deionized water from lfs. Is it a necessity?

[jiminy_crime]

The owner of my lfs has been telling me what I am going to have to do to set up a saltwater tank and make it successful. She recommeds me purchasing some deionized water for about 0.37 cents per gallon. I am using a 55 gallon fish tank and want to know from you all if this is necessary? Do I have alternatives to save money? Any other thoughts or comments?

 

[JasonF]

De Ionized is better than tap water, but even better is RO water. It may be wise to buy your own RO Unit, if you need to use it.

Plenty of people (if their tap water is ok) are quite happy without all these things though.....

 

[wayne at home]

Yes it all depends on your tap water. If it contains appreciable nitrate, phosphate or silica it's hello to a tank full of algae

 

[valdok]

i've set up two saltwater tanks just using tap water. it's fine. i never understood the purpose of deionized water, it is [in my opinion] not required in almost any case.

 

[BrianH]

Actually DI water contains less contaminants than RO water. The more expensive filtration systems contain both a RO membrane and DI resin because the DI resin gets quickly exhasted by filtering out all of the chemicals and minerals. Therefore, running the water through a RO membrane first will give you 90 - 95% pure water and the DI canister at the end will then give you 100% pure water.

Brian

 

[jiminy_crime]

So would I be fine by using regular tap water treated with Seachem Safe? Or is using deionized water my only option?

 

[jiminy_crime]

Some say that you can use tap water but other will say differently. I am having live rock and live sand put into the tank.