distilled water

[officerricv]

hello reefers,
i am setting up my first reef. read all the advice and am planning on buying a typhoon ro/di. in the meantime i have decide to start with walmart distiiled water.was this a good choice? my girlfriend said that the lfs said is was fine but not to use it to long. any ideas why he said that? could i use distilled for a month or so till i get the ro/di?

 

[shanev]

Ive heard a lot of people use it for a long time. I used it for freshwater for a year with no problem.

 

[blue dew]

I used the Walmart distilled stuff from the beginning with my tank and have had no problems. I still use it occasionially, but I found a good LFS right up the street that will sell me RO for a less than the 58 cents/gallon Walmart charges.
The only thing I didn't like about the distilled was the hassle of all those one gallon jugs. Still got a bunch of them laying around.

 

[jawz]

it is not a good idea to use distilled water in your tank. By definition, distilled water has essentially no KH. That means that adding even a little bit of acid will change the pH significantly (stressing fish). Because of its instability, distilled (or any essentially pure water) is never used directly. Tap water or other salts must first be added to it in order to increase its GH and KH.

 

[reefnut]

Distilled water is fine for your tank. The only thing I've heard of as a potential problem is the use of copper pipes in the distilling process.
RO/DI water is IMO better because you know it's pure. I have used both w/o adding anything to the topoff water with no problems.

 

[bigjohn]

i used distilled water for some time. Its ok but you will want to make the switch to ro/di water as soon as you can afford it. Remember, when it comes to water quality - leave nothing to chance.

 

[newfishliny]

Originally posted by Jawz
it is not a good idea to use distilled water in your tank. By definition, distilled water has essentially no KH. That means that adding even a little bit of acid will change the pH significantly (stressing fish). Because of its instability, distilled (or any essentially pure water) is never used directly. Tap water or other salts must first be added to it in order to increase its GH and KH.
Would you clear up what you mean by gh / kh , I have a 90 gal reef / fish / coral ect since oct 2002 . For the first 3 months I used tap water and got all kinds of break out cyno ect. Since than I slowly changed all the water to poland distilled water, I get it by the case wholesale ( water changes ect ) My tank is doing fine , but on occassions a small break out of pink comes on the glass.
I think that is cyno, IMO the use of ro is a waste of water 5 to 1 aprox and the change of filters , its not a dollar issue , but again I never tried it.
thanks
new fish

 

[reefnut]

Originally posted by NewFishLINY
IMO the use of ro is a waste of water 5 to 1 aprox and the change of filters
How much water is wasted during the distilling process?

 

[newfishliny]

I am sure there is , but I dont see me wasteing it at my home , If time goes on and I see a change in my reef I might lean towards r/o .