Mixing Distilled Water With Tap

[tomm10]

I'm going to do a major water change on both my tanks tomorrow and plan on using distilled water in an effort to reduce the levels of copper that I suspect are in my tap water. I know that using straight distilled water isn't any good for the fish so my plan is to do 50% changes on both tanks using distilled water. This should make the water in both tanks 50/50 distilled and tap and would theoretically cut the levels of metals in the tank water in half.

Does this sound like a good plan? Should I do a larger change and use more distilled water? A smaller change?

[Dahlia]

Better check and see how different the pH of your distilled water is from your tank water before you do a change that drastic at once. If it is a wide range you could really shock your fish. I don't know if it would help with your problem or not, so someone else will have to answer that one for you.

[TKOS]

Definatley check your kh levels. Since distilled water is super soft and really acidic it could send your tank crashing with too big of a change.

I would mix it with you tap water first then do small 10% water changes with this 50/50 mix. That will probably be less of a shock to the tank and fish.

But find out all of your levels first.

[carpguy]

Why do you think you've got a problem with copper?

I'd check out what the WetFeller has to say (http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/copsul.shtml#copper). Dropping your pH or your KH could be exactly the wrong thing to do if you've got too much copper in the there.

After skimming the article I think I'd try carbon. But I'd read the article more carefully first. :D

HTH

[tomm10]

I admit, somewhat sheepishly, that I hadn't even thought about a ph swing with the distilled water.

carpguy, I think the copper in the pipes in my house is leaching into my water. I haven't been able to keep an invertebrate alive in either of my tanks for more than a couple of weeks. That includes pond snails. The water is great otherwise from what I can test so I've narrowed it down to metals in the water. Since we have well water and copper pipes, okham's razor says its copper in the water.

The article was enlightening and makes some sense to me since the snails have faired less well in my 8gal hex which has a lower ph than in my 10gal with a higher ph and carbon filter. I don't think carbon is doing the trick since I've kept fresh carbon in the 10 since I started it.

My plan now is to do a 20% change what I normally do weekly anyway) but use a 50/50 solution of distilled and tap water. I'll run the tap water for a while to try and flush the lines and mix it with the distilled. I'll let it sit overnight to get a closer temp match.

I'll keep that routine up until I move in 6 months I guess.

[Kagh't]

first of all, get yourself a copper test kit and see if it's a problem, copper pipes generally don't leach, it's more often old copper roofs or similar (my grandad can't get any inverts in his pond, his copper roof leaches down the gutters and into the pond in heavy rains).

i'd suggest first of all to use a 20/80 mix, working it up in 5/10% intervals at each water change. granted it takes a bit longer, but it's much less stressful to fish.

[tomm10]

I'm not aware of any copper test kit you can get (at a reasonable price anyway) but I'd certainly get one if I could find one. I've checked Home Depot and Lowes.

We have no copper roof nor do any homes around us so I doubt its that. The pipes in our house are constantly springing pin hole leaks. If the water can eat holes in the pipes then that copper is getting into the water.

[TKOS]

Heck it could be copper or some other heavy metal in your ground water. Might be a good time to have a test of your water done up to see what all is in there.

[Kagh't]

if the water can eat holes in your copper piping, then you've got crud piping.
copper takes an extremly long time to erode (as it put a hole in a pipe) once initial oxidisation occurs, some leaching does occur, but copper is amazingly unreactive.
copper piping around here lasts 50+ years, and is around 1-2mm thick, so i would suggest taking a look at yours, but thats just an opinion of a 17yr old kid who's spent 15 of those years helping with the DIY (or more accuratly, was made to:P)

copper tests kits arn't cheap, but i'd suggest looking in stores that sell marines, as thats where your more likely to find heavy metal test kits.

[as40]

Read up on water distillation processes. I can't remember where I did my reading, if I did, I'd post some links for you, but what I remember of the distillation process is as such (anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any points):
Water is boiled, the water-vapor (steam) condensates onto large, cool, METAL plates, usually COPPER, collects into your clean, distilled, finished product. That may or may not contain trace elements of what you're trying to get away from.

If you want to mix anything with your tap water, mix it with R/O water, if you can get your hands on it. It shouldn't cost you any more at a LFS per gallon than distilled will cost you from a vending machine or your grocery store.

HTH

[Kagh't]

what you'll find about these copper plates is that they already will have an oxide/other coating layer, so they don't leach into the water, and a lot of newer distilleries use stainless steel.

[travelinman1969]

I can't use tap water here at all. They say we can drink it, but the fish can't live in it. HMMM. Anyway I'm moving next month so no worries there. So much as 1 gallon, in a 150 gallon, will send my ph, kh,etc. through the roof. I use bottled drinking water from Wal-Mart and add a half dose of electrolyte additives. I've never had any adverse effects. Yes, it's a bit expensive but beats not having fish at all.

[tomm10]

Well, I've decided to take things much slower since my fish seem okay and the only inverts left to kill of are pond snails. Instead of the distilled water I'm going to do a larger change with tap water that I let run for five minutes before I collected it. That should have flushed most of the crud from the pipes out of the lines and give me the cleanest water I can expect to get.

I'll wait until tomorrow to change it since the water is extremely cold right now.

Thanks for all the help everyone!