Cycling with Carbon and Phosphate Remover

Hi,

I'm using tap water (I know - I'll purchase a RO/DI unit soon) and I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to cleanse the tap water. As of now, I add the correct amount of salt then I de-chlorinate the water. I also run carbon and phosphate remover.

Is there anything else I can do to clean the tap water?
Would running these removers affect my coralline growth?

I plan on adding trace elements but I'm not sure when should I add them.
Can you run phosphate removers AND add trace elements at the same time?
I assume the phosphate remover would remove the trace elements I add.

Suggestions?

Thanks!

 

SeaChem Prime is a good product to use to treat tap water if you don't have access to RODI water. Tap water conditioners won't affect coralline.

I wouldn't bother adding trace elements unless you have tested for them, and find your tank is deficient. Salt mixes contain a good mix of trace elements in the correct balance. So as long as you are doing regular water changes, you should be fine. You may have to add a buffer to stabilize pH or a calcium additive, but those aren't things you need to worry about in a new tank.

Phosphate removers won't remove trace elements. Carbon will, but most people don't run carbon 24/7.

 

Note: you should dechlorinate before you add salt. Doing so after is pointless, because you just dumped in a bunch of chlorine (most of the salt is sodium chloride). So, adding the prime (or whatever you use) first, letting it sit for a couple minutes, then adding the salt will increase the efficiency of removing chloramines and all those nasty chloride-compounds from your water.

 

Good to know. I thought you had to do it the other way. Thanks Amanda

 

Althought RO is ideal anykind of filtration at all will help. "Whole Foods" and Wal-mart have RO machines.

 

At least you know you need to get RODI or distilled soon....some people here started off with tap, but ended up having more-than-usual algae outbreaks because of it, and had to spend more time/resources doing gradual water changes to completely get rid of tap.

I, too, used tap at first when I first started. Luckily, I hadn't bought any livestock and was able to siphon almost everything out, and starting over w/ rodi.