# Distilled or Spring water for water changes?



## nasomi (Apr 20, 2011)

My tap water is unsuitable for water changes due to an extremely high PH (close to 9), I was going to do distilled, but I would have to treat the water with minerals and all that I'm told, so I wanted to know if it would be ok using spring water instead, and if so, is there a specific brand that is better than the others? Thanks.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I would say that if your fish are doing fine as it is leave it alone.

You can add RO water and do a 50/50, RO/Tap when you do your water changes. I do it every week, Can be a pain with a big tank though. I make about 85 gallons of RO water every week with 55-65% changes. Takes a little while. I don't do it for ph reasons, but it brings the ph down to about 7.7 from 8.2. Doing 100% is not very safe for a few reasons.


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

You can but for the tanks you have I would think that would be rather expensive. Might be cheaper in the long run to set up a reverse osmosis filter system.


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## nasomi (Apr 20, 2011)

Everything has been in place for 2 weeks, I've yet to do a water change, but I'm going to have to add water due to evaporation in the next few days, only 2-3gal. Both distilled and spring are 70c/gal from the distributor, and as long as the water conditions remain good, I wasn't going to do large water changes. The tank seems very balanced, or the fish are small still and don't affect 125g of water in a timely manner. I figured i'd only replace as much water as I lose when vacuuming the bottom on a bi-weekly basis.


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

What did you do to set the tanks up?


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## nasomi (Apr 20, 2011)

I filled it with tap and spent 2 weeks gradually adding ph down to get it down to 8.2 from 9, then spent 3 days introducing the fish to 25/75 new tank/old tank water, then 50/50, then 75/25. Now they're fully adapted, unstressed, and happy. Very lively suckers, they're boarderline beggers when ever i walk by the tank. Their ph at LPS is 7. Their setup is quite impressive, in the fish section they have a 10' floor to ceiling circular fish tank with a 4' shark in it, they have a whole planting section, so generally I have pretty good faith in them.


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

The LPS sounds great, nothing like that outside of a LFS around here. Unless it's the city aquarium.


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## nasomi (Apr 20, 2011)

Sorry, i meant LFS. LPS is pretty nice too, but no 10' shark tanks. LFS is near aquarium quality, litterally hundreds of fish tanks. Left wing is fresh, right wing is salt/brackish, and the middle rear is the planted area. 

Their info: Learn about Nemo's Aquarium


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Ok, ok. I'm going to make me a saltwater tank just so I can have 2 clown fish and an anemonie. I love the look of clowns and how they live in the anemonie.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Have you tested the ph in your tank lately? It may have climbed back up. Test it and see. If it has, don't add more stuff to lower it again. 

I would advise against adding the ph down product to your tank and let your fish acclimate to your water. You don't want a tank full of chemicals. I would try adding back in water and water changes without that stuff.


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

I would suggest you mix 50% of your tap water with 50% distilled water in a small continer and see what your new ph is, this will give you an idea how strong your ph controling chemicals are in your tap water. I would suspect your new ph would be between 8.0 and 8.5. If you want a new ph below 7.0, you may have to mix as much as 90% distilled with 10% tap. Try to get a chemical analysis of your tap water to make sure there aren't any bad things like Arsenic or Copper in it. These chemicals aren't good for you or your fish.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

sorry I can't help.

I don't do water changes just replace evaporative water.

And of course my tanks are heavily planted.

woops perhaps that helps.

my .02


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## nasomi (Apr 20, 2011)

My tank will be heavily planted once the plants grow, however try setting up a huge aquarium and then try to explain to 7 and 8 year old girls why they can't have fish for 3 months  I test my water regularly. I added the phdown, ran for 2 weeks, put in fish, 2 weeks later and everything is still good. I planted ribbon plants that were marked aquatic only to find that they weren't aquatic, so i've picked up 4 fully aquatic plants, 2 ferns and 2 others I forget the name of. Restarting the planting bit.


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