Brita Vs Distilled

[edgekrusher]

Is the process that brita uses to purify it's water the same as the process used in distilled water? I'm curious becuase I've got this Brita pitcher and I want to know if I should just get distilled water from the grocerie store? I would prefer to use RO water but it's kind of a rip off around here.

Thanks

 

[loganj]

Although I'm not familiar with the Brita product, other than having seen them advertised, I'd guess they have a prefilter and maybe a carbon filter. As this was posted in the FW forum, I'm assuming you are keeping FW fish? If so, why are you wanting to use purified water? Nothing wrong with that of course, but it's usually not necessary for freshwater fish. What kind of fish are you keeping? What is the pH and hardness of your tap water? You can certainly use distilled (water that has been boiled and recondensed) water as long as you put an additive in it to restore the mineral content. Something like "RO Right" or a similar product. The reason for this is, although distilled water is pure and neutral, it has no mineral content and therefore no buffering capacity. The pH of this water will be very unstable and it will likely go acidic very quickly in it's pure form. If your tap water is very hard and alkaline, you can mix distilled with it to achieve the desired hardness/pH.

 

[shawmutt]

Brita uses chemical filtration via carbon, and the carbon filter also acts as mechanical filter. It does not affect water hardness enough to be of use in your fish tank. I use distilled water in my tank because I am trying to breed cardinal tetras, and they need very soft (1-2% dH GH) acidic (6-6.8 pH) water. It's relatively cheap by the gallon, and I don't think I'm quite ready to invest in an R/O system. But I agree with loganj, unless there is a reason (i.e. very hard or alkaline tap water) purified water is generally not needed for most fresh water fishes. The important thing is to keep the water parameters constant, which is most easily attained by not fooling around with the water chemistry.

 

[Zic]

I use britta filtered water in my tank and my fish are all happy and alive. The filter is just carbon, same as the filter on your tank. It doesn't change hardness, true, but if you have a water softener, this should not be a problem.

So, britta filtered water isn't as good as distilled water, but it's good enough for me and my fish

 

[edgekrusher]

cool, thanks for the info. That's what I was thinking about the brita myself. It gets rid of the really nasty stuff like the coppers and zincs, plus helps reduce chlorine and all that. The water she uses has a ph of 6.8, I'm not worried about the hardness just the purity. Thanks Zic :smokin:

 

[Zic]

You're quite welcome :laughing: