water help tap not safe?
- Thread starter saltyguy
- Start date
You will be putting nitrates and phosphates in your system, this may cause problems like hair algae. It may also have other chemical that are harmful to your fish and inverts. Where I live the water Dept uses a chemical to stop lead from leaching from the water pipes-not good for fish. 
Holley
Holley
Actually it depends on how it was distilled.
Deionized is better if you can get it.
If you don't have a LFS nearby that sells water, you can go to most Publix stores - they have a Glacier Water machine usually in the lobby. Not sure what the price is per gallon these days but you bring your own containers and fill 'em up. That's RO water.
Deionized is better if you can get it.
If you don't have a LFS nearby that sells water, you can go to most Publix stores - they have a Glacier Water machine usually in the lobby. Not sure what the price is per gallon these days but you bring your own containers and fill 'em up. That's RO water.
Since I have never bought water from an LFS I can't be sure but, I would suspect that it is no more expensive than buying jugs of distilled. While distilled is better than tap by a long shot, RO/DI water would be much better. I know it seems like a lot to go through but in the long run it will save you a lot of headache and time if you bite the bullet now and make the switch to RO/DI. A lot of people just buy the water they need from the LFS (local fish store). They sell both Saltwater and water with no salt that you use for your top offs. Two drawbacks are the cost and lugging the water from the store. You can buy units to make your own water and that ends up being cheaper and a lot easier. A good unit will cost a couple hunderd dollars but there are some portable ones that you can get for $65 that do a very nice job for a while. If you are interested I can PM you the name of the place I got mine. I used it for a year with no trouble until I could upgrade to a better unit.
You just spent $50 on water. An RODI system would have cost $100-$150. It would have lasted over a year before you had to change your filters. In that year you will need well over 100 gallons in top off. So you will have needed $150-200 dollars of distilled water. Which would pay for the RODI. After that year is up, replacement cartridges are $50 bucks. Saving yourself $150 a year. These are lowball numbers. You should've taken my advice, sorry to sound rude, I just woke up
+1
Just an FYI... almost nobody uses copper to distill water anymore. It is "old technology" that has been phased out over the last 25-30 years or so. Virtually all water distillation plants now use stainless steel.
To the OP, distilled water will work fine.
reason why i just got distilled jug water and not an rodi unit is because i will be moving out soon and im trying to get a healthy tank going i do plan on buying a unit at my new place to stay but for now i just did the distilled jugs and i got it fo 40 dollars thank you very much and thanks guys for the info and gals!
