AFAIK, all tap water (at least on a municipal supply) must be potable (safe for human consumption).Liz said:
drinking water Vs tap water
- Thread starter randalizm
- Start date
All I know is that I have known several families down here in certain parts of FL who had to live off of bottled water. Not sure about the deal with the tap water but it made them sick. It MAY have been well water or something but I believe it was tap. You could be right, though.
Blinky said:
That's true. At least last I read about this (over a year ago, and not in reference to fishkeeping), bottled water has no such requirements. While there's the general business principle of not overtly harming your customers, there's no guarantee that bottled water has been treated for pathogens and what-not. Naturally, this leads to a much higher bacterial contamination rate in bottled water. Personally, I'd rather treat the tap water to remove chlorine and get annual statements from my town about levels of just about everything than deal with a complete unknown.
On the other hand, in my visits to FL their water may be potable but also has a taste/odor that's distinctly unpleasant to the unitiatied--perhaps that's the sulfur? Anyway, it's potable, but perhaps not drinkable
hey thanks for all the replies guys. i live in southern california and the tap water tastes funky of course but its very drinkable. the drinking water im talking about is from a store that just sells water for $0.25 a gallon. the guy said it goes through a step to get all the metals out and then goes through reverse osmosis twice. it tests out at 0 chlorine, 0 kh, 0gh, and like 6.2ph. ive talked to people at lfs's and they said 0kh is ok unless your dealing with saltwater. the tap water has a ph around 8.0 and not sure bout the other stuff i still gotta test it but i dont have test kits for kh and gh, i think its pretty hard water tho. basically i wanna know which is cheaper and which is better for the health of the fish. with tap theres all the chemicals u gotta add and with drinking water there would just be the ph buffer. unless 0 kh is not good and then i would have to get a kh buffer. haha i dunno. right now im using the drinking water. its a 30 gallon tall with 3 cardinal tetras and a betta, which both require low kh anyways. i use proper ph 6.5 and they are all very active and seem to be doing fine. i wanna get a few more tetras, a pleco and and angel but dont want them to die on me just cause of the kh or gh.
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Its RO water. It has no KH so you will get weird pH swings. Just stuck with the tap water.
And it has a pH of 6.2? Shouldent it be netural at 7 :huh:
And it has a pH of 6.2? Shouldent it be netural at 7 :huh:
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I agree with Kas. KH is one measure of how well buffered your tank water is--i.e., how resistant it is to changes in pH when acids or bases are added. Common acids include CO2 and common bases include NH3--these are both things that will end up in your tank, whether or not you add them! Having a higher KH willl mitigate their effects on pH. Your KH is probably relatively high if your pH is up around 8 (FWIW, my tap water is pH 8.2, dKH 7-8). From poking around the fora on this site--most if not all fish will survive and thrive in this kind of water as long as you're doing frequent water changes to keep the levels relatively constant and avoid fluctuations.
Liz said:
If you are living in or south of the Orlando/Tampa region, then the water has a lot of Iron and a trace amount of sulfur. It is drinkable, it just smells bad and does a number on your shower head. I started cycling with this water, and my betta survived living in it for 2 years before he got attacked by another fish, so I'm pretty sure Florida's water is safe for most South American/ SE Asian fish.
Also, I don't know if the Californian climate is anything like Florida's, but this time of year it rains a little bit almost every day. Maybe you could collect and store that water (unless you're living in/around a city, then don't, acid rain isn't cool).
Pure water is not neutral, Ro and DI water typically test in the low (6.something) range.
Even with soft water fish, some Kh is needed, unless you staock extremely light. Remeber we are estabilishing a controlled environment that runs a significantly hevier bio-load than you would find in nature. the biological processes will have an effect. IF you wish to run a system virtually devoid of Kh then light bio-loads and probably daily water changes are in order. A small amount of Kh will stabilise things slightly but still cause a need for rigid maintenance routines. Proper Ph is something I would not waste my money on. It causes swings and probelms of it's own. In order to raise Kh (which will also raise Ph) add small amounts of baking soda or Crushed coral. Baking soda is very fast and should not be added directly to the tank, crushed coral is slow and steady, and can be put in a bag in your filter, to counteract Kh consumption or to slowly raise your numbers. The thing is your tap water may be fine, or mixing tap with bottled water may be even better. If the numbers from the tap are too high then dilluting them with your bottled water could save you adding anything extra.
Whatever changes you make, make them slowly so your fish don't suffer. I usually do 2 water changes 5%-10% daily until I reach whatever my goal is. frequent low volume water changes will make subtle changes your fish can handle.
I grew up in a town that was originally named sulfur springs. High sulfer water is something that takes a bit of getting used too, and will make you sick if you drink too much and aren't used to it. It is however generally safe to drink, and other than that nasty smell, I've never heard of folks having a problem. I do not know how high sulfer levels may effect fish long term, but all of my childhood tanks were kept with a good bit of sulfer in the water.
Dave
