Bottled water

[skinni]

someone told my buddy that he should fill his tank with bottled water.... is this something that you should do? and if so what are the benefits? seems a bit expensive and doesnt seem like it would be worth it. (personally to me it just sounds like non-sense)

[Incredulous_Ed]

Well you wouldnt have to use a water conditioner, because bottled water is pretty much pure water. It also is too expensive; its best just to use tap water and condition it.

[MandyL]

It depends on the bottled water... If it is distilled or RO water, it has no minerals at all in it and will need to be mixed with tap water or reconstituted with a product like "RO Right". Unless you have tap water that is completely unsuitable for the fish you want to keep, there is no reason not to use tap water exclusively.

[cocoa_pleco]

often saltwater tanks are the ones that need RO and other special water, freshwater tanks are fine with tapwater unless your tapwater spits out high ammonia

[skinni]

nice answers thanks people

[Incredulous_Ed]

It depends on the bottled water... If it is distilled or RO water, it has no minerals at all in it and will need to be mixed with tap water or reconstituted with a product like "RO Right". Unless you have tap water that is completely unsuitable for the fish you want to keep, there is no reason not to use tap water exclusively.
Dont they add minerals to bottled water for taste? I havent had any experience, but suppodely pure Ro water tastes pretty weird.

[NickFish]

Bottled spring water is terrible for a tank.

If you get bottled RO water, then it's ok but not needed unless you have a SW tank, but spring water is worse than tap.

Spring water doesn't contain as many heavy metals as tap water, but it contains more chemicals, which can be just as bad to your fish.

Also, spring water contains more algae causing things such as phosphates and nitrates. It also has a higher tds rating.

Of course, a lot of it varies from town to town, brand to brand, but for the most part using any bottled water on a FW tank is bad for the environment, a huge waste of money, and potentially more harmful to your fish than tap.

[Halelorf]

Filling a aquarium with bottled water would be a huge waste of money and harmful to the environment. If you are that concern with your tap get a RO filter or find a LFS that sells RO water.