A recent story on Channel 11, WTTW’s Chicago Tonight program caused me to raise an eyebrow. Then the other.
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2014/09/24/great-lakes-water-quality-summit-chicago
In summary, several mayors from throughout the US and Canada had a summit in Chicago to discuss drinking water challenges we may be facing.
“Great, what’s wrong with that?” you ask, “Glad they’re doing something.” True, however what this often means is an attempt to control chemicals currently in drinking water by adding other chemicals, a method that can be really bad news for your aquarium.
There are plenty of substances already in tap water which can be really bad for your aquarium inhabitants, such as chlorine, chloramine, or agents that can grow tremendous algae, such as phosphate and silica.
The only way to be 100% safe when using water for your aquarium is to use water purified by Reverse Osmosis and Deionization. The result of these processes gives you pure water with no remnants of what may have been present before purification.
This is particularly important in keeping live reef aquariums, but also with saltwater fish and even with most freshwater aquariums. You can purchase this water from many outlets and grocery stores, or even have it delivered by water service companies. We often also deliver water to our service clients. As often as possible though, we set up one of these Reverse Osmosis and Deionization (RO/DI) filtration systems so clients can make and store their own water for aquarium and even drinking use.
