Good or bad for SW use?
Distilled water?
Good or bad for SW use?
CR Member
It is fine to use it because your salt mix will put back any needed minerals etc. However, long term most people get an ro/di filter because it is more convenient than lugging home water constantly plus when you need water you have it on hand always. Never fails and a tank needs a water change and you forgot to pick some up last trip to the store......Originally Posted by MizTanks
The days are long and the work is difficult but every night I sleep as a man who has achieved his goals.
CR Member
Distilled has one major disadvantage in my eyes, which is that you don't know where it came from. Was it distilled in copper vats, which isn't uncommon for steam distillation? Was it even steam distilled? Maybe it was fractionally distilled? Vacuum distilled? Who knows! And if you buy it from the supermarket machines, each machine is different and you might not be getting the same quality water at each one. With RO/DI it's right there in my basement, I can see what's going in with my TDS meter, what's coming out with my TDS meter, and I have control over it. That's a huge huge deal for me.
So, control issues aside, is distilled good/bad for the reef? Well, that's dependent on one major factor. Did it go through a copper worm after being distilled. Some stills have them, some use stainless. You really will never know without looking at the guts of the still that made that particular jug. That one issue is the only big difference. Otherwise distilled is, typically, more pure than RO/DI, and as Shovelhead pointed out, once you add your salt mix, it's got all the minerals back in it anyway. Personally, I wouldn't even worry about the copper worm because lots of people have run reefs on tap water, and almost all the feed line plumbing in most houses is copper.
Long story short? It's fine to use, just be aware there is a small chance it could go wrong, but it's pretty unlikely.
A2 Club Coordinator
+1 to the possible copper contamination. Its pretty common in the distilling process.
A friend gets her tap water from the Colorado River which she says is very hard, with heavy metals. I suggested an RO/DI or at least an RO unit. She said the waters to hard and she'd be going through filters like crazy. So she's going with bottled water, Sparkletts.
CR Member
Does she have a water softener? Running the RO/DI after the softener will help that a ton as opposed to running it with hard water...
The fear of copper in distilled water is an old outdated one. Copper has not been used in commercial stills for years. Its now glass or epoxy lined exotic metals like titanium and high grade stainless steel.
Distilled is a good choice if you must purchase water but can get expensive compared to haveing your own RO/DI which averages less than a nickel per gallon calculating in water and sewer rates and filter replacement costs both.
I get my water from the Colorado River and have no problems with my RO/DI and filters. Sounds like you friend needs some help as that water while hard (20+ grains) and high in TDS (650-1200) is really a walk in the park for a good RO/DI. Heavy metals are adsorbed by the carbon block so again are no challenge. The softener is a must and is recommended by every membrane manufacturer to meet their warranties. Its water like in New York City with extremely high sediments and particulates or those with pH extremes that are a challenge but even then its no big deal.
Posting Permissions
There's nothing like being a Reefer!
Reply With Quote