bottled drinking water vs distilled?

[Frogspawn]

is there a difference between drinking water in a bottle vs distilled? i ask this because i need to do a water change monday and the local store dont have distilled water in stock. only drinking and spring. so i got drinking. will that be ok for a water change?

 

[melosu58]

I dont think so. I`ve heard that it still has the heavy metals in it. Do some water test on it and see if you are adding ammonia, nitrites, nitrates or phosphates to it. Last drinking water I had I checked out who made it and it was from the Nashville water municipality. In other words it was bottled tap water. :?

 

[roka64]

I thought someone posted a few months back that the drinking water is not a good choice, due to chemicals they use, but I could be wrong. As Mike states, do some testing first, or read the bottle.

 

[fishrfreinds]

I would wait for the distill if possible. start trying saving up for a RO unit. Trust me, there worth every drop .

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Bottled water for drinking has minerals added back into it to make it taste better. It's not the same as distilled. Personally, I wouldn't use it, as you have no idea what is in it. The only thing you're probably assured of is that it doesn't have chlorine in it... but that's probably about all you can be assured of. I think it would probably be better for your tank to hold off on the water change... assuming you're not trying to dilute ammonia or something... until you can get something other than bottled drinking water.

 

[MT79]

Bottled and distilled are different. FWIW many brands of bottled water are just RO. Take a look at the label. As Kurt said, you may just want to hold off on the water change to be safe.

 

[Jarred Darque]

From the discussions I have read, distilled isnt much better though, because there are no trace elements, which is what our SW tanks thrive on. I mean, if you can mesure trace elements and dont mind supplementing the tank then distilled is fine. Our local hardware store has a Ro/DI stand outside, I use that for my SW tank, and use tapwater for the FW tanks. I pay 30 cents a gallon, and about 6 gallons a week between water change and daily topoffs for the SW

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

From the discussions I have read, distilled isnt much better though, because there are no trace elements, which is what our SW tanks thrive on. I mean, if you can mesure trace elements and dont mind supplementing the tank then distilled is fine. Our local hardware store has a Ro/DI stand outside, I use that for my SW tank, and use tapwater for the FW tanks. I pay 30 cents a gallon, and about 6 gallons a week between water change and daily topoffs for the SW

I'm confused at your statement. RO/DI doesn't have any trace elements either... it's pure! Trace elements come from the salt mix.

 

[melosu58]

Trace elements come from the salt mix.