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Kevin Lake

Kevin Lake

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Nov 8, 2010
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Robbinsdale, MN, United States
I've had my tank up for about 2 months and I've always purchased my RO/DI water at my LFS. I've also seen RO/DI water sold at Rainbow Foods, Cub Foods and Wal-Mart (and even Holiday Gas Station), and I'm wondering if it's safe. I know one Minneapolis LFS sells RO/DI water from a Cullegan machine and I was wondering if there are higher risks or disaster stories of buying water from Rainbow Foods or some other store for only $.39/gal. It's also hard to determine if these water sources are just RO or both RO/DI water (is the DI part vital to a system?).

Cheers, KevLake2005
 
Personally, I would avoid purchasing water from any place other than a reputable LFS. You don't know if/when they are changing their filters, and what their TDS reading is.

Better yet, if you can save up enough, the next reef related purchase should be a RO/DI system so you can control you water 100%
 
Grocery store machine water has test positive for nitrates in my experience. Also this is just ro water it's not ro/di water.
 
I've used rainbow water without any problems (water related) . While I agree with the idea that once you can afford it, a RO/DI filter is a good investment, I hate how I feel like I'm the ONLY one here who seems to understand that sometimes other things come first and you can't always do what everyone would like you to do, and sometimes , while not the ideal situation, you can get away with cutting a few corners, short term at least. I've had anemones do fine under PC bulbs, Rainbow "Water Island" water didn't destroy my tank or cause massive algae blooms, and other things that are generally considered "taboo"

Not to say there hasn't been good advice given by JJwhiteboy and Benihana, its definately good advice, and I agree with every bit of it, but considering you obviously don't have an RO/DI filter, if you're in a pinch (heck, I did it this way for a couple months) its probably going to be alright to use water from one of those machines. They generally say when their last service date was, but I'm not sure if that's actually when a filter replacement was done or just that it was checked to be operating correctly...

so all I'm saying is this: Listen to these guys, they know what they're talking about, but just from personal experence, sometimes you can still do things right without going exactly by the book. (for example, I learned from someone else on here that Zoas usually do fine with just temperature acclimation. That probably wont change how I personally acclimate things, better safe than sorry, but you just learn little things like that along the way that make you question the "rules" a little) .... but I shouldnt' be putting ideas like this into new members heads. I'm kind of a bad apple. ;):gay1:

Welcome to the club, fellow IGHer. If you're thinking of getting water from the inver grove rainbow, while I haven't personally tested starting paramters, it seems to be alright (probably because nobody shops there anymore so the filters don't get spent very fast, Lol)
 
Thanks for the info! I'll be playing it safe... After reading Benihana's post, I briefly researched "TDS" for saltwater systems and found that a TDS meter can be nice to test your RO filtration system (and it may come in nice for testing the Rainbow Foods store water also). Going to the grocery store would be more of a convenience since I don’t know of any LFS in Inver Grove. I moved here a few months ago and get my water from A World of Fish... I started questioning the various water sources when I saw the Culligan machine at WoF.

I definitely want a RO/DI system, but I think it would be more trouble than it’s worth. I live in an apartment and have a 30 gallon system (sump included). I have a long tank without a cover and the amount of evaporation is crazy! and top off about 5 gallons/week + water changes. I imagine TDS could build up quickly with sub-par water. I tried covering the tank and the temperature went out of control.

RedEclipse6049, if you know of a good LFS, please let me know. Thanks!
 
I have a customer that has had high phosphates for a while now. We traced it back to the filter at the non LFS he was buying the water from. Poor guy has been battling algae for about a year. He did a massive water change with water from my shop and got the phosphates under control and the algae is clearing up.

While the systems at the grocery store are capable of producing clean water, it's all up to the people that maintain them to keep them running well. They mainly just keep them up to the point where the water tastes good as that is what it's being sold as.

You can place a RO/DI filter on your list, I'd put it up at the top under "aquarium" but it's your call. I think you'll find several LFS not to far from you selling RO/DI water for about the same price as well.
 
I've tested several grocery stores. walmart, cub-foods, rainbow, and they all have around 7-10 TDS.
 
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