Can distilled water be used as a top off?

[stnmtn01]

Hey guys/gals,
My tank has been set up for about 7-8 months now and I have recently switched over from a fowlr to a reef system.(in the early stages) I have a 29g tank that I've always top off with distilled water when I had fish only. Now that I'm doing a reef setup I was curious if it was ok to use distilled water..I heard some distilled water was not ok of reef systems because of copper.. I know about ro/io purifiers, but im just a student and those things are pricey....Any suggestions.. :?

 

[stnmtn01]

my bad i mean RO/DI purifier......

 

[Dewey]

yep thats what i use.

Dewey

 

[SquishyFish]

Thats what your LFS should be using when you buy water from them. So yep...your good!

 

[Reefaddict]

I use distilled water and have never had any problems with it but I did test it for PO4 and copper first. They readings were zero.
Try to find one brand thats good and stick with that until you can afford an RO/DI...thats what im doing...hehe

 

[Wally]

Not all brands are the same make sure they do not use copper in the processing. I once changed brands and got an diatoms outbreak. I am able to buy the distilled water from a local distributor and he did the research to make sure they never run it through copper.

 

[gefilte]

What about spring water? Can you use that to top off?

 

[dansemacabre]

Spring is likely to have more metals and minerals in it than distilled. Spring comes out of the ground, where all that's found, so it's not surprising. Distilled water is obtained via evaporation. They take water, evaporate it, catch the vapors and let them condense. Since water leaves behind impurities when it evaporated, the caught vapor is (in theory anyway) pure water. As long as they use no metal tubing or accessories in the distillation process, the water should be good. If it were me, I'd go distilled and stay away from spring water.

*As far as distilled water being deadly to fish, this is only partly true, and only in freshwater. In saltwater, the salt mix you add puts required electrolytes, minerals, and nutrients back into the water. In freshwater, you don't add anything like sea salt, so the fish do not have the necessary minerals in the water, and they die.

 

[gefilte]

Alright then. Does anyone know of any names of brands of distilled water that they have researched and found that one can get in the local grocery store?

 

[duaumun]

I use Triton water to top off my FW tank....it's labeled spring water, but i did tests on PH and the bottle says "oxygen enriched."h

 

[got bait?]

They take water, evaporate it, catch the vapors and let them condense. Since water leaves behind impurities when it evaporated, the caught vapor is (in theory anyway) pure water.

This sort of answered another question I have. I know rain water is good for house hold plants, but what about for aquariums? Granted the water is not collected from an area with acid rain 8O

 

[Wally]

I have friend who buys his at Wal-Mart and he called the 800 number on the bottle for information on bottling and handling. He was told that no copper is used in the bottling process.

 

[Biggen]

I know rain water is good for house hold plants, but what about for aquariums? Granted the water is not collected from an area with acid rain

I wouldn't use it without filtering it first. No telling what it "catches" and "collects" on its way down through the atmosphere...