RODI or Tap

[Johnsbra123]

I have been contemplating lately whether RODI is worth it or is it just a joke? My friend kept a cristata coral in tap for 2 months, the lights blew out for 5 days and it died but before that I was alive but sadly it didn't have as much color. Its going back and forth right now. Who here uses tap?

[mistahoo]

RODI over tap no brainer...

[eklikewhoa]

Tap water works

I've seen so many awesome tanks with minimal clutter, no fancy lights and water straight from the sink.

[Darbex]

tap water is fine for FOWLR or softy tanks. I would only go RODI for LPS and especially SPS tanks.

[mnemenoi]

RODI provides a base line starting point as your tap water can change regularly in TDS and parameters. By starting with pure water at 0 TDS you can achieve the exact same results every water change, as opposed to tap which varies widely. If it were a brackish aquarium or FOWLR tank it is not really a big issue. It is the sensitive nature of the inverts such as corals (LPS & SPS) that do not tolerate variance in their parameters.

[Johnsbra123]

I have hammers, star polps, a Condy, Kenya tree, and some crush up frog spawn frags. Will they survive in tap?

[eklikewhoa]

Tap water works

[Victorp]

im a noob to saltwater as I have never tried it but I am planning on it I read that tap water may work just depends where you are located but tap water contains high phosphates so if your lights are a little too strong then you will have some sort of bad algae? So as long as the lights are not too strong then it will be fine to use tap water that has been mixed with salt and aged?

[eklikewhoa]

im a noob to saltwater as I have never tried it but I am planning on it I read that tap water may work just depends where you are located but tap water contains high phosphates so if your lights are a little too strong then you will have some sort of bad algae? So as long as the lights are not too strong then it will be fine to use tap water that has been mixed with salt and aged?

personally I would never use tap water, RODI is simple to deal with or easily bought so the tradeoff is well worth it. You cannot control the consistency of tap and can't control what ends up in it before it comes out of your faucet.