Distilled Water

[landshark]

Do you still have to dechlorinate distilled water and is it any better than tap water??? If I have a 10 gallon tank what % of the water must I change???

 

[TheTodd]

Distilled water should be much better than tap. I am not 100% sure if anything like Chlorine or Chloramine are left after DI. Normally chlorine only stays in any water for about 24 hours (at least that is what I've always heard), but things like Chloramine do not go out. Most de-chlorinators take care of that and other nasties found in tap water.

Saw your other post about elevated Ammonia levels. I'd do a 50% change and see where they are at afterwards.

 

[landshark]

Thanx alot! Appreciate it......

 

[jcolon]

Do you still have to dechlorinate distilled water and is it any better than tap water??? If I have a 10 gallon tank what % of the water must I change???

Distilled water is basically JUST H2O since it's collecting the steam from boiling water and condense it back to a liquid.

Distilled water is ... IMO ... fairly useless as it lacks any dissolved nutrients / minerals vital for life functions of some aquatic life. That's my most times, it mixed with treated tap water, or you add minerals / nutrients to it.

Unless your tap's just got outrageous contaminants, just get a quality de-chlorinator like Seachem Prime.

 

[00youknowit00]

Distilled water is basically JUST H2O since it's collecting the steam from boiling water and condense it back to a liquid.

Distilled water is ... IMO ... fairly useless as it lacks any dissolved nutrients / minerals vital for life functions of some aquatic life. That's my most times, it mixed with treated tap water, or you add minerals / nutrients to it.

Unless your tap's just got outrageous contaminants, just get a quality de-chlorinator like Seachem Prime.

In saltwater, I would steer clear of tapwater entirely, by any means necessary. And the water having nothing in it is what we want. We put back everything needed with our salt mix. Distilled is just like RO/DI, you want to use either one of those. Also no, you don't need to use de-chlorinator with distilled.

 

[bavass]

why not just buy a RO/DI unit? I tried distilled water from the store and I still had TDS. Which to me says there is still stuff in the water I don't want. When I use my RO/DI unit I always have 0 TDS coming out.

 

[00youknowit00]

why not just buy a RO/DI unit? I tried distilled water from the store and I still had TDS. Which to me says there is still stuff in the water I don't want. When I use my RO/DI unit I always have 0 TDS coming out.

I get my distilled from Walmart and always have 0 TDS..

 

[TheTodd]

I get my water from the big machines. If I get a RODI, I want a good one and just don't have $150 in the budget right now. I did just order a TDS gauge, so it will be interesting to see what my tap and by purchased water comes out as. Never knew they were only $10, or would have ordered one sooner.

 

[melosu58]

I used distilled for my reef for the first 7 years and never saw any bad effects. It definitely was better than tap.