Bottled Water for water change

I have some free time tonight to clean my tanks and make some water changes. But my LFS closes before I get off work. Would it be all right to use bottled water from the super market or does that still contain trace elements in it?

 

Do not use bottled water. They contain a ton of additives, have chemicals that leach back into the water from the bottle itself, and are often heavily chlorinated. A lot of times it would be worse than using even straight tap.

 

Wow ok thanks. I'm just going to have to wait till the weekend then. I just figured that they're filtered. Makes me half afraid to drink the stuff now!

 

I'd have to disagree with Pack, which I rarely do. I'm going to assume you're talking about Dasani, or some other well-known product. More times than not, these bottled waters are simply municipal city tap water treated by reverse osmosis, and maybe/maybe not deionization. I think bottled water would be safe in a pinch, but not as your sole source of water--and certainly not as a substitute for the best water source of them all: RO/DI water.

You could also use distilled water, which is devoid of everything but H2O. As for chemicals leaching from plastic bottles into said water, I wouldn't give it a second thought. That's just one guy's opinion, though. I think it's always the best policy to get as many opinions as possible, and take from them what you will.

BTW, you stated above, "Would it be all right to use bottled water from the super market or does that still contain trace elements in it?" This comment confused me a bit. Trace elements are good, not bad. It's the elements that are not usually found in seawater that may pose a threat to a reef tank. If you're using a quality salt mix, it should have many of the necessary trace elements in proper proportions already in the mix.

Good luck.

 

+1 on above.. most bottled water is purified not spring or mineral. As ReefSparky said, bottled purified is like RODI water and contains almost no TDS (that's why it tastes like crap) and is perfectly safe for the aquarium..

 

Here is a link publishing test results of most major brands, pay particular attention to bacteria and nitrate results:
NRDC: Bottled Water - Appendix A


And here is a good article on Giant and Wal-Mart brand bottled water, was found to be so highly contaminated it was pulled off shelves for not meeting state and/or federal guidelines. Also contains the information on the bottles leaching:
Group: Wal-Mart, Giant bottled water shows more contamination - USATODAY.com


And another good general article on bottled water:

Bottled Water Found Contaminated with Medications, Fertilizer, Disinfection Chemicals

 

Thanks guys. I think I may just stop at a Petsmart on the way home and pick up the pre-mixed stuff. Maybe more expensive but it needs to be done!

Thanks again!

And look from pics of my DIY 5 gallon frag tank that I'm going to build this weekend!

 

I always appreciate it when someone such as packleader will back up statements made with some articles to show why the statement was made. I feel this leads to better informed desicions. I used those fill your own gallon thing for a long time, had a cyno problem that wouldnt go away. Changed my water source and now it is definitly getting better. Noth that it applies a whole lot but just showing water can make a big difference.

 

My local grocery store sells DI filtered water that registers 0-1 on my TDS meter. I had a bottle in my car on a hot summer day and when I tested it, the TDS jumped up to 381 when I brought it in to test.