Tap water okay to keep live rock?

[MikeD]

Should it be okay to just use tap water if I'm keeping my live rock live for a few months... No fish, but maybe some zoos or polyps on the LR plus coralline.... This is just for setup... All water changes afterwards will use RO.

Mike

[returnofsid]

If I were you, I'd start off with RO/DI water. It'll eliminate a lot of possible problems in the future. If you have good quality tap water, you might be okay. Although if you have good quality tap water, you can do away with the RO/DI unit completely.

[MikeD]

Ehh.. okay.. I'll just start off with the rodi... I'll just take a bit longer! You're right.. I don't want ANY probs with the rock when it's time to move.

[michaeldaly]

A lot of people are going to disagree here, but I think using tap water for a while is not going to cause to many problems, It usually takes many months for contaminants to build up to harmful levels in ones tank.

[returnofsid]

It's not about harmful contaminants that can take months to build up...it's about nutrients, nitrates and phosphates that can cause serious algae problem very quickly.

[BurN]

Why risk it, use RO water.

[MikeD]

Thanks everyone! I already filled the tank up with RO! It was only a 20 gallon. I'm moving in June and am picking up rock from a local reefer on Tuesday. I just wanted to setup this 20 as salt water for now so I can pack rock in there for the next couple of months. That way, I can have good rock when I move! Would you guys use tap on a qt?

[Aquabucket]

Why would you use tap on any tank when you have an RO unit? Most anyone here with an RO unit is going to use it for all their water.

[MikeD]

Just being lazy on a sunday I guess... After tearing down a freshwater tank, bringing the fish to my school, setting up that tank. Carrying buckets from the lot to my classroom (whch of course is as far from the parking lot as can be, setting it up in a jiffy, feeding everybody (Animals at school), coming back home to do the real cleaning on the tank (had seachem flourish gravel - super dusty)... I was really considering just hooking up the python to fill it up... But then you guys just knocked some sense into me so I just sighed and starting filling up the 5 gal buckets :)