distilled water

[brady]

Is the distilled water that comes in a bottle and you can buy at the grocery safe for fish?
Jay

[brewmaster15]

Jay its safe for them in that its not poisonous but it doesn't have any minerals or buffering capacity . You dont want to keep your discus in distilled water.. but you can use it to soften your water much like RO water is used... best use there would be mixed with your tap water at some ratio.

Hth,
Al

[jeep]

It's safe to use when mixing with other water, but don't use it alone. Distilled water contains no minerals, it's very unstable and is not a healthy environment. Plus, it can get very expensive real quick.

[brewmaster15]

Great minds think alike :)

[brady]

Thanks for the info.
That is what I was thinking, maybe 30% distilled 70% well water.
Actually my well water is some what soft,100ppm, but my thinking
was maybe soften it a little more to jump start breeding when they reach
breeding age which I think would be around a year old. They are now 8 mts.
Jay

[jeep]

Great minds think alike :)

We posted at almost the exact same time,lol...

Brady, if your well water is that soft, I would just go with it. Maybe run it through a sediment and carbon block. I would just monitor your ph levels. Water that soft can crash the ph quickly.

Depending on how much distilled water you plan on using (I assume you're buying it), a RO system may be less expensive in the long run. And, you can use the waste water for regular fish water, or plants, landscaping, etc...

[brady]

I will go with what I have, it is pretty soft.
What does ph crash mean, ph will go up or go down ? my ph comes from the well at 6.7 and after a few hours of
recirculating in the brute it will go up to 7.2-7.3. and stay at that level.
Jay

[jeep]

A ph crash is when it drops to dangerous levels. Standing water won't change much after aging, but when you add a bioload it can. 100 TDS can be stable enough, especially is you stick to a consistent water change schedule, but it depends on your kh for longer term stability.