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You don't seem to understand that there are things in natural water that your fish need and will help keep your aquarium stable. Distilling will remove all of them. It will be difficult to maintain proper and steady pH. Water from your tap won't have anything in it that would cause any disease. It will also make getting water easier and cheaper for you. Please listen to everyone and save the distilled water for top offs only.


Kim

Fish living in distilled water would be like us eating food totally lacking any vitamins or minerals we need.

I have heard of people using distilled water combined with their tap water to reduce pH in the tank but I dont think you would be doing your fish any favours using pure distilled water.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

I know people who have gone to school for over five years and dont have much to show for it. I know people with five year old kids and still have no clue what their doing. Five years means little if you havent learned anything in that time. Just because fish can survive being subjected to distilled water, doesnt mean you should use it.

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

i have kept fish for 5 years prior to this...

I appologize to the fish laynlex is buying for failing them but if an hour of searching up links and all these comments won't make a difference I'm gonna have to give up. I've even seen laynlex posting on at least 1 other forum and getting the same answers without listening. Some people won't listen until they take a few lives.

Kim: well, I touch type, so it's justified. ;p.

"Totally disagreed.. fish adapt to water conditions reguardless..."
Yes, who cares if the water is totally devoid of life sustaining nutrients? The fish can autosynthesize them, right?

"in the wild they dont get.. pure water maybe you should research some info on fish species before you run your mouth..."
Run my mouth? A "look who the hell's talking" sticker seems to be in order here. In the wild, fish live in water fortified with micronutrients; "". Rather than make wise remarks, you should sit and ponder the bitter irony of what you just said and learn basic biology for your livestock's sake. Distinguishing between different fish species has nothing to do with the subject onhand, so don't talk to me about research.

"you talk about distilled water afftecting how a fish functions.. it will do some min damage.. "
Minimal damage? Okay, let's have ourselves a little experiment. Why don't you, instead of eating, drink canola oil for three meals a day? That way, you won't be getting much of Na, K, Ca, A, B, C (etc) coenzymes, and/or any micronutrients alltogether. Let's see how long you last, shall we? With nearly no TDS in the surrounding enviornment, an organism will lose neuron control and motility. Not to mention osmotic pressure will multiply. Other organ complications will arise as well. Even if the situation does not elevate to such extremes as icthyoidal death, the organism's health will still be greatly compromised.

"water conditon wouldnt simply kill fish, if you cycle, feed right, water changes and weekly maintaince... distilled water wont kill fish..."
Are you lecturing me on fishkeeping? There is no correlation between DO water and cycling, nor any of the other aforementioned topics. The probelm is strictly molecular. Hey, you asked for opinions. If you can't take the reponses you called for, that's tough. Do watever you want to your fish, I couldn't care less.



Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 14-Jul-2005 19:30

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 14-Jul-2005 19:54

We might as well quit wasting our time.

Kim

Totally disagreed.. fish adapt to water conditions reguardless... in the wild they dont get.. pure water maybe you should research some info on fish species before you run your mouth... you talk about distilled water afftecting how a fish functions.. it will do some min damage.. water conditon wouldnt simply kill fish, if you cycle, feed right, water changes and weekly maintaince... distilled water wont kill fish...

It took you 30 min. to write that Noodle? I thought I typed slow!

Kim

Distilled water is bad for fish. With no TDS, they will severly weaken or even die of chemical malnutrition and as a direct result of the properties of osmosis.

EDIT: damn. Sham beat me to it. :0

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 14-Jul-2005 16:02

Maybe you should try reading these sites:
http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-chem.html
http://www.scholarshipsinindia.com/answer%5Cfishsurvival.html
http://www.healthybetta.com/articles/original/dvst.html
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/purewatr.htm

From a story about someone who filled a tank with pure water that condensed on a dehumidifier:

That powdery crud looks nasty, but water without minerals is not so good for human - and probably fish- health, if that's all the water you get. For one thing distilled water doesn't contribute any necessary minerals. It may even dissolve some of the ones we've already got inside.
And there's another problem, I would guess. In school, many years ago, we studied osmosis - the movement of water across a membrane to equalize concentrations of solutes - by placing grapes and raisins in solutions with different amounts of salts. In distilled water, the poor raisins blew up like water balloons. Could it be that the water was too pure? Did those fish osmose themselves to death?

From a betta care site:

A PH of 7.0 (neutral) is best. But I do fine in anything from 6.5 to 7.5. Even if that means my PH is still high. Better a high PH than burning my fins/skin with the acid contained in PH down! Or you can mix distilled water and tapwater, but do not use only distilled water. Boy, I just love clean water!! I feel like blowing me a little bubble nest now…

Even people can have mineral deficiencies from drinking only distilled water.
http://chetday.com/saynotodistilled.htm
Also people cannot live in pure oxygen just like fish cannot live in pure water. You need carbon dioxide to regulate the acidity of your blood and control the movement of oxygen through the body. Fish need the "impurities" in water just like people need them in air or we all die.


Last edited by sham at 14-Jul-2005 02:23

They will not live in distilled. They will die. That's the point. They need more than pure h20. Distilled has no gh(general hardness) fish need to use the things that make up gh. If there are no calcium salts, magnesium salts, and so on fish organs do not work. They die. Aside from what they need pure h20 has no buffers. Fish produce waste. If you feed them they poop. If you don't feed them they die and then they are waste. This waste releases acids. Acids lower ph unless you have buffers to absorb them. Distilled has no buffers. Acids will lower the ph until the fish can't adapt anymore. Then they will die. That is the effect of having no kh.
Fish can adapt to tap water alot better and tap water is extremely filtered to be safe. If you really don't want to put them in tap water buy the things you need to make distilled safe. First you need a buffer to raise kh, 2nd you need a mix that raises gh. Many companies produce products that can do both to make distilled or RO water useable. Kent sells r/o right as well as a dozen other products. Seachem sells equilibrium for gh and several kh/ph controlling products. They wouldn't sell these products if fish could live in distilled water.

Last edited by sham at 14-Jul-2005 01:23

I dont see why it is so bad, They will live in distilled water, its better than buying 50 bucks worth of fish and not cycling your tank and killing your tank... fish adapt to enviroments and they will not simply die over minerals in tap water... most fish live in bacterial infested waters and i do not see my distilled water is so bad... distilled water + bio spira + bio safe is a full proof plan under the proper maintaince being as you do 20% water changes weekly...

Stay

Do the minerals and buffers evaporate or stay in the tank?

Kim

I wouldn't even use it for top off since its most likely a different ph when you add it to the tank the ph will move a bit and that would be very bad for the rams.

Distilled Water? My brother in law filled his 55 gallon with ocsar and bever did water changes.. is this a good idea? His reading were nitrite 0 nitrate 10 and ammonia 0 after adding distilled water....

Your tap water should be fine and diesease free. You could buy Reverse osmosis water from your lfs and slowly start adding that until the water you add at water change is 50% tap/50% RO. Blue rams would be a very bad fish to cycle with. Try some zebra danios they are very good to cycle with.

I am getting 2 blue ram's... i want to be pure and disease free... can you cycle with blue rams?

don't use distilled water to fill the whole tank, a little is fine, but not the WHOLE tank, as sham said it is too pure to use for the whole tank, but only partial...as was said, tap water is fine, just treat it, let it sit and age, and it is so much cheaper....

Now why exactly would you want to fill the tank with only distilled? Is your tap water that bad? You can always go and buy water from your lfs...maybe we are confusing distilled with reverse osmosis?

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle