Substitute Water

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

I wish the government didn't have to dump their chemicals in our water. My question is could I instead of using treated tap water would it be safe to use distilled water or something else. It's just an idea, I hate having to buy things to make my fishes' water safe.

 

[MortiferousSoul]

yes distilled water is safe for your fish, but might end up more expensive than water conditoner

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

That's cool, now I don't have to waste my money on water treatment or my family's money on tap water. I still have two more questions though. Does distilled water have anything but water in it, and what is distillation.

 

[FishLuvr]

does your tank have plants in it, tap water while being full of nasties, does have minerals that your plants may need

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

Each of my tanks has one plant in them. Neither of them though have sprouted. They're those bulbs like you find at WalMart. One looks like it'll sprout but it's attached to the filter. The other just won't grow or gets knocked around by the dragon fish, algae eater, and silver dollar too much. I don't really care if there's something good for them in the tap water because my fish come before my plants.

 

[SkwidsLair]

That's cool, now I don't have to waste my money on water treatment or my family's money on tap water. I still have two more questions though. Does distilled water have anything but water in it, and what is distillation.

You have a 20 gallon tank?

Distilled water will be a tedious task for you. The easiest way to get distilled water is to boil a kettle, put the water in a clean (no soap used in it) bucket and let it stand for about 12 hours. Unless you have at least a 5 gallon kettle, this could be a bigger job than you'd like. It's great for Betta water changes, though, which are normally kept in smaller aquariums.

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

I mean distilled water that comes in gallon jugs at the grocery store for $0.79 that says "Prepared by distillation. For drinking and other distilled water uses."

 

[Lotus]

OK, a couple of points here:

1. You shouldn't use straight distilled water for fish. It contains no buffer, so will be subject to pH swings. If you want to use distilled water, you will have to add the same chemicals as if you were using RO (reverse osmosis) water.

2. Boiling water is not the same as distilling it. Distilling removes all other chemicals other than water (such as carbonates, metals, minerals).

You should get your water company's annual report to find out what is in it. If you're worried about your health, get an RO unit and use it for drinking/cooking and fish water changes (with the appropriate reconstituers).