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Can I use tap water to cycle new tank then switch

RolyMo

RolyMo

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Joined
19 Jun 2012
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430
Location
Fareham, UK
A bit of scene setting.

New nano tank for CRS (not bought yet) still in planning stage.

About to buy substrate and plants.

For cost saving sake can I cycle the tank with just the plants and substrate with tap water and then once cycled, switch to RO? And can I do a huge massive water change to RO without doing a gradual programme of 20% changes as there is no inhabitants in there apart from Plants?

I suppose the real question is do the plants, bacteria, and substrate care what water goes in so long as they have their CO2 and ferts?

Also would there be a risk that the substrate soaks up the tap water and the leaches it once RO and shrimp are in. Causing CRS to die.
Thanks in advance.
Roly
 
Hi foxfish
Thanks for the pointers.
Hmm, my tap water is extremely hard and looking at the parameters for CRS's I think they would not last long. And so have resigned myself to RO water, but did not want to do constant water changes whilst tank is being set up at the cost of £3 for 20l for RO. Cool thanks.
Roly
 
Yes buy a unit, you dont want to have to rely on going somewhere to get water in order to do a change. I looked into it and seem to remember that you can get them for something like £80 so in the long run cheaper
 
Definitely buy your own mate, sometimes the quality of shop ro is not great having your own unit will pay for itsself in no time, a good quality unit can be had for £70 upwards but you can get some pretty good inline ro units for just under £40 on that well known auction site, the filters dont last quite as long but will still work out 100 times better than lfs water
 
Another vote for your own unit, the petrol costs on constantly picking up the bottles is an issue all in itself unless you're on the LFS's doorstep.

Don't see why you can't cycle with tap water, although I'd slowly change the tank over to softer water rather than a sudden shift so you don't shock your new colony, although I may simply be being over cautious.
 
Cheers guys
I have considered the RO unit before but always read that if you have a water metre it's a no no. But if its just for a 25 litre nano I am not sure what the ration of litres of tap water in to get ??? out. Won't stress about the conversion as I imagine its a small amount. And already do 90 litre change each week on the other tank. So Southern Water must love me.

Was hoping to start off on RO without the shrimp until the tank is cycled and plants settled then introduced the shrimp. Reading the Breeders and Keepers mag they all use Amazonia, and RO with differing conductivity.

Perhaps I am aiming high.
R
 
A few people I know on water meters run ro pumps these make the ro unit much more efficient also they run the waste to water butts and use this waste water for watering there gardens and washing there cars etc so you kind of make back what you spend by using less freshwater for the garden etc, I hope that makes sense lol
 
Do you not just get the same water out as what goes in? I thought basically that it was just a filter system in line before the tap.....

Also what does tap water cost? less than 0.5p a litre rather than £3 for 20lt or RO.
 
I think dennerle make a small unit that you can attach to your tap

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4
 
You get about a seventh of the water in, the rest goes to waste. Pumps help the ratio, so do improve the cost in the long term.

As for the rental issue, do you have an accessible washing machine point? If you do you can plumb from a splitter without messing with any pipes in any way that the landlord need notice, or ever have any permanent evidence of. The waste feed would be more annoying, but could simply sit in an open plughole.
 
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