de-humidifier -is this good water?

J

jsullafricans

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Jun 27, 2004
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I have a problem lugging water to the basement to change the water and top off my 55 gal.

If I just add for evaporation the salts build up as pure water evaporates and its carbonates etc is left behind.

by the time I add 55 gal the salts are twice as concentrated

I have a de-humidifier that makes 6 quarts morning and night.

Can I add this to top off the tank. Is this soft water that will leave the tank with the same concentration as I keep replacing evaporation.

If this works it is a simple solution and keeps the basement less musty.

Jim:(
 
This comes up every once in a while. A few people use dehumidifier water without problems. Others say there is too much risk: the water is condensing on coils with warm, moist air being blown over them. Any pollutants in the air will therefore be in the water.

I wouldn't use it, myself. I remember once when we had a dehumidifier near our cats' litter box. You could actually smell ammonia and cat litter perfume in the dehumidifier water. I decided it wasn't worth the risk.

Jim
 
JSchmidt makes some good points and you should be cautious, However I use de-humidifier water very regularly unless there is something going on in my basement to make me leary of it. It is essentially distilled water, and is only subject to impurities in the form of airborne particles. We use it in our steam iron to prevent lime build-up and I use it in my fish tanks when I have a need. I do clean my catch pan and coils fairly frequently as well.
 
With the exception of cases where it is near a cat litter pan (or source of equivalent pollution) it should be fine. It's basically distilled water.

If your air is in general so bad as to worry about pollutants getting into the humidifier water, they're probably in your tank already as it will tend towards atmospheric equilibrium.

Again, unless you've got a cat litter pan, or open pain containers, or whatnot, nearby, it should be fine.

It will be very soft water.
 
If I just add for evaporation the salts build up as pure water evaporates and its carbonates etc is left behind.
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From this statement I am guessing you are matching the Sg of the water you add to that of the tank when refilling. This would account for the Sg being raised so much.
I was always told that you add only FW when topping up for evaporation and only match the Sg to that of the tank when you are doing water changes. I would just keep a 10 gal bucket of FW in the basement to be used for top ups only.
 
While it's true that the condensation tubes may be either copper or aluminum, I do not think that this poses a problem. Pretty much all the plumbing in our houses is copper tubing. Fact is, copper metal is not very soluble.

And distilled water is no more corrosive (I'd argue less) than regular tap water.
 
Originally posted by happychem
With the exception of cases where it is near a cat litter pan (or source of equivalent pollution) it should be fine. It's basically distilled water.

If your air is in general so bad as to worry about pollutants getting into the humidifier water, they're probably in your tank already as it will tend towards atmospheric equilibrium.

Again, unless you've got a cat litter pan, or open pain containers, or whatnot, nearby, it should be fine.

It will be very soft water.
Click to expand...

Not in my fish tank. The volume of air and associated contaminants passing over the relatively small volume of water on the coils at any given time makes this a risky situation, in my book. Pass the water thru carbon filters and maybe it would be worth it, but the monetary value of the water (vs. purchasing distilled or RO) isn't great enough to make me want to try it.

Jim
 
Agreed, but you were the exception with the cat litter pan nearby.

In most situations, if it's in the air, it's in your water. Unless you have very little surface agitation, in which case the time between water changes will likely be small enough to offset this equilibrium.

My main point, though, was that you're unlikely to pick up anything (like copper from the condensation coils) that's going to cause problems.

However, I agree that if you're going to need a source of high purity water on a regular basis, you're better off saving up for an RO unit.
 
I have to disagree about the corrosiveness of distilled water. In the absence of dissolved minerals, water is extremely reactive. It is not recommended for use in PC cooling systems, because it will rapidly dissolve the aluminum in the cooling coils.

Regardless, I wouldn't use it. In my house, there's plenty of dust and spores floating around, even without cats. If this stuff settles in the aquarium, the existing microorganisms and filtration will deal with it. Sitting in a dehumidifier, stuff can germinate and multiply. Yuck.

I'd say the stuff coming out of most taps is probably better for your tank.
 
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