what kind of water should i use to mix aquarium salt?

[CubicGgW]

I know that LFS uses "purified" water to mix with their salt. But i dont know anywhere to purchase purified water besides my LFS. Could i possibly use other water? maybe distilled water?
TIA!!

[fishfreek]

Tap water
Distilled water
purified water
RO water
RO/DI water
Bottled water

Each of the above can be used to mix your salt with and each will give you different results depending on your area and the quality of your water. If you have really good tap water then maybe thats all you need with the aid of a declorinator. If your tap water leaves alot to be desired then maybed water from a bottled water distributor is your only alternitive unless you purchase a home RO filter.

The more pure the water is when you start the less you will end up fighting things like nusance algae, etc.

[goldy]

does the grocery store in your area sell water out of a machine because if they do it is usually ro water. or do you have a calligan dealer around you ?that is where we get the best deal for our ro water. super wal-mart sometimes sell ro water.that just a few places you maybe could check. we tried tap water when we first started and had nothing but problems with it and we useds a conditiner to . with tap water it depends what chemicals are found in it.you may not have hardly any problems if you use tap water. i just wanted to let you know that you could run into some problems with tap water.hope this helps

[gooyferret]

HMM i wonder if my tap water is really good.....I have a 10gallon fresh water that i have had for about a year. NEVER added any conditioners etc to the water and have never had a fish die, or had algae blooms. How can i test the water?

[thorn]

I went the cheap way and started my 10 gallon on distilled water, then used tap (left in gallon jugs in the sun for at least 2 days to help clean it up). After a while, it became obvious that just shelling out the $5 for the 5 gallons of R/O was well worth the price to pay in mixing my own saltwater.

The breakdown I found was like this:
Tap water - high in phospates and additives (chlorine, flouride, iron, copper)
Distilled - pure water, very poor in holding buffers (ergo calcium loss is far higher)
Regular fresh - (from LFS) pure water, good for all tanks, perfect for non-coral tanks
R/O - (from LFS) pure water de-ionized - holds a buffer excellently will suspend calcium, iodine, trace minerals and such well in the tank allowing for greater coral absorbing and a more vibrant tank

In the long run, the amount of money you will spend on dosing supplies will outweigh the savings if you are going with distilled. Where I live a gallon of distilled is the same price as a gallon of R/O, so it's a no-brainer. And unless you are very lucky with your tap water... it's just not worth the long hours of rock scrubbing and ich.

[CubicGgW]

thanks for all the ideas!!
i have heard that distilled water is a poor buffer. but wouldnt some additives help to balance it out? it might not be as good as RO but would it be any close?
my LFS sell 1gal RO for $1.00 and 1gal pure water for $.75
where i could get 1 gal of distilled water for $.27 in Meijer...
but i surely dont want to save some bucks on the water but bring tons of diseases to my fish

[gooyferret]

IF they are selling 1gallon for 1.00 thats a rip off they should charge no more than .48 IMO

[goldy]

we pay 1.00 for 5gal or ro water.