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Walmart Distilled Water?

15K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  SKAustin 
#1 ·
Just wanted to see if anyone had ever used the Walmart brand of distilled water and what kind of results they'd had with it.....
 
#2 ·
Distilled water or RO water by itself lacks the minerals needed by fish. Some people use a combination of distilled water or RO water AND tap water to lower the PH values for some sensitive fish or to induce breeding in some fishes. Usually a mixture of the distilled or RO and tapwater is kept in a seperate tub or barrel and gradually added to the tank during water changes to SLOWlY adjust the PH. The mixture must be the same for each water change hence the storage barrel or tub. Most fish with the exception of some wild caught specimens will adapt to different PH values so long as the PH doesn't exceed 8.4 to 8.6. ALWAYS better to buy fish that are comfortable with the tapwater you have rather than trying to adjust the water to suit the fish. In the interest of the long term health of the fish don't buy soft waterfish if you have hard water with above neutral PH (7.0) and don't buy fish that require hard water such as many of the cichlids and plop them into soft water with PH values of 6.0 or less.
 
#3 ·
1077, please note that this post was made in the SW section. R/O, RO/DI, or distilled water are the recommended practice, especially in reef tanks. High nutrient content makes tap water a big no-no in SW tanks as they fuel such problems as green hair algae, cyanobacteria, and poor animal health.

Sergiotami, I have personally never used the wal-mart distilled water. I have however, used the Culligan R/O refill machine at Wal-Mart. The TDS of the water from that machine averaged about 20ppm, a bit higher than I would have liked, but far better than the 700-800 average in Tapwater. I have since switched to myown RO/DI system which averages 0-2ppm.
 
#6 ·
A TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter would probably be the best choice for testing the R/O, but that wont give you any clue as to exactly what is in there. Just for the peace of mind, you should also run a preliminary check for the basics on it; ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, and copper. You should definately check for copper in distilled water as some distilling processes employ the use of copper piping.
 
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