well water question (1 Viewer)

[Mike_Reefer]

Ok so heres the deal. My house has a well. I live right on the brazos river and the well is 500 ft deep. the water tastes like ************ so we dont drink it. But I used it to set my tank up with 6 or 7 months ago. Now I already know half of yall are thinking "oh no, not well water" but my lil polyps are loving it. Ive been doing this a while and I,ve never seen Zoos' grow so fast including when I lived in florida and was just able to get water from the beach. Nitrates and phosphates are zero on a newly mixed batch and alkilinity and calcium are perfect. In fact when we took it to town and had it tested it contained a high amount of calcium right out of the ground. I know ther has to be all sorts of other trace minerals and what not in it. So what do yall think ....is this really as good as it sounds or should I be waiying for the hammer to fall. I'd love to hear what yall think so let me know. Thanks!

 

[RocketSurgeon]

I'd love to hear what yall think so let me know. Thanks!

Careful what you ask for...

The concern is not knowing what else is in the water. You may go years without a problem, but what happens when you do get that problem? How much time and money are you willing to gamble.

Water makes up about 95% of our system, and you are using an unknown source. Probably one of the cheapest things I have bought is an RO/DI unit.

 

[Ulric]

You're tank, do as you feel comfortable.

Myne's filled and topped off with well water...so far no 'chemical/elements' related issues since it was restarted from the storms/hurricane.

 

[robbyandkristie]

Well water at that depth won't have any bacteria, unless your well casing is bad at ground level. You can have your water tested to see exactly what is in it. I don't know about your area where to have that done. Over here we use the Trinity River Authority to run all of ours.

The most common things in well water are iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and other trace minerals. I guess that you could build up some type of minerals that your system doesn't need over time, but who knows what the time period would be.

Most of us on this forum are on well water, some are on surface water. The main difference with yours and ours is ours has chlorine, and other things added to keep it "safe" and clear. Such as poly phosphates to sequester the iron. This prevents the chlorine from iron particles oxidizing and turning red.

For those on surface water they won't have as high a mineral content as well water does. However the surface water does have a high bacteria potential.

 

[r_jay]

just a fun tidbit of info related or not to the wellwater issue (although I agree it IS your tank and there is nothing wrong with doing things different) but I used a TDS meter to measure my water straight out of the kitchen sink it's at 220ppm,

then my water out of the refridgerator dispensor (I changed the filter 3 months ago) and it was at 180ppm)

finally i measured the water I get from the culligan dispensor at walmart 50ppm. just some info on dissolved solids in our water.

IM DOING SCIENCE!

 

[Llama]

just a fun tidbit of info related or not to the wellwater issue (although I agree it IS your tank and there is nothing wrong with doing things different) but I used a TDS meter to measure my water straight out of the kitchen sink it's at 220ppm,

then my water out of the refridgerator dispensor (I changed the filter 3 months ago) and it was at 180ppm)

finally i measured the water I get from the culligan dispensor at walmart 50ppm. just some info on dissolved solids in our water.

IM DOING SCIENCE!

HAHAHA!!! YEA SCIENCE!!!!!!!!

OP - The choice is really up to you. If it were me, I'd be using RO. These rules we follow have been gathered from years and years of experience. Many many mistakes have been made in this hobby. The trick is learning from the mistakes we know have happened in the past.

 

[RocketSurgeon]

HAHAHA!!! YEA SCIENCE!!!!!!!!
OP - The choice is really up to you. If it were me, I'd be using RO. These rules we follow have been gathered from years and years of experience. Many many mistakes have been made in this hobby. The trick is learning from the mistakes we know have happened in the past.

What comes to mind, is someone's signature that reads something about not bragging about how long you have gone without a water change, but rather brag about how long you have been performing them.

There are several on ReefCentral that run their systems using tap/well water and/or bio balls.

One of the great things about this forum, is we get to learn from our mistakes, whether it is your mistake or mine.

 

[Mike_Reefer]

Thanks guys, this deffinately gave me some thing to think about. I think Ill probably just compromise and do every third water change with distilled water and keep hoping for the best. Now on my future green house build I'll deffinately be getting an RO/DI unit. But untill time permits me to get that up and running Ill just keep on trucking.

 

[tmgrash]

Like everyone else has said, many people have success doing many different things. Buuuuut, IMO a rodi unit is relevently cheap and easy to use and definately can't hurt.
BTW I moved about a year ago, I went from well water to a "city" water source. The well was about 600ft and much "cleaner"/lower tds than the city water.