Is Walmart RO Water good enogh for reef tank? TDS meter test result! 

Yay! How am I only subscribing now :) Love this video, Chow!

Dude i used all the water you used and ended up buying a rodi unit from amazon for about $63.oo well worth it

In central PA we get ~330. In Atlanta some areas are almost as pure as RO/DI

I think that Hanna checker can check phosphates in fresh water as well. so, you can check phosphates on the ro water you use as well

I pick up my RODI from my LFS, but I am super lucky as I have a dedicated Saltwater LFS less than 1 mile from my house who use an RODI system with 0 TDS water. Incidentally congrats on both being a reefer and a Calvin and Hobbes

Yeah, that is indeed a real eye-opener.

Lol I love Calvin and Hobbes!! Subbed!

I used to use distilled water from Walmart for my mix reef tank, never had any problems but it would cost a pretty penny every week

I haven't tested my tap water in a while, but last time I did it was about 40. Walmart doesn't use a DI stage on their RO water. This is'n't bad because the water is for human consumption and the human body needs the dissolved minerals in the water. I recommend buying RODI water from the LFS or buying the RODI unit. Even at the low TDS of the Walmart water you are adding nutrients and unnecessary minerals to your water every time you do a water change or top up. I used dechlorinated tap water for years and I have to say using RODI made a night and day difference in my tank.

I didn't know there were people not using an RO/DI unit for reef keeping in 2016. I got my first one in 2006👍

Thanks for the video...RODI unit is the way to go they have so many different adapters and connectors for any kind of setup. Plus it's less of a hassle.

I tested the Primo "RO filtered water with UV light" from Walmart. It showed 220 TDS and my home tap water was 226 TDS. I felt so ripped off.

i guessed 50. i was actually suprised to see it was at 53. I didn't use ro at first either which for me was a HUGE mistake. my local water is down-right disgusting. switched to ro/di from the lfs and the difference was night and day. now i got my own ro on its way right now. Not to say tap water couldnt work, it just didnt for me. it all depends on your local water supply.

OMG. Your tap is off the charts. Get a r/0 portable from home Depot. Very eye opening. Holy crap I'm mortified with Walmart. I use their water.

My tap water is exactly the same as yours 190 or so... RODI takes me to 0tds... Sounds like you finally about to get a unit. Just think about money u have invested in your tank. Providing the best water is really a no brainier... 👍🏾

I'm glad you took my suggestion. 😊 That's brown diatom algae. Your tap water at 194 is pretty high. My tap water comes out at around 60, which is barely any different from your Walmart water. I have my RODI connected to the shower output in my spare bathroom. The dirty water goes down the drain and I can run the RO water into a large 5 gallon jug. If it happens to overflow because I stupidly left it running for too long (happens entirely too often) it goes directly down the drain. You just need a screw on adapter for your RO to fit to the shower pipe. About 50 cents at Home Depot and $2 for some pipe thread tape to make sure it doesn't drip (you will definitely need this).

I bought water from Mariano on my neighborhood, Glacier water, i love their water filtration system, i wait when the do the service i buy 6 5g bucket, i checked the tds is .0-0.03ppm and its cheap .39c per gallon. I been used this water for more than a year. Check it out!

Our tap water TDS these days is anywhere from 550-800 (what do I win, huh? Huh? 😡). I learned this when we started getting white hazy water after doing maintenance on the big freshwater tanks we have. Panic city, and we at first blamed it on aggressive cleaning and consequent biological depletion, causing mini cycles. We found out about the extreme TDS when I was given an RO Buddy for my birthday, and we added a DI cartridge to it, along with a TDS meter. Talk about shock: at that time (about 2 yrs ago) the TDS read 1,100. That is not a typo. I immediately called the water dept and found out they had recently switched wells and were working on stabilizing the TDS levels in the water supply. The geology of the region we live in is the reason for these high levels, but this was extreme. My comment to them was that didn't help my situation with the aquariums, and we had been wondering why we were unable to keep various species of barbs alive - I found out later they are sensitive to alk and pH, more so than the other species we have. At that time I was also having big algae problems with hair algae and dinos in my 29 cube (which was one year old at that time). I had no idea it was because of using conditioned tap water and sometimes distilled water. Apparently the water standards are based on human consumption and anything up to 500 is considered acceptable for TDS. No explanation available as to the effect of 1,100. These days we are "down" to the 550-800 range. The good news? Though we tend to burn through resin, the TDS coming out of the RODI unit is almost always 0 or 1, rarely it goes up to 2. Moral of the story? (If you've got this far...😬) You will really benefit from an RODI unit, if there is any way at all to rig one up. You might need to swap out your slot tap or try and find an adaptor, or maybe find a plumber to cut into your water line under the sink. You won't regret it.

My tap runs 900-950 regularly. BRS with multiple stages added. My TDS is zero. Best money ever spent. My LPS corals growing real good

My tap water comes out at 22-25ppm, so now I don’t feel too bad if I’m lazy and use it sometimes in my top up (and it is pure laziness because I do have an RODI unit lol).

Looks like Walmart don't change their filters very often . Maybe you can get your RO/ DI water from your aquarium shop instead.

Total dissolved solids, its usually iron, magnesium, phosphates, etc... Its best to start with 0 because then you know the only nutrients in the water are the ones you are adding and you can know exactly whats in your aquarium then. If you use tds 180 like your tap you dont know what you need more or less of ya know.

my south uk tap tds is271 and using a cheap dennerle unit gets it down to 15

I was like you man, hesitant to get a RODI system. But after I got one, it's it's really worth it. It's just not for reefing, I also set it up for RO to provide drinking water for my family. Even if you don't have a reef, everyone should have an RO system, city water is bad. If worst comes to worst you can always just hook it up to a water hose outside if you have no other option. Say you do 5 gallon water change weekly @ $1/gallon from the shop. that's $5 x 52 week, that's $260 a year. It pays for itself in a year.

great research. Just bite the bullet and buy RODI unit. Many good RODI units have multiple connectors for water hoses or for you sink faucet.. Hook it up in your bathroom and make 5 gallons at a time. Easy .

Total dissolved solids. My tap water is around 160ppm. My ro water is zero from Canadian tire.

the only reason the walmart water is reading 54 is because if it is just ro its not getting everything out it needs to run through ro and di not just ro.

Get an rodi unit! new or used. My tank is on the second floor so I set up the rodi unit on the sink in the bathroom. and they make a lot of adapters for the sink faucets and then just place the dirty water line down the drain, no holes drilled! Now i only have to carry water about 10 feet instead of from the lfs to my tank

How does the blue tang get along with the clown fish ?

Hey bro you should really consider getting your water from your local lfs. I go to quantum reef in va. The owner is really cool and knowledgeable and I only pay $1.00 a gallon for RODI water. It looks like your having some diatom algae issues. I had the same problem when I was buying water from shoppers. RODI vs just Ro water is definitely the answer to your your algae issues. Really love your vids to by the way and would love to link up with you in the future! I stay in the dmv area about an 1 hour away from King of corals. By the way TDS stands for "total dissolved solids".

Maybe possible contamination from the tap water?

My tap waters total desolved solids is always 470 to 500

my Tap tds is 300+ but have been using rodi for a 8 months and it comes out at 9ppm still. its alot of money up front but its worth it in water quality for the corals and fighting algea. I beat cyno tho by sucking it off my sand with a turkey bayster and removing it from the tank. cleaning out my sump during a small water change and removing and cleaning sponges etc that filter and catch water with h202. I also have a refiguim tho so once i did that it began sucking up the phosephates im sure. Been a month without a water change and cyano has still not returned.

I used nothing but Walmart water before and it destroyed my system. However, I was a fool and didn't get the $10 tester. lesson learned. the placard on the machine said 5 tds at any given time. Real world was over 100 smh...

Tap water in my area measures 156 TDS on average.

TDS of RO/DI water from Walmart is 53. TDS of tap water here in New York City is 40-46!! :-)

My Tap water here in Texas (which is ground water) is 170ish. I've been using an RO for a year and was getting 20-24 TDS and was still getting cyano. I then added DI canisters to my water and got 0-2 TDS. This solved the algae and the cyano problem.

At "king of coral". They normally get them in.

I’ve made the mistake of using tap water and as soon as I started my new tank I used rodi water I will never make that mistake again lol

Just bought 4stage ro and always test out at 0.

My tap water is ~350 causes my salt tank to have some issues...

Are you still using this tester? Also any idea if the EC test on this can be converted to check your tank salinity?

If you don't want to wait for amazon shipping, Walmart sells TDS meters in the automotive/RV section for around 15 dollars. Also, buy the GREEN top gallon water. They are around 80 cents and are Zero TDS. I used them on my nano tank for a year before I bought an RODI system.

So distilled water is the best?

distilled water is best. would cost me the same per gallon as ro/di would in the long run. ro/di filters are not cheap and don't last long.

Yeah I've used petco's nutra water as well. It's fine but not really that beneficial for long term use I would say. It's supposed to have the same compounds as natural seawater. But the price is horrible like you said, lol! Yeah definitely check out your local lfs and see what they charge. Normally most lfs charge $1 for fresh RODI water and about $1.50-2.00 for premixed saltwater. I really don't go there too often myself because of the the distance, I live in Capitol heights Md, which is about 5 minutes from DC. But I'm currently waiting for them to get some more leporad wrasses in. Went there last week to pick one up and the guy sold all three before I arrived at the store! SMH... Not surprised especially since the three that they had were eating frozen food!! That's worth an hour drive for me any day. So hopefully they should have some more come in, in about a week or so. We can definitely set a meet up there!

Why not use distilled water? That said, for a 125 gallon tank, the water would cost me 70 cents a gallon if I bought distilled water. About 1.25 at my fish store. I don't understand why I would want RODI water over distilled - pH doesn't matter when putting salt mixes in your water, does it?

You have been using tap in your reef tank for a year? How did it go?

just find a pet store that sales ro water its not that expensive like 50 cents or a dollar a gallon

yes you need ro/di you will find an adaptor it is a pain but it will pay off plz try it you tank will thank you visually trust me been thier and done that no more black tarp or chemicals the ideal is to make it as pure as the ocean but nice vid I have often wondered about walmart water thx.

Walmart distilled water has a 0 tds reading

I’d be scared to see my tap tds, basic freshwater test strips are useless for ph and alk, because it goes straight off the charts. My geology is pretty cool (look up diving at the zermont crater), but it is scarily hard.

Have you thought about just using distilled water. With the reading of one you can't beat it.

TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids, this includes any elements that are in the water other then H2O. The Dissolved solids in tap water are not necessarily bad for your tank. what you need to check is the nitrate and phosphate levels of your tap water, and to contact your water provider and see if you can get a breakdown of what is in the water (they run lab grade tests on the water at a minimum monthly). The reason RO/DI is so hyped on the internet is because it is a safe bet for people who do not want to check into their water source. Depending on your local water topping off and doing water changes with tap might only be adding in more calcium, mag, carbonate, and trace elements instead of adding in algae feeding elements. Another thing to keep in mind is that they amount of water you are changing out at a water change should have a insignificant effect on these elements in your tank. Personally i would look into more efficient methods of removing Nitrate and Phosphate from your tank instead of looking at removing them from your top off/change water.

Northern nj here.....tap water was reading 370 ish....lol

Its probably RO without the DI resin. RODI is the best option, for all the money you've spent on your tank, i'm kinda shocked you never shelled out the $200 for a good RODI unit.

I really appreciate the video. I have wondered about the Walmart water too. But I had never heard anyone mention it. I only have a 29 gal Biocube (starting to set up). So if I do 10% water changes a week, ( is 10% about what people do?), then I only need 3 gallons, do they sell small rodi units? I don't have a place to sore a huge amount of pre made saltwater, and the small unit would be easier to get "wife approved" and price too.

I think your water helps the algae grow

Bought some water from a pet store it’s not very good. It’s actually very high ph. And very high gh and kh

Im confused???? Why wouldnt you buy distilled? It only reads 111111!

total disolved solids

i change all my filters when my TDS gets over 5 :)

My tap water is 800 ...but DI makes it 0 ...

If the goal of TDS is as close to 0 you can get, why not use the distilled water? After this test distilled water has the lowest TDS of the water types you tested. It just didn't make logical sense to choose the water that contains the absolute lowest TDS. Hope you can help me to better understand your choice on this. Cheers.

Sorry I do not believe you used tap water in your aqaurium. But you are a real good bsr

total dissolved solids is tds

Lol my tap is 19 tds but then i live in scotland so we have awesome water quality

My guess is 3 tds

I mean the high tds water

you need 0 ppm your better off using the distilled forget the Walmart

Here in AZ it's around 600 tds

I've been using Walmart water for a year now, with zero issues. I don't even know what an algae issue is. besides coraline algae. I rather trust whatever type of commercial RO filter they use than a standard cheap 4 stage RO/DI filter. you need at least a 6 stage filter to make it work trust me, I'm a mechanical engineer and I did my research with some of the Plumbing Engineers at work. plus I don't have to worry about wasting water :)

ok ok ok go on !!!!

Cheaper tds unit on ebay. Around $5

Average T.D.S for tap water. 53 is very bad. It should be zero. Was the glass tumbler clean. Was the storage container clean. 0.02 phosphate for a reef tank is good. You need to use good R.O.D.I water to beet algae. If you don't the alge will just come back. Tank is looking good.

what LED light are you using? radion??

my tap is 450

hi i saw a post on our local hobby page in new zealand about someone getting good readings off their fresh made RO water but then after testing post salt mix (overnight for waterchange) the reading were off the charts implying maybe the mixing container was really quite dirty and defeats the purpose really so would be interesting to see you do similar testing and maybe a video on how and what you store RO in even if just for overnight mixing

hey, no sink needed in laundry room. just get a splitter for your cold water line on washing machine and run the waste line of ro unit to the drain of washer and you're set.

TDS: total dissolved solids

Why can't you use distilled water for the tank?

15

22

I live in Philly. I use distilled water from Walmart. It cost $0.88 cents per gallon. I perform a 15 gallon water change weekly on a 75 gallon tank. I've been doing this for about 5 months now. So far so good!

Solids

are u still using ro water ?

60

phosphate rx

Distilled water is clean

I guess 10 t0 20 hopefully

zero on the tds reader

195 means dino

Total dissolved solids!

4

TDS = Total dissolved solids

Dude get an r o buddie

I have no faith in Walmart, and I never have.

try a uv sterilizer

10

you dont have an rodi machine ??? whats with all the excuses lol jeeze !! my tds from the wall is 150-175 tds then water goes through sediment , carbon , extra strength carbon then travels through 100 gpd tfc membrane which then the water is 6 tds after 2 years of use then it travels through the DI stage and comes out as 0 TDS !! get an ro machine I hook mine up under the sink and run a line to the unit in the bathtub dont have to worry about overflows ... only happened about 10 times flooding the downstairs neighbor hahaha good luck man you should be good with a 5 stage unit like mine