boiling water first

**Aiden123** · 03-13-2013, 08:02 PM

Hi I just had a thought. Just wondering if boiling tap water and letting it cool down before putting it in an aquarium would have any benefits or just a waste of time?
Thanks

**Hardy85** · 03-13-2013, 08:05 PM

Unless you have bad well water or something I think it'd just be a waste of time and energy.

Just add Prime as a decholinator and you should be fine

**mizzoutank** · 03-13-2013, 08:45 PM

+1 to the above.

boiling is only needed if you have extra things in the water you need to kill off. (hence when there is a water main break/issue, you boil the water to be safe) if your tap water isn't compromised then you're just doing it for fun. no real benefit.

**Cliff** · 03-13-2013, 10:26 PM

That could be a very bad thing IMO

Depending on how long you boil the water for, you would be taking normal water and removing some pure water out of it (the steam that evaporates as it boils is pure water). You would be increasing the concentration of dissolved minerals (which do not evaporate) which will effect your water's ability to buffer your pH and could have a effect on your pH as well. In addition, the increase in TDS (total dissolved solids) can also lead to osmotic shock in your fish.

Just a concern is all

**ameliaaahx** · 03-13-2013, 10:29 PM

Cliff -- is that why water always tastes awful after being boiled?

**Cliff** · 03-13-2013, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by ameliaaahx

Cliff -- is that why water always tastes awful after being boiled?

Maybe, I never thought about that before but I guess it could

**Indian Woods Angels** · 03-13-2013, 11:10 PM

Maybe the pot is teflon. yum.

**Dennis Bissett** · 03-14-2013, 09:20 AM

+1 Cliff, the more you boil water, the more you increase concentration of non-biological matter, all boiling does is kill any organisms living in the water

**funkman262** · 03-14-2013, 10:12 AM

It's a little counter-intuitive, but boiling water can actually lower KH and GH. Yes, you're removing pure water which would make you believe that the TDS would increase, but that's incorrect depending on the water chemistry involved. When you boil water, calcium and magnesium will precipitate out as the carbonate species change. You may have already witnessed this when seeing a white layer in the pot after boiling pasta. The precipitated compounds can be redissolved though if the water is left to cool in the same container and then properly mixed. This process is similar to lime softening which is also very counter-intuitive. With lime softening (without boiling water), calcium-hydroxide is added which can precipitate out all of the calcium originally in the water along with all of the calcium added. This is what makes the addition of kalwasser aka pickling lime aka calcium-hydroxide a tricky business in reef tanks. It can be difficult at times to keep the pH, calcium, and alkalinity levels balanced when doing this.