Distilled water?

just wanted everyones thoughts.

could you use straight distilled water for top offs?

it would seem like you should be able to, but i read a weird article on how its bad for reefs? i have no idea at all so i wanted advice.

 

Yes you can. Its probably not quite as pure as good RO/DI but is better than RO only and is much better than tap.

 

Test the water – I suspect it will test ok until you hit it with a TDS meter and a silicate test. You can use it over tap water but the obvious answer is to try and get an RO/DI unit when you can. Run a skimmer and a silicate sponge to head off any issues brought on by the water source. Good luck.

 

Distilled water probably won't contain any silicates but it could contain volatiles if it is not treated with carbon too. Silicates will be left behind in the boiling process as they are solids not volatiles which can travel with the steam.

 

Yup, I agree. But I use to buy distilled water when I started reefing and eventually tested the water to find silicates. caused plenty of issues for me, but this was a number of years ago

 

Im betting those silicates leached from the plastic bottles the water was transported/ stored in
thats after all why even those of us using RODI get diatom blooms with new set ups
plastics -

Steve

 

I believe one concern is that it may contain trace amounts of copper due to the distilling process. Copper coils are often used. The continual use of it will build up the copper concentration. But honestly, I don't know how of that is true or not.

 

Copper has not been used in stills for years, most are glass or epoxy lined stainless steel or titanium.

 

I guess you don't have to worry about that then.