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Northeast Florida Marine Aquarium Society  Our purpose is to enhance the hobby by promoting the exchange of information, equipment, and livestock. We are located in NE Florida within the Great City Of Jacksonville and welcome all to join from both the surrounding areas and from distant locations. Check us out at www.nfmas.org |
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03-08-2007, 02:30 PM
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#1
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Big Fishy
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Middleburg
Posts: 738
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Can we use distilled water?
I'm going out of town for 5 days.... I have a house/dog sitter coming to stay.
Ther person doesn't know anything about the fish tank... I'm leaving her an emergency number for the fish store... but I wanted to leave her some gallon jugs of water to put in the sump for when the water evaporates.
I don't have any gallon jugs...so I figured I'd just buy about 6-7 gallon jugs of the distilled water from the store...
Can I just have her put that water in... or should I fill it with the regular water I put in the tank ( which is just tap + Prime )?
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03-08-2007, 02:33 PM
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#2
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Let's Hug It Out .......!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Just East of East St. Louis
Posts: 667
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go with distilled make sure u store it inside so the temp is somewhat closer, i use tap all the time i have no place for an r/o unit
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03-08-2007, 02:38 PM
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#3
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Big Fishy
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Middleburg
Posts: 738
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Yeah...I'm going to make it easy for her and just put the gallons right in front of the tank  |
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03-08-2007, 04:05 PM
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#4
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Professional Acro killer!
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: florida
Posts: 1,131
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You really shouldn't dump water in your tank like that. I assume you evaporate alot of water a day since you have a 150g which in turn makes it bad for you to fluctuate salinities by not having the water drip into the tank instead of a big dump. You really should get or make an auto top off system that slowly drips water into your sump. BTW I am just trying to be helpful and informative and not a PITA.
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03-08-2007, 04:18 PM
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#5
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Rochester NY
Posts: 158
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Quote:
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You really should get or make an auto top off system that slowly drips water into your sump. BTW I am just trying to be helpful and informative and not a PITA.
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im not trying to be a PITA either, but why do you say that? i prefer to add a gallon a day myself, ive just heard to many stories about saltwater tanks turning into freshwater tanks due to malfunctioning topoff systems. thats just my opinion though.
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03-08-2007, 04:21 PM
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#6
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[adult swim]
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 3,221
Reviews: 2
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the theory is to avoid salinity swings
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03-08-2007, 04:22 PM
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#7
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Rochester NY
Posts: 158
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Quote:
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Can I just have her put that water in... or should I fill it with the regular water I put in the tank ( which is just tap + Prime )?
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the gallon jugs are going to be better for the tank than the tap water so i wouldnt worry about that. i just recently bought a ro/di unit, but before that i used the purple label distilled water from walmart for all my water changes and topoffs.
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03-08-2007, 04:28 PM
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#8
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Rochester NY
Posts: 158
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Quote:
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the theory is to avoid salinity swings
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i guess i understand the point, but does it really swing that much from morning to night? my tank evaporates at a rate of almost exactly a gallon a day so i add a gallon of fresh water every morning. i have never noticed more than a 1/2 point fluctuation and thats on a 55g with a 55g sump(probably closer to 35 gallons of water in the sump).
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03-08-2007, 04:30 PM
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#9
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Plankton
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Jacksonville
Posts: 34
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I always top off with distilled water jugs and never had any issues. I can see the point with salinity swings but my tank never had that issue. It's almost 2 years old and my water quality has always been excellent.
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Steve & Paula 
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03-08-2007, 04:32 PM
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#10
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[adult swim]
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 3,221
Reviews: 2
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its just a theory so I dont know. I can tell you that in nature rain water and rivers dump tons of freshwater into a salt ecosystems so who knows.
I evap 4 gallons a day and I have dumped 4 gallons into the sump before. Now I have an ATO
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03-08-2007, 04:35 PM
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#11
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Shark
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Jacksonville
Posts: 1,853
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Carol, have you looked at pricing on an RO unit? The payback time with a tank your size can't be that long. Not counting gas to the store for distilled water or just the hassel of getting it.
I got mine at Bio Reef and I love it. 100 GPD.
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03-08-2007, 04:36 PM
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#12
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Professional Acro killer!
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: florida
Posts: 1,131
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I have read its bad to do on a regular basis. I don't do it the gallon way because I am not about to risk the $1000's of stuff we have in our tank... Its also easier to just make a gravity fed auto top off with a shut-off valve...
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03-08-2007, 07:08 PM
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#13
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Had 2 Much Fun
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Jacksonville Fl
Posts: 1,031
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Make sure your "tank sitter" understands the importance of topping off the tank. They should also be aware of things such as, is the pump running, how much to feed, the average amount of water it takes you to top off, water temp & if you have one, is the chiller coming on. They also need to be trustworthy. I was in Daytona this past week & had a "friend" tank sitting. A friend of my wife's call us Monday afternoon to tell me that my tank was blowing bubbles & what should she do. Evidentially my "friend" didn't top off that morning. He knew that he had to go by twice a day. If you are going to do the ATO, IMO, a float valve is safer than the drip method. I dump 2 gallons a day in my 210. A gallon in the morning & one at night ever since I've had that tank with no problems. On a smaller tank, I could see where there could be a salinity swing.
Last edited by sea devil; 03-08-2007 at 07:14 PM.
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03-08-2007, 07:54 PM
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#14
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Jax, FL
Posts: 122
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Carole,
I'm not sure how much water you evaporate every day, but here is a calculator to determine what effect that water loss has on your tank's salinity:
http://www.saltyzoo.com/SaltyCalcs/EvapSalinityCalc.php
You just enter your tank volume, the tank salinity, and how much evaporates. Then it tells you your resulting salinity. |
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03-08-2007, 08:48 PM
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#15
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Big Fishy
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: jacksonville
Posts: 992
Reviews: 3
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cool link
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