Buying saltwater from aquarium store?

[kiran]

It’s not guaranteed to be the correct salinity. It’s not guaranteed that they change their filters as often as they should and that their water is 0 tds. Personally, I just don’t trust any LFS enough to handle such an important and integral part of a successful reef. It’s cheaper, by far, to make your own water. There is an initial expense, but a gallon of homemade RODI water costs around $0.05, salt can be anywhere from $0.20 to $0.60 per gallon, so for 5 gallon at most it’s going to cost you $3.25 (or as little as $1.25), compared to $10, for RODI it’s $0.25 vs $5.00 for 5 gallons. And not to get too cliché, but the peace of mind is priceless.

Yeah, the peace of mind was a big factor. I remember the entire time I was buying the water from my LFS I was stressed out beyond belief trying to get my tank right.

It's best to know you started off with water you make on your own that you know for a fact is pure 0 TDS. Knowing what your parameters are because you made the mix yourself I think will help with your coral too. Whether you might need to add a little something extra to the tank if the salt you have doesn't match what you want exactly.

I just love having as much control of my tank as possible and this is a really big one.

 

[davidcalgary29]

It’s not guaranteed to be the correct salinity. It’s not guaranteed that they change their filters as often as they should and that their water is 0 tds. Personally, I just don’t trust any LFS enough to handle such an important and integral part of a successful reef. It’s cheaper, by far, to make your own water. There is an initial expense, but a gallon of homemade RODI water costs around $0.05, salt can be anywhere from $0.20 to $0.60 per gallon, so for 5 gallon at most it’s going to cost you $3.25 (or as little as $1.25), compared to $10, for RODI it’s $0.25 vs $5.00 for 5 gallons. And not to get too cliché, but the peace of mind is priceless.

I agree. Many affordable units come with garden hose adapters, which means that you can hook them right up to any threaded faucet that you have in your home.

RO Buddie units are often available on Amazon for something in the range of $100 USD/$130 CAD. They're fine for a starter unit, but the con (and it's a long con) is that you essentially have to buy a new unit every year. The filter cartridges are proprietary and are expensive.

I bought a SpectraPure 4 stage RO/DI unit a few months ago, and wish that I'd started with that.

If I didn't have a RODI unit I'd simply buy distilled water at the supermarket and mix my salt with that. I've seen dead fish in the tanks of my "L"FS, and there's no way that I'd put any of their water into my tanks.

 

[kiran]

It’s guaranteed to be the correct salinity

I wouldn't be 100% confident with that until you tested the parameters of the LFS water out of the bucket with reliable test kits.

That's how I found out about my LFS water (not saying yours will be this way).