Distilled Water?

I was told I should fill my tank up with distilled water... what is ya'lls take on this? good or bad idea?

And... If I do fill my tank up with distilled water, should I still need to put conditioners in it?

 

Personally, unless your tap water is really horrible (extreme pH, hardness, or high nitrAtes), I'd just use the tap water (with dechlorinator of course). It's a lot easier & cheaper.

-Chelle

 

get a some test kits for water and test the water from your tap as tchelle said prolly alot cheaper

 

I would rather use tap water and put conditioners in it. Cheaper than distilled water.

 

my tap water is apparently really bad because it's extremely hard water... pH and everything is fine, but the water is super hard according to my water test kit. Any suggestions how I can help make my water softer?

 

How hard is it? Extremely soft water is actually worse than extremely hard water because it has less buffering capacity which makes the pH less stable. My GH & KH are both around 260 and I've been able to keep neons (0-50 range) & oscars (50 - 100) w/o any problems. And my african cichlids are doing exceptionally well.

-Chelle

 

haha, I'm stupid, I just looked at my little test strip thing and it said that 50-150 ppm for GH is ideal for my goldfish... haha, and this whole time I thought 100 ppm was too high just because it matched up with "hard water"...

So, according to my test kit, it's safe for me to put fishes in my tank... but I need to cycle it first?

i'm beginning to see that some of my questions are kind running into each other... i think it would be more helpful if all my questions was answered on the topic "New Aquarium" I'm going to repost this same reply there.

I'm really appreciating all this helpful info!

 

for that you can get watner softner. it is a chemical that is sapposed to work though i have never tried it because i have never had that probolem with my tank, but yes tap water is a lot more efficient. you can just put the treated water in the tank and let the water stand.

iv heard something that if you put hot water (not boiling but warm) that it will settle better or somthing like that. is it true?

 

i just got back from my lfs and they said its not good to put warm water in my tank... they said to try and get it to the same temperature as my tank as much as possible... which includes letting it sit for a little while so that it will go to room temp

 

we tried it a month or two ago with my sis 10 gal when i was setting it up. it included standing and cycling for a week or two so it had time to get to room temp.