r/o versus distilled water

[105man]

What's the difference between r/o (which I think is the same as so-called "purified water", and distilled water?

Is distilled water equally good for marine tanks...or is it sort of in between tap and r/o?

Would some type of treatment (eg, Amquel) still be needed for distilled water?

 

[PeeJ]

i wouldnt go as far as to say purified water is RO...read the bottle to see what processes they use to purify it. the cheaper stuff usually only does carbon and micron. "watermill" is a place where you can fill up your own jugs, 25 cents a gallon, 8 step process including RO, ozonation, microns, and a few more. pretty cheap and has been good to me so far...i really dont have a huge algae outbreak....just some diatoms on the sand bed.

distilled water is most likely RO, but read to make sure. they have ro/di systems on ebay for like 80 bucks. if u think about it, after a month or so itd probably pay for itself!

 

[smlacy]

distilled water is most likely RO, but read to make sure.

Ummmmm. I'm gonna have to disagree. Distillation is a well-defined process that leaves absolutely nothing other than pure H20. No minerals, no nothing. It should be as "pure" as pure can be. Water sold as "distilled" (like at the grocery store) will be truly distilled. If they are labelling RO/DI water as "distilled" then thats false advertising.

RO/DI water is indeed very clean, but the membrane can never filter out absolutely everything that might be in there. RO/DI is indeed the best form of mechanical purification, and has gained much popularity because it results in "drinkable" water, and the filtering systems are relatively cheap.

You should avoid drinking distilled water, as it contains absolutely NO minerals or other trace elements. This lack of trace elements will dilute them from your body, which can have adverse health effects. In extreme cases, it can lead to death.

Steve

 

[105man]

Is distilled water good for the aquarium? (reef and fish)

 

[baseman]

You should avoid drinking distilled water, as it contains absolutely NO minerals or other trace elements. This lack of trace elements will dilute them from your body, which can have adverse health effects. In extreme cases, it can lead to death.

Steve

I have to dissagree with this. Drinking pure water will not have any adverse affects. The body naturally regulates water concentration through osmosis. Pure water is probably the best thing you can drink.

 

[105man]

how about the tank?? now that we've discussed the effect on humans! (kidding...though really would like to know whether to use distilled in water changes)....it's from bottlers like Poland Spring or Deer Park

 

[baseman]

105man - Sorry, I should have answered your question at the same time. Distilled water should be fine in your tank. Some people will argue that some distillation processes use coper cooling coils that could introduce copper into the tank. This is highly unlikely because steam (pure water) is non-reactive.
Remember spring water and distilled water are not the same thing. Spring water is filtered, but may contain elements you don't want.

 

[fishfanatic2]

Distilled should be fine as long as you make sure your salt will be able to re-introduce the necessary minerals.

 

[105man]

Thanks, all!

 

[Anonymous]

Don't go yet!

Distilled is water condensed from stream.
RO water is from special membrane processing.
Deionized water is water processed thru ion absorbing beads.

For purity comparsion, it is a difficult question, since how the above processes are done in detail affect the purity of the product, but the rule of thrumb is the following:

best to worst: deionized < distilled < RO

Yes, RO/DI is better than "triple distilled" water.

 

[Anonymous]

Distilled water is expensive...you cant buy a distiller for private use...not that i know of...R/O water is better...but if youre gonna go distilled, you might wanna check with consumer reports...i saw on the news that they had done research on 7 distilling companies...of the 7 only 1 was distilled...the rest were tapwater....(im not sure what the company that was distilling...thats why you might wanna check consumer reports...) id go with the R/O unit....It will pay for its self...Distilled water is usually a dollar a gallon....



8)

 

[Anonymous]

Oh i do not have an RO unit yet....Im going off what i have read and have been suggested to me...I thought i would suggest the same....

 

[consigliere]

whoever stated "distilled water is nothing but pure h2o " is wrong...certain polyphosphates do not get removed by distillation....they actually carry over in the steam droplets....i found hexametaphosphate in a bottle of distilled water once ! so you must check the source of the water that is being distilled and find out how the source water was treated....