Thinking of* starting first saltwater aquarium-inverts

DYHamazon

I had a quick question about RO. I dont have city water-we have a well. Will I still need RO? I was a little intimidated when I saw some of the prices on these and not even sure if I need one. I did see a 'tap water filter' on Drsfostersmith.com for around 40 bucks-would I even need that?

Pasfur

I suppose it depends on the quality of the well water. Have you ever had it analyzed? This is a difficult question because I suspect not many people have experience in this area.

You can generally purchase RO water at the LFS. The initial fill up will be a little costly, but after that you are just looking at evaporation replacement, and the not so frequent water change.

wake49

Do you have copper pipes? Are there other heavy metals in the area? The well water at work is 250 ppm when tested with a TDS meter. That reading for a reef aquarium should be 0 ppm. 250 ppm is not harmful to me or you as drinking or bathing water, but those dissolved ions can be harmful to most reef aquaria.

DYHamazon

Never had the water tested, but I will probablly go ahead and buy an RO unit. I live about an hour away from any big town-so it'd be easier to have it. We also live in the middle of a bunch of crop fields and I didnt think about the runoff affecting the well water.
Went to a place that does reef maintenance today and the old lady looked at me crazy when I told her I ordered my rocks and sand online. She said I was basically buying "play sand" and was kinda rude about it. Needless to say I was confused. She said I didnt need a high sandbed because it caused problems and that I needed two filters-that only the experts can get away without them.
???

Pasfur

The old lady has an attitude problem. Anyone with experience in this hobby understands that the topic of sand be depth is widely debated among experts and that everyone approaches it a little bit differently. On this forum, we have had rather wide success with this rule:
Use less than 1'' of sand, or use between 4'' and 6''. Both seem to work well, with the later providing better deniftrification. Problems tend to occur at levels between 1'' and 4''.

The fact that she does not want you to order rock and sand online is also just a sign of the times. She has no experience with this, so she has no understanding of how it works. It is the literal definition of ignorance. Not being rude, just being direct.

This is why we so often encourage people to rely on the internet forums for your best advice. You have access to very experienced successful hobbyists providing advice for free with no personal benefit. It doesn't get any better.

DYHamazon

Yeah, she did seem a little set in her ways. At one point she asked what type of filter I was getting, and when I told her I thought if I had enough live rock and sand and the skimmer..I wouldnt really need one. She almost yelled, "Where is the Sh*t going to go!!!??" LOL. Funny thing is, she was dissing on the information on the internet the whole time-and that I must have paid out the "batooty" for shipping on those rocks (I think it was only $20 something for shipping,which i thought wasn't bad at all)- THEN she wrote down a site for another forum for me to go to. hahaha
I'm going to stick by what you (Pasfur) and the others on here tell me to do. My rock should be here tomorrow and I've already ordered an RO. I should be able to get it started next week sometime.

Pasfur

Funny stuff. This right here tells you everything you need to know. She is a freshwater fishkeeper who stocks marine livestock at her LFS. She has no idea how a marine system functions.