Which is better to use for an aquarium bottled water or regular water from the kitchen sink?
by Aquaboy on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 | 9 Comments
My mothers friend has a 36 gallon aquarium and she told me that bottled water doesn’t build up that white powdery stuff. I currently have a 10 gallon and have never tried it. I’m thinking about trying it but i want to ask if its worth it first because i’m sure it can get expensive. Have you ever tried this if so how did it work out??
Bottled water is good in a situation where you need to make an immediate water change, but is otherwise unnecessary. I have used bottled water in the past, and it’s not extremely expensive, but that doesn’t make it worth spending any money at all. Tap water is just fine, if you leave it sit for 24 hours.
Don’t bother with bottled water, it isn’t necessary and isn’t any better than tap water. The white powdery stuff is caused by hard water and that isn’t a problem unless you are raising certain soft water fish. Kepp up on the water changes, keep the aquarium topped off to the top and you’ll be fine. You will be much better off spending the time and money on your aquarium instead of buying bottled water that only passes the same standards as municipal water though people think it costs more so must be better, their incorrect.
You should be able to find fill stations that charge about 25 c. a gallon to fill up the big 5 gallon water cooler barrells. I use it exclusively, its not that expensive. Better check out stuff where you live about tap water though, where I am the water is NOT chlorine – treated, it has something else in it that will not evaporate out and it cannot be used for fish tanks! The whole city got mailers a couple years ago when they changed over from chlorine.
The best would be reverse osmosis system for your water it is cheaper than bottled water in the long run and you get the best water possible for your aquarium from your tap.Ask your local pet store about reverse osmosis they can tell you all the facts about it hope this helps…
Bottled water will get expensive, as you yourself have said. If you already have an aquarium that is set up, I wouldn’t bother with it. Tap water is fine, as long as you put conditioner in it.
It would be too much of a hassle to change your water and a waste of money.
Totally depends on the quality of your tap water.
If you tap water is very hard (lots of dissolved lime) then finding a different source of water may help with lime scale buildup.
But bottled water is normally just tap water from some place else. Often a locally bottled tap water IS the same as the local tap water.
Unless you are having problems, use the tap water with a splash of conditioner and you will be fine.
Ian
Either will be fine. I find (with my multiple aquariums and weekly 15%-20% water changes each tank) that would get too expensive. I use water conditioner and check the pH of my water after each water change. Petco sells an inexpensive brand of tap water conditioner called “AquaSafe” by “Tetra Aqua.” It neutralizes chlorine, chloramines, and heavy metals harmful to fish. Also enhances natural protective slime coating of fish. And it’s a complete formula that works in seconds. It works for all fresh water and marine aquariums so you can use it if you are working with Salt water.
Yes, I’ve tried it. The bottled water was fine with the fish, but it wasn’t really worth the trouble.
To say which is better, though, you really need an analysis of both the tap water (from the sink) and the bottled water. Bottled water isn’t automatically better.
If your tap water supply is treated with chlorine or choramines or certain other chemicals, you’ll need to use water treatment chemicals that neutralize chlorine, ammonia, etc. before putting this water in your tank. This isn’t very hard or expensive, though. The water treatments are available at pet shops and aquarium supply places.
The reason I used bottled water for a while was that my city water is hard and I was trying to keep certain species of fishes that need very soft water to thrive. However, it got so tiresome that I ended up deciding to keep only fish species that do well in hard water. For me, the obstacle wasn’t the cost of the bottled water so much as the time and effort required to schlep all those jugs of water to and from the water place and then pour the water from the jugs into my tanks (with tap water, I use a “Python,” i.e. a hose).
With a 36-gallon tank, I suspect lugging those jugs of water around would get old pretty fast. You’d be tempted to make less water changes, which would be detrimental to your fish.
If you’re getting deposits of “white powdery stuff,” that probably is due to hard water evaporating and leaving mineral deposits behind. These deposits are not harmful in any way, but they don’t look very good and sometimes they can be hard to clean off.
This assumes that you have a freshwater aquarium. If you have a saltwater or brackish tank, the white powdery stuff is almost certainly salt, which you will still have even if you use bottled water.
If you do use bottled water, don’t use exclusively distilled or deionized water (as opposed to “spring water” or “drinking water”). Distilled or deionized water has virtually ALL the minerals removed, and most fish can’t live in it. Either mix it with some tap water, or add a mineral supplement, if you do use it. But why buy mineral-free water, only to add minerals to it?
No need for Bottled water, the process of making purified water like say Aquafina is reverse osmosis which takes out everything from the water including lots of beneficial minerals that are good for fish. They put back in some minerals for taste but they never get the Bottled water back to tap water levels. The water that comes out of the sink is your best bet if you want to keep fish and not go broke. You will never have to worry about the price of the water or if your fish are getting enough minerals from it. I am of course talking about City water, not well water. If you have well water you might as well be using Bottled water, just make sure you don’t get purified water, just get spring water. That’s all basically tap water anyways, they just bottle it and sell it to fools. Long and short of it is, it’s just not worth the money at all. Good Luck
I was also assuming you know about water conditioner and the proper way to treat any water especially tap water before you put it in you tank.