RO, RO/DI or distilled water??

You'd also be able to get the gas concentrations to levels equivalent with the air by aerating the water with a powerhead/airstone.

But distilled is stupidly expensive to use in any case other than an emergency.

 

I agree with other posts. I need also to mention, the $0.30 distilled water would be at your grocery store, should you ever need it. I think it was like $0.60 for RO from my LFS. Still, if you can afford it & have a place for it(under the sink would be best, or next to the tank)an RODI unit would be best.

 

Man I love this site!, Wish I would have known about it years ago..

so I have always used distilled water..other than wasting money, what is the drawback of such?

 

Potential inconsistency and water quality problems but distilled is usually pretty good.

 

I buy my RO/DI water from my LFS for .32/gal for fresh and mix my own salt. Spending $1.75/ wk for my water works for me since I go there every week to shop

 

Fair enough….but some of us with larger tanks are changing 30 or so gallons a week and this would be seriously labor intensive as well as cost prohibitive

 

i would think 39 gallons would be a shady area if you will save money in the long run with an ro/di opposed to buying water retail. 10% waterchanges would only be 4G and with those ro refill stations selling water at 2.99(here the brand is O-Ke-Bel) for 5G its quite convenient. i was considering buying water myself but decided on the 145$ system AZ suggested because i plan on using it for m drinking water aswell. you may have to do a bit of math to determine what is right for you. also look around town and see exactly who is selling water and for how much. a personal ro/di is always going to be nice to have around tho...

 

Then you stick with your RODI unit, & we will stick with our gallon jugs until we upgrade. lol

 

I spent about 2 years buying bottles of water. I easily spent about $10 a week on top off and water change water (50g then to a 75g w/ 20L sump). I have now gotten an RO/DI unit and this will save me a lof of time and money. If you can afford it. Go with the one AZ suggested.

 

RO/DI unit all the way.... has saved me so much time and headache. being new to the hobby there were a couple of "OH SH@#$" moments where i needed to make water, or have it available to do water changes and being able to just make my own water at 3am was a plus

now, with an ATO setup and the RO unit its all automated for my top-off. and thats something i hadnt seen considered here in the thread. everyones been discussing the use of RO/DI versus purchase of your water weekly for the water change. you have to account for the top-off water you'll need too. in my 75gal i top off ~.5-1gal of water per day on top of the weekly water change.

so having the RO unit there to make that top off when needed is nice. otherwise you have jugs of water laying around that you use to transport back and fourth from the LFS. later i wound up getting a 37gal rubbermade that i keep full of fresh RO for any of my 3 tanks needs and a 20gal rubbermade for pre-mixing the water for water changes

edit: az desert rat knows his stuff - that RO unit is great that he linked and very easy to maintain if you follow spectrapures instructions