large quantities in preparation for water changes so I'd like to use the 3 stage like what you see above alone and run my water through it right as I fill the fish tank. Since that removes basically no sediment at all is it even worth my while? Would I benefit anything from it? TDS barely changes from 247 to 242.

FYI - in his saltwater tank it makes a massive difference with his live corals. They don't hardly grow and barely stay alive unless he uses a water supply with 0 TDS. He also gets algae out breaks if he doesn't keep up on those filters and make sure he's staying right at 0 TDS.

Anyone do any sort of filtering on their water before putting it in their tank and have any info to share?

Thanks
Malcolm

 

[thealexisstrain]

Shouldn't your tap water we already filtered? If this helps I add Tap Water Conditioner.

 

[MalcolmV8]

Shouldn't your tap water we already filtered? If this helps I add Tap Water Conditioner.

Tap water is far from pure water and has a ton of contaminants in it. You should get an annual water report from your local water company showing you all the substances in their water supply.

 

[exhumed07]

I would say if u got city water from a processing plant then filtering and such would not be a bad idea. I live in the country and my water bypasses my water softener and is naturally filtered 500 feet below ground in a coal bed.

 

[sushi*roll]

I've got well water filtered underground so my water is safe for fish right away (probably not corals and SW but my FW setup is fine) as long as I watch for harness and PH, we tend to have softer more acidic water here.

 

[Lotus]

The problem with using a reverse osmosis for freshwater is that it removes all the minerals, which the fish need. In saltwater, you're adding those back with the salt.

If you want to use reverse osmosis for freshwater, generally, you'll need to add those minerals back or mix the RO water with tapwater to get the minerals.

RO water isn't something that naturally occurs in lakes and streams.

 

[Newman]

yea, I believe you will need to add traces back into he water that your adding. I think Seachem makes a Trace supplement for fish...might work well with RO/DI water.