Nooo.. look what the tank maitenence guy did!!

NinaStarr · 05/22/2007, 02:11 PM

I'm helping a friend who recently bought a house with a 240gal inwall tank, upgrade it.

They have a maintenence guy who works at a lfs and cleans the glass & does water changes. Last week we drained the tank, added a sump and overflow, and called the maintenence guy to fill the tank back up.

The maintenence guy literally took the hose from outside and filled up the tank and then mixed in the saltwater. I was not there to see this, but I would have stopped it if I saw it. What is this going to do to the tank? Is there anything I should do besides a lot of PWC's? Please help! TIA.

karlmarx · 05/22/2007, 02:16 PM

drain and fill with ro/di,seawater, or distilled. Maybe you can get the lfs to send you some seawater for all your trouble?

jean19 · 05/22/2007, 02:17 PM

what who's inside?
if there is nothing in it it doesn't matter as soon as your parameter are right when you start adding things but he could have used purified water .

how do you call purified water i mind whose been through a ro di kind of stuff

TWallace · 05/22/2007, 02:17 PM

Was there any livestock on it when he did this? If not, it's probably no big deal, depending on your local water quality. My local water is only 30 TDS from the tap and I used in my reef for over a year with no issues.

mg426 · 05/22/2007, 02:20 PM

What a knucklehead, They charged you for this ??

NinaStarr · 05/22/2007, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jean19
what who's inside?
if there is nothing in it it doesn't matter as soon as your parameter are right when you start adding things

Quote:

Originally posted by TWallace
Was there any livestock on it when he did this? If not, it's probably no big deal, depending on your local water quality. My local water is only 30 TDS from the tap and I used in my reef for over a year with no issues.

Theres nothing in the tank besides cycling LR. Wont the use of tap water make the cycle take longer? Will there be any ill effects of using the tap water initially? Thanks again.

karlmarx · 05/22/2007, 02:27 PM

Yea tap water will probably give you cyano and hair algae problems later. Either way if your gonna do something do it right the first time. Would you rather fix it now or have a problem later and have to drain the tank and start again?

Rewd · 05/22/2007, 02:34 PM

I started my first tank with tap and did all subsequent water changes with RO. Never had a cyano or hair algae outbreak.

NinaStarr · 05/22/2007, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by karlmarx
Yea tap water will probably give you cyano and hair algae problems later. Either way if your gonna do something do it right the first time. Would you rather fix it now or have a problem later and have to drain the tank and start again?

That is exactly what I was afriad of... We definatly dont need a HA or cyano problem because tap water was used. I was actually thinking of borrowing a truck with a water tank on the back and making a trip to get some free NSW. Would I have to do a full water change or would PWC's be sufficient?

jean19 · 05/22/2007, 02:54 PM

same as REWD no problems

sufunk · 05/22/2007, 02:58 PM

Is your tap water drinkable? If it is, you can probably get away with no problems.

If the thought of drinking your tap water disgusts you, empty tank and refill with ro/di.

Personally though, i would drain and refill. You never know what could have been in that tap. At least now, its semi-easy to fix the problem.

TheMcs · 05/22/2007, 03:08 PM

Since you weren't there, are you positive he ran it from the faucet?
We used to run a 150 gal container in the van with a Mag24 to pump water into a house, sometimes we had to use a garden hose (hose used only for aquarium water) for long runs.
Double check before you freak out about the TDS of the water or crucify the maintenance guy.

Waxxiemann · 05/22/2007, 03:23 PM

You know what they say, "if you want it done right ..."

corals b 4 bills · 05/22/2007, 03:51 PM

Thats what I would do, buy a TDS meter and find out what your output is first, if it's higher then you like then call those AH's and have them drain it and bring in the good stuff, expect them to say "this is how it's done". This is the time to make the decision, some people will use tap water for a start up but, lets say if you were a million aire would you still use tap?....Get's them every time.

useskaforevil · 05/22/2007, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sufunk
Is your tap water drinkable? If it is, you can probably get away with no problems.

If the thought of drinking your tap water disgusts you, empty tank and refill with ro/di.

people are afraid to drink tap water?

NinaStarr · 05/22/2007, 04:13 PM

I dunno they live in Huntington Beach, and Southern California is having a "water emergency" where the supply of water here is running low so who knows how much TDS there is. I will test the TDS and the params. If I dont like what I see and probably just to be on the safe side, I think I will just drain and refill it with ro/di and salt, or maybe NSW if I feel like a drive.

I know I should have done it myself, but Im already doing them a favor by aquascaping, upgrading the lights, and finding healthy compatable livestock, I didn't want to bother. Plus I dont get the employee discount on water or have easy means of getting enough water for a 240gal + 60 gal sump system. (Me upgrading the system is a housewarming gift to them from my aunt.)

I've never met the maintenence guy but I know where and when he works... haha I think its time to meet him to see what he wanted to accomplish by refilling the tank with hose water. Im pretty sure it was thier hose and not his, because they said that he asked where the hose outside was. My jaw dropped

and my friends asked "is that bad?"

shouldabenacowboy · 05/22/2007, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by useskaforevil
people are afraid to drink tap water?

That is what I was thinking...

SBC

ganjero · 05/22/2007, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by useskaforevil
people are afraid to drink tap water?

Quote:

Originally posted by shouldabenacowboy
That is what I was thinking...

SBC

Yes everywhere in the world except in the USA. Well, even in the US they are, where I live (Marin County, CA) levels of ammonia in water are to high and some other stuff too ( I forgot) and they are debating about the water increasing the chances of breast cancer, so many women donâ€™t drink tap water. Sorry for hj the thread.
Back to the topic, it's not something from another world to use tap water but it's not the best choice. You could let it go like that and do partial water changes or you could drain it and refill with RO/DI.

Good luck

kookerson · 05/22/2007, 05:21 PM

Im in the process of filling up 75 (90 gallon total system), and my RO Unit only does 15 gallons a day..........as slow as it is, I still refuse to use tap water!

areze · 05/22/2007, 05:46 PM

what did you expect him to do to fill it? unless he does cart around 300+gallons of ro/di water there wouldnt be much some guy could just come do for you... even a really nice RO/DI would take upwards of 48-72 hours to fill it. and if he charged you, you mighta been looking at 500$ for that much premixed saltwater, or more!

Der_Iron_Chef · 05/22/2007, 06:01 PM

I don't live in the US and I'm not afraid to drink my tapwater

lol.

But I filled my aquarium up with tap water at first, as I cycled my live rock, and I went through the regular algae/cyano blooms, but nothing outrageous!

If you're really worried about it, it'll cost you the money in new salt and an ro/di unit (if you don't already have it). More than anything, it's just a big PITA to do it all over again, when he should have done it right. Talk to the LFS, it's likely they'll help you out.

Having said all that....if it were me, I wouldn't panic or anything. Your tank won't explode or dissolve into some opaque organic soup. Get a TDS reading on your water, filter the heck out of it, and maybe run some phosphate media in a reactor to get rid of the phosphate and silicates?

I don't know. Just my experiences here, which have landed me with a pretty neat, relatively algae-free reef.

Vanquishxxxx · 05/22/2007, 06:03 PM

as long as you do your normal water changes with rodi water i dont think the initial water used will be a issue, if your tank is taken care of correctly you shouldnt have a algea problem, just make sure you dont have too much copper in your tap water

SteveOhh · 05/22/2007, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by areze
what did you expect him to do to fill it? unless he does cart around 300+gallons of ro/di water there wouldnt be much some guy could just come do for you... even a really nice RO/DI would take upwards of 48-72 hours to fill it. and if he charged you, you mighta been looking at 500$ for that much premixed saltwater, or more!

We, in So Cal, have access to free NSW at a number of places. Most, if not all, tank maintenance companies have some sort of system in place to deliver NSW to where ever your tank is.

Tap water in So Cal can reach over 600 TDS, so there's no way I'd use in my tank. I'd call the maintenance company & scream & yell about wht this fool did until they agree to come back & do it the right way. I can guarantee you that this idiot doesn't use tap water in his tank, so why should he put it in yours. Once the ordeal is settled, I'd switch maintenance companies. PM me if you need some GOOD maintenance companies in So Cal.

Steve

New_Noob · 05/22/2007, 06:45 PM

There is nothing wrong with the tank, as long as you use RO water from now on there is northing to worry about, if your cycling for a month and evaping water there wont be any prob.

NinaStarr · 05/22/2007, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by areze
what did you expect him to do to fill it? unless he does cart around 300+gallons of ro/di water there wouldnt be much some guy could just come do for you... even a really nice RO/DI would take upwards of 48-72 hours to fill it. and if he charged you, you mighta been looking at 500$ for that much premixed saltwater, or more!

Areze, yes I figured that #1, he does this as a job and #2, has done numerous at least 75 gal water changes... so he must have some system for hauling around large amounts of water. He works at one of the biggest lfs in Orange County, so he has easy and cheap access to 1000+gals of ro/di & salt. And it is not unusual for tank people out here to have water tanks on a pickup in order to haul around a large amount of water.

SteveOhh, I agree. I really think I am going to borrow a truck with a water storage system on the back in order to get some NSW to refill with. I've easily spent over $4K already just to upgrade from the old undergravel filter and some weird ancient canister filter system underneath the cabinet. Either way, Im going to have to have a talk with this maintenence guy.

05/22/2007, 02:17 PM	#3
jean19 Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: corréze,FRANCE Posts: 70	what who's inside? if there is nothing in it it doesn't matter as soon as your parameter are right when you start adding things but he could have used purified water . how do you call purified water i mind whose been through a ro di kind of stuff __________________ sorry for my american ,i'm french ! Last edited by jean19; 05/22/2007 at 02:24 PM.

05/22/2007, 02:20 PM	#5
mg426 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: maryland Posts: 6,923	What a knucklehead, They charged you for this ?? __________________ I found a way to make a small fortune running a reef tank. Start with a large fortune. Unofficial President of the SEACLONE haters club Current Tank Info: 125 mixed reef 110 lbs LR, 1x250watt XM 20K MH 2x175watt XM 20K MH on Magetics 2X96 watt actinic PC, 220 watt VHO actinic, 30 gallon refugium, closed loop system powered by Sequence Dart MSX 200 skimmer 38 gallon sump, Oceansmotions squirt

05/22/2007, 02:54 PM	#10
jean19 Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: corréze,FRANCE Posts: 70	same as REWD no problems __________________ sorry for my american ,i'm french !

05/22/2007, 03:08 PM	#12
TheMcs Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Broken Arrow, OK Posts: 2,272	Since you weren't there, are you positive he ran it from the faucet? We used to run a 150 gal container in the van with a Mag24 to pump water into a house, sometimes we had to use a garden hose (hose used only for aquarium water) for long runs. Double check before you freak out about the TDS of the water or crucify the maintenance guy. __________________ Evaporation and top off don't count as water changes... Current Tank Info: 185g Deep Sea display, 2x 40g frag tanks, 90g fuge, 60g sump (400+ gal system)

05/22/2007, 03:23 PM	#13
Waxxiemann Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Winnipeg Posts: 2,364	You know what they say, "if you want it done right ..." __________________ "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." Albert Einstein

05/22/2007, 02:11 PM	#1
NinaStarr Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Orange County & Los Angeles, California Posts: 53	Nooo.. look what the tank maitenence guy did!! I'm helping a friend who recently bought a house with a 240gal inwall tank, upgrade it. They have a maintenence guy who works at a lfs and cleans the glass & does water changes. Last week we drained the tank, added a sump and overflow, and called the maintenence guy to fill the tank back up. The maintenence guy literally took the hose from outside and filled up the tank and then mixed in the saltwater. I was not there to see this, but I would have stopped it if I saw it. What is this going to do to the tank? Is there anything I should do besides a lot of PWC's? Please help! TIA.

05/22/2007, 02:16 PM	#2
karlmarx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 476	drain and fill with ro/di,seawater, or distilled. Maybe you can get the lfs to send you some seawater for all your trouble?

05/22/2007, 02:17 PM	#4
TWallace Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,464	Was there any livestock on it when he did this? If not, it's probably no big deal, depending on your local water quality. My local water is only 30 TDS from the tap and I used in my reef for over a year with no issues.

05/22/2007, 02:27 PM	#7
karlmarx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 476	Yea tap water will probably give you cyano and hair algae problems later. Either way if your gonna do something do it right the first time. Would you rather fix it now or have a problem later and have to drain the tank and start again?

05/22/2007, 02:34 PM	#8
Rewd Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: PA Posts: 324	I started my first tank with tap and did all subsequent water changes with RO. Never had a cyano or hair algae outbreak.

05/22/2007, 02:58 PM	#11
sufunk Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Davie, Florida Posts: 2,004	Is your tap water drinkable? If it is, you can probably get away with no problems. If the thought of drinking your tap water disgusts you, empty tank and refill with ro/di. Personally though, i would drain and refill. You never know what could have been in that tap. At least now, its semi-easy to fix the problem.

05/22/2007, 03:51 PM	#14
corals b 4 bills Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Francisco Bay Area (Belmont). Posts: 2,381	Thats what I would do, buy a TDS meter and find out what your output is first, if it's higher then you like then call those AH's and have them drain it and bring in the good stuff, expect them to say "this is how it's done". This is the time to make the decision, some people will use tap water for a start up but, lets say if you were a million aire would you still use tap?....Get's them every time. __________________ Reefkeeper - (ref-ke-per) n: Individual obsessed with placing disturbing amounts of electricity and seawater in close proximity for the purpose of maintaining live coral reef organisms. Current Tank Info: 29 gallon Bio Cube, HQI 150 watt Nanotuner~Vortech MP10W ES~Arctica Chiller~AC II~Tunze Osmolator ATO~ Tunze 9002 skimmer W/In Tank Cup~ Korallin Reactor W/PH Monitor~ Korallin Denitrator~APC Back-up~Phosban/Carbon Reactor.

05/22/2007, 04:13 PM	#16
NinaStarr Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Orange County & Los Angeles, California Posts: 53	I dunno they live in Huntington Beach, and Southern California is having a "water emergency" where the supply of water here is running low so who knows how much TDS there is. I will test the TDS and the params. If I dont like what I see and probably just to be on the safe side, I think I will just drain and refill it with ro/di and salt, or maybe NSW if I feel like a drive. I know I should have done it myself, but Im already doing them a favor by aquascaping, upgrading the lights, and finding healthy compatable livestock, I didn't want to bother. Plus I dont get the employee discount on water or have easy means of getting enough water for a 240gal + 60 gal sump system. (Me upgrading the system is a housewarming gift to them from my aunt.) I've never met the maintenence guy but I know where and when he works... haha I think its time to meet him to see what he wanted to accomplish by refilling the tank with hose water. Im pretty sure it was thier hose and not his, because they said that he asked where the hose outside was. My jaw dropped and my friends asked "is that bad?"

05/22/2007, 05:21 PM	#19
kookerson Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 1,017	Im in the process of filling up 75 (90 gallon total system), and my RO Unit only does 15 gallons a day..........as slow as it is, I still refuse to use tap water!

05/22/2007, 05:46 PM	#20
areze Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 4,048	what did you expect him to do to fill it? unless he does cart around 300+gallons of ro/di water there wouldnt be much some guy could just come do for you... even a really nice RO/DI would take upwards of 48-72 hours to fill it. and if he charged you, you mighta been looking at 500$ for that much premixed saltwater, or more! __________________ current tanks:240g of wallet draining capacity.

05/22/2007, 06:01 PM	#21
Der_Iron_Chef Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Calgary, AB, Canada Posts: 841	I don't live in the US and I'm not afraid to drink my tapwater lol. But I filled my aquarium up with tap water at first, as I cycled my live rock, and I went through the regular algae/cyano blooms, but nothing outrageous! If you're really worried about it, it'll cost you the money in new salt and an ro/di unit (if you don't already have it). More than anything, it's just a big PITA to do it all over again, when he should have done it right. Talk to the LFS, it's likely they'll help you out. Having said all that....if it were me, I wouldn't panic or anything. Your tank won't explode or dissolve into some opaque organic soup. Get a TDS reading on your water, filter the heck out of it, and maybe run some phosphate media in a reactor to get rid of the phosphate and silicates? I don't know. Just my experiences here, which have landed me with a pretty neat, relatively algae-free reef.

05/22/2007, 06:03 PM	#22
Vanquishxxxx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Long Island Posts: 998	as long as you do your normal water changes with rodi water i dont think the initial water used will be a issue, if your tank is taken care of correctly you shouldnt have a algea problem, just make sure you dont have too much copper in your tap water

05/22/2007, 06:45 PM	#24
New_Noob Moved On Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Milwaukee WI Posts: 1,190	There is nothing wrong with the tank, as long as you use RO water from now on there is northing to worry about, if your cycling for a month and evaping water there wont be any prob.