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I dont have access to any RO water where I live. Is it okay to you distilled or spring water?

Distilled water is almost as pure as r/o water, while spring water has nutrients/electrolytes and metals still in it.

Depends on what you're using it for.. for topping off tanks, it's best to use the r/o or distilled water. If you want to fill a tank with it, you will want to use either a good quality spring water or r/o or distilled water when used with a reclaim chemistry to put back nutrients/minerals and such so the fish don't die.

What do you want to do with it?

but isnt there problems with maintaining a stable PH level with bottled water?

Hi,
There is a vast difference between the five types of water.
Five types?

Tap water.
Tap water comes well, from the tap. The water company takes
it from some source, a series of wells, or a large body of
water such as a lake or river, runs it through the exact
same filters that you have on your aquariums. They use
huge biowheels, run it through UV lights, fluidized bed
filters, through tanks of algae, all of these vast systems
have been shrunk to fit on tanks. After treatment, they
add chemicals, depending upon the type of water that is
their source, including chlorine and chloramine, and
then pump it through pipes to your home.

RO Water.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) water is water that has passed through
a membrane and has lost most of its large metal ions, and
nearly all of its organic compounds. Though they are
microscopic in size, they are too big to fit through the
"holes" in the membrane and the water is essentially pure.
There are even different membranes avalable that pass
or retain different size metals, and organics. They must
be reverse flushed to remove the waste, and must be changed
regularly as they wear out.
The filter operates on osmosis (look it up) and gallons
of water pass through the filter and is "wasted" to produce
a single gallon of RO water. While the water is exceedingly
pure, the process is tremendously wasteful.

Spring Water.
In places where the aquafer (the rock that carries the
water) comes close to the surface, occassionally the
pressure will cause the water to break out onto the surface
in the form of a spring. This water is potable (drinkable)
and has its own unique "flavor." Many folks drink this
bottled water prefering it and its purity to
the "manufactured" taste of tap water. It has many, if
not all, of the minerals that come from the ground
and generally has a "set" GH as true spring water is
only run through carbon filters and then bottled.

Distilled Water.
Distilled water is the condensed steam from water that is
boiled. The source of that water can be from the tap, or
it can be spring water, but whatever the source, it is
condensed steam. Properly distilled and bottled water is
as pure H2O as you can get. When the water boils and the
steam emitted, only H2O turns to vapor, and in the controled
environment of the distillation process, no chance exists
for it to become contaminated. Distilled water is just
water. There are no minerals in it to create a GH or KH,
there is no chlorine or chloramine.

Rain Water.
Rain water used to be similiar to distilled water, after
all it is merely the condensation of evaporated water.
Collected in inert containers, it was used for everything.
Industrialization has contaminated the rain water and in
many places its even refered to as "acid rain" because the
pH is in the low 6s. It can contain particles of smoke
and other contaminates, and in many places not fit to drink.
Depending upon where you live, and the upper air currents,
I would avoid using this for my fish.

RO, Spring, and Distilled water can all be used as "top off
water" to replace what has evaporated, but cannot be used,
100%, for tank water. Fish need the minerals in the water
to live and survive. You can mix tap water with any of the
other three, to make the water soft, or to dilute water that
you deem unfit for certain species of fish, but never 100%.

Frank


Last edited by FRANK at 08-Mar-2005 10:15

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I agree completely with Frank, as for what each type of water is, and where it comes from. But, I have to disagree with a couple statements.

RO, Spring, and Distilled water can all be used as "top off water" to replace what has evaporated, but cannot be used, 100%, for tank water. Fish need the minerals in the water to live and survive. You can mix tap water with any of the other three, to make the water soft, or to dilute water that you deem unfit for certain species of fish, but never 100%.

You can use it 100%, but you will need to add the trace elements and minerals back to it. Such as Fallout has described in his post. Many SW, and most all Reef tanks use 100% RO or RO/DI water. The salt that is mixed with the water, usually contains most of the trace elements and/or minerals in it, and thus is placed back into the water. For other trace things, you have to still add to the water, such as iodine, strontium, etc. Many high end breeders of Apistos, and many other hard to breed SA FW fish, use 100% RO water for their breeding tanks, and then add products that contain trace elements and minerals, but will not alter the ph and/or hardness much if any at all. There are several companies out there, that make such products.

RO Water.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) water is water that has passed through
a membrane and has lost most of its large metal ions, and
nearly all of its organic compounds............ and gallons
of water pass through the filter and is "wasted" to produce
a single gallon of RO water. While the water is exceedingly
pure, the process is tremendously wasteful.

Some peoples waste, is other peoples treasures. Some water wasted for one fishes tank, is another fishes treasure. Actually, if keeping any Tanganyikan cichlids, the waste water from an RO system, mixed 50/50 with normal tap water, makes a terrific environment for these fish. For the past few years, many cichlid experts have started using this approach to get the extremely high total hardness, required for breeding many of the Tanganyikan fish. I myself have and still do use this method. It is perfect hard water, with the chlorine and chloramine removed in the RO unit, prior to the RO section of the unit. I actually have several Tanganyikan tanks setup, that get/are 90% or more, pure waste water from the RO unit.

HTH.....

_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...

Hi,
Actually I don't see your comments as a disagreement,
but rather elaboration of my basic statements.

First, I stated that with distilled and RO water
you could not use it 100% that it was missing essential
minerals and elements necessary for fish or other tank
inhabitants to survive. You substantiate this by stating
how one segment of our community (SW &amp; Reef folks) use
100% RO or Distilled water, but (to paraphrase) you have
to "rebuild the water" by adding back in the trace
elements necessary to sustain the fish or other
inhabitants.
I simply said that you could mix it with tap water as a
form of dilution or adding back some of the trace elements
necessary to support life. Just not in the concentration
of the origional tap water. This form of dilution is fine
for the FW community.

Second, you do not disagree with the statement that for
several gallons of tap water, that is run through the
RO filter, only one gallon of RO water is recovered.
Instead, you offer a very viable alternative to simply
putting the "waste" water down the drain as most RO
filter owners do. In areas that are in drought conditons,
where water companies are in essence fining their customers
for excessive usage, and pleading for constraint, RO filters
are very wasteful.

Frank


Last edited by FRANK at 09-Mar-2005 02:40

Last edited by FRANK at 09-Mar-2005 02:45

Last edited by FRANK at 09-Mar-2005 02:46

Last edited by FRANK at 09-Mar-2005 02:46

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I use 100% RO water but use the Kent RO Right and Freshwater essential to add the trace elements back.

But as it stands, no you shouldnt use only RO or distilled.