Distilled Water

[edress714]

I bought a gallon and TDS reading was 0. I mainly got it to rinse stuff but has anyone used it for RO water? 

 

I keep getting readings of 20-50 at my local fish store RO water so was wondering if I could just use the distilled since reading is 0. 

 

 

[gastone]

Some people use distilled exclusively with good results.  Long term rodi is the way to go for me as even with the initial outlay, after a couple of hundred gallons, I'm to the good and then it's just the cost of membranes, filters and rain, which will still be cheaper over the long-run to purchasing distilled.  

 

I don't look beyond 0 tds.  Distilled water tends to be free of chloramine as well while rodi doesn't effectively remove it.  You may have to check with your city water to see how much/if it's added.

[astroboy]

Fairfax county uses chloramine. In theory chlorine removers like Prime will take out chloramine if you use enough of it but I've had no end of freshwater fish gradually dying and I think it's because Prime doesn't really do that well. I've gone to RODI with Equilibrium added for the fresh waters and haven't lost any fish in the last few months. I'd never put a chemical like Prime into my reef tank water. 

 

BRS sells an RODI stage that removes chloramines which seem to work fine as far as I can tell. 

[edress714]

23 hours ago, gastone said:

Some people use distilled exclusively with good results.  Long term rodi is the way to go for me as even with the initial outlay, after a couple of hundred gallons, I'm to the good and then it's just the cost of membranes, filters and rain, which will still be cheaper over the long-run to purchasing distilled.  

 

I don't look beyond 0 tds.  Distilled water tends to be free of chloramine as well while rodi doesn't effectively remove it.  You may have to check with your city water to see how much/if it's added.

Thank you. I stopped using the local shop as even when they "changed" the resin, it was still 20 TDS. I only have a 20g tank so don't need much water. Might have to pull the trigger and just get a RODI set up. 5 gallons of Distilled water only cost me $7

[nburg]

I used distilled on an 18g for about a year and it was just fine other than sometimes it’s not always in stock. RODI can be just as good for reefers sake but requires some maintenance and cost. If you’re fine with grabbing jugs from the store, might be less effort. If you go any bigger, an RODI will be more convenient