Britta Water

ShortTom007

Man looking for reason
Dec 4, 2004
16
0
0
I was wondering if I could use my Britta water filter to get water that is suitable for an aquarium. I have heard of using filtered water for the aquarium, but I wasn't sure if that was ok with a Britta filter. I think it should be fine, but I just want to make sure before I poison my fish.
 
the britta water filter has anti-bacterial properties tan would hinder beneficial bac. growth.
 
:thud: Well, thanx, that's good to know. I guess I'll just continue buying distilled water.
 
http://www.thekrib.com/Chemistry/carbon.html

The only active part of a britta filter is activated carbon. So I don't see any antibacterial properties in it that would hurt your tank. But it probably isn't a good idea to use pure britta water as I am sure the pH of the water will be very low as the dissolved solids are removed. Plus it will end up costing a whole lot of money to use Britta. Buying bulk carbon would be a lot cheaper. Tap water will be fine unless there is something harmful in it.
 
well, my tap water has a lot of chlorine in it, that's why we have the britta in the first place. So, it wouldn't be that much more expensive, we would just be using what we have now, but if you think that I should just buy distilled water, then I'll continue w/ that.
 
Why are you using distilled water though? Chlorine is easily dealt with using a dechlorinator that is available at any pet store and doesn't cost that much. Distilled water isn't great for fish tanks as it removes all the good trace elements of water and the pH is really acidic. Of course if you have already been using distilled water on them and it is pure distilled then don't change over to using tap water or any other water source right away. Make any water changes slowly.

Pure water without re adding in much needed buffers and dissolved solids can be very harmful to fish. It would be the equivilant of adding saltwater fish to fresh water. They would survive but not for long.
 
someone told me that tap water was bad for freshwater fish because of all the chemicals that are in tap water such as chlorine. I've been using the distilled water w/ these fish for about almost 8 months now, and I've only had one fish die. So, from my own personal observations, distilled water works pretty well. Of course, like I said, I could be silently killing them and not even know it. If like you say, I should switch over to tap water, then tell me what I need to do, like how much to add at a time, and what kind of DeChlorinator that I should get.
 
Well the only people that usually use distilled water are those that keep saltwater fish since the salts they add to the water add the needed chemicals back in.

If you wanted to make the change to tap water I would start with 10% water changes every few days until the change is complete. Then go back to regualr weekly water changes.

You will need to find out if you have chloramines or just standard chlorine in the tap water. A call to the water company will solve that easily. Of course most water conditioners deal with chlorine and chloramine so if you buy one that does then there is no need to worry. Try to avoid the water conditoners that have thinsg liek aloe in them. That is just a waste and not needed. I use Wardley's which is really cheap but many people swear by Prime. The bottle will tell you how much to add. And it works pretty much instantly so you don't have to wait 24 hours or anything. Just do you best to keep the change water a similar temp to the tank water. It is very simple and will cost a lot less and be a lot easier to do than hauling around distilled water.
 
ok, well, as soon as I get time I'll do that, but right now school's about to start back up. So I'm gonna let my roommate and I get adjusted to school life again before starting something like that. Thanx for the help and courtesy.
 
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