water

[Reefer769]

hey everyone i just found out that my fridge has a do/di filter hooked up to it for drinking water, and i just tested it and here were the results

Ammonia-0.0
Nitrate-0.0
Nitrite-0.0

do i need to test anything else? and if not then will this water be good for aquarium use?

[Reefer769]

please help...

[Meric]

please help...

I think you would want to know the TDS of your tap water and the TDS of the water coming out of the Fridge.

[Ninong]

Nobody is responding because they have never heard of an R.O./D.I. system hooked up to a refrigerator's water line before.

I had an R.O. system in my previous house for drinking water and a small filter cartridge of some sort connected to the refrigerator's water line but I did not have an R.O./D.I. system hooked up to the refrigerator. In fact, it would be extremely unusual for a home to have an R.O./D.I. system in the first place and certainly not for drinking water. R.O. systems are installed in homes but not R.O./D.I. systems. People who have reef tanks will sometimes have an R.O./D.I. system installed so that they drinking water supply comes out before the D.I. cartridge and the reef tank water comes out after the D.I. cartridge.

Whenever you test tapwater, you want to test for copper and phosphates. Those are the two things you need to know. That's assuming there is no measurable amount of ammonia and only a small amount of nitrates. Also, you need to know if your municipal water company uses chlorine or chloramine in their water treatment. Chlorine dissipates within a matter of hours, chloramine takes weeks to dissipate. Both can be neutralized with sodium thiosulfate drops.

Some people use tapwater for their aquaria but most people do not. It's not just a matter of whether the tapwater is "good" at any particular moment when you happen to test it, you also have to realize that water districts sometimes add things to their supply without warning to "clean" the pipes and prevent buildup. Also, what is considered safe for drinking water (human consumption) is most definitely NOT safe for reeftanks. It's a very iffy proposition.

If your tank is small, say 30-gallons, then you could consider purchasing R.O. water from a supermarket or even R.O./D.I. water from an LFS. Or you could even purchase distilled water from a supermarket but it costs more. Wal-Mart Super Centers usually sell R.O. water for $0.25/gal from a self-serve dispensing machine in the front of the store.

P.S. -- Meric makes a good point. If you are going to use tapwater, you should measure the TDS (total dissolved solids), but you would need a $25 TDS meter for that. My tapwater measures about 195 TDS straight from the faucet but in some areas the tapwater measures 500 TDS or more. Water from an R.O./D.I. filter typically measures 0-5 TDS.

[Reefer769]

so if all those tests came out to be 0.0, its still not enough?

[Reefer769]

alright, my mistake it isnt a ro/do filter, i really have no idea what kind of filter it is but the tests came out all 0.0, so i dunno i guess i have to buy a 100$ RO/Di filter now...

[Ninong]

alright, my mistake it isnt a ro/do filter, i really have no idea what kind of filter it is but the tests came out all 0.0, so i dunno i guess i have to buy a 100$ RO/Di filter now...

You could purchase your R.O. water if you don't want to buy an R.O./D.I. filter. See above reply.

[Poseidon]

Reefer, I guess you are missing Ninongs point. Just because NH3 NO2 and NO3 came out at Zero it does not mean the water is safe. Here is a good example. Let's say you are walking around a forest and find a swamp, you test it for those same 3 substances, and they all come out zero. Are you going to DRINK that water? OF COURSE NOT...

There are MANY MANY toxins in our tap water that are not toxic to us, but are toxic to our reef critters. When is the last time you think a clown fish came across some Chloramine in the ocean? Or how about dissolved lead and Copper? Those are toxic to our fish, but in small quantities do little if anything to us.

I guess this hobby will teach you to think a little "outside your box." And remember if the water from a 'fridge was just as good as RO/DI why would we all have spent the money to buy an RO unit?