Water machine water

fisher99 · 10/09/2018, 10:29 AM

Last week I got a gallon of water from one of those water machines outside of a grocery store.
I checked the TDS and it read 8.
My question is, is that too high to use in a reef tank for ATO?

nereefpat · 10/09/2018, 10:47 AM

It's impossible to say for sure, because we don't know what those dissolved solids are.

It's probably fine, but who knows. In general, it's best to use 0TDS RODI or distilled.

If you are buying water, your own RODI will pay for itself pretty quickly, depending on tank size.

Rover88 · 10/09/2018, 10:54 AM

As said, without knowing what it is we can't say.

Take this with a grain of salt as its not first hand, but the guy that fills our water bottles here at my office has mentioned the most common thing /they/ find in their 5 gallon jugs is copper. The system they use to purify the water has copper pipes on the collecting side.

I don't know if thats true everywhere, or even true here. Just what the supply guy told me.

It might be fine, it might not be. But without knowing every problem you run into down the road with hair algae, dino's. etc, will return to 'I wonder if it was what was in my water'.

mcgyvr · 10/09/2018, 11:18 AM

A non-zero TDS number simply indicates there is some "dissolved solid" in the water..
It does not differentiate between "good" and "bad" solids..
It just indicates that some solid is present..

There are numerous people who have used "tap" water in their tanks without problems..
There are numerous people who will ONLY use water that measures zero TDS.

thegrun · 10/09/2018, 08:40 PM

I would use distilled water if RO/DI isn't available.

murphreef · 10/09/2018, 10:11 PM

I would never use water that I did not know how it was filtered.

You are asking for issues.....

BroodNash · 10/10/2018, 08:19 AM

Quote:

"It's probably fine, but who knows. In general, it's best to use 0TDS RODI or distilled.

If you are buying water, your own RODI will pay for itself pretty quickly, depending on tank size."

Okay. Thank you very much for the helpful tip!

10/09/2018, 10:29 AM	#1
fisher99 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cape Coral FL Posts: 62	Water machine water Last week I got a gallon of water from one of those water machines outside of a grocery store. I checked the TDS and it read 8. My question is, is that too high to use in a reef tank for ATO?

10/09/2018, 10:47 AM	#2
nereefpat Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Central Nebraska Posts: 3,190	It's impossible to say for sure, because we don't know what those dissolved solids are. It's probably fine, but who knows. In general, it's best to use 0TDS RODI or distilled. If you are buying water, your own RODI will pay for itself pretty quickly, depending on tank size. __________________ Pat Current Tank Info: 125 in-wall , 40b sump. 6 bulb T5. ASM G2 skimmer. LPS and leathers

10/09/2018, 11:18 AM	#4
mcgyvr Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 20,050	A non-zero TDS number simply indicates there is some "dissolved solid" in the water.. It does not differentiate between "good" and "bad" solids.. It just indicates that some solid is present.. There are numerous people who have used "tap" water in their tanks without problems.. There are numerous people who will ONLY use water that measures zero TDS. __________________ Who me?

10/09/2018, 10:11 PM	#6
murphreef Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: simi valley Posts: 3,208	I would never use water that I did not know how it was filtered. You are asking for issues..... __________________ Justin Current Tank Info: 25G cube (finally back in the hobby in a small way)

10/09/2018, 10:54 AM	#3
Rover88 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 590	As said, without knowing what it is we can't say. Take this with a grain of salt as its not first hand, but the guy that fills our water bottles here at my office has mentioned the most common thing /they/ find in their 5 gallon jugs is copper. The system they use to purify the water has copper pipes on the collecting side. I don't know if thats true everywhere, or even true here. Just what the supply guy told me. It might be fine, it might not be. But without knowing every problem you run into down the road with hair algae, dino's. etc, will return to 'I wonder if it was what was in my water'.

10/09/2018, 08:40 PM	#5
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	I would use distilled water if RO/DI isn't available.