[claws]

Hi All,


I'm going to be setting up a nano planted tank (Fluval Spec V) and I would like to use only distilled water for the initial filling and subsequent water changes. How do I go about adding back the minerals that were removed during distilling? I will be using Tropica aquarium soil as a substrate and adding low light plants and a few nano fish, possibly some shrimp later. Since the tank only holds 5 gallons of water, using distilled water is not expensive for me.


Thanks,
Kim

 

[Darrel]

There are a lot of good off-the-shell products you can get to re-miniralize distilled water. Here are a few I've used with a lot of success:

Seachem Equilibrium:
Seachem - Equilibrium

Aquavitro Mineralize:
aquavitro . mineralize

NilocG's Regen:
ReGen | Liquid GH Booster

I'm sure there are a ton more than people can recommend.

 

[claws]

Thanks Darrel.

 

[steveo]

Baking soda for KH. For GH, Seachem Equilibrium or Greenleaf Aquarium's' Ultimate GH Booster'. Be sure to kit a GH-KH test kit. API makes a good one.

 

[lksdrinker]

Whether or not cost is a factor; why do you think you need to use distilled water? Have you had problems using tap water in the past?

 

[claws]

Whether or not cost is a factor; why do you think you need to use distilled water? Have you had problems using tap water in the past?

I live in a rural area and my town uses well water that is pretty hard. I was thinking that distilled water with added minerals might be helpful, but I'm reconsidering this plan. I think I will go with tap water treated with Prime and see how that works.


Kim

 

[DaveK]

I live in a rural area and my town uses well water that is pretty hard. I was thinking that distilled water with added minerals might be helpful, but I'm reconsidering this plan. I think I will go with tap water treated with Prime and see how that works.


Kim

What you can do is test your tap water and see how it is. If it's far too hard you can use a mix of tap water and distilled water to lower the hardness. You can also use distilled water as top off water to prevent the build up of hardness.

 

[BettaBettas]

I live in a rural area and my town uses well water that is pretty hard. I was thinking that distilled water with added minerals might be helpful, but I'm reconsidering this plan. I think I will go with tap water treated with Prime and see how that works.


Kim

Distilled works because I use it to successful shrimp tank "dutch" style sort of not really lol

 

[lksdrinker]

I live in a rural area and my town uses well water that is pretty hard. I was thinking that distilled water with added minerals might be helpful, but I'm reconsidering this plan. I think I will go with tap water treated with Prime and see how that works.


Kim

I think thats a much better plan. See how things work out before you come up with a plan on how to make them "better"!

What you can do is test your tap water and see how it is. If it's far too hard you can use a mix of tap water and distilled water to lower the hardness. You can also use distilled water as top off water to prevent the build up of hardness.

Testing is certainly a good idea. But whats "too hard". "Too hard" for certain species that you've tried and failed; or "too hard" based on what the internet says?

Distilled works because I use it to successful shrimp tank "dutch" style sort of not really lol

It certainly does work; but is it really needed in every circumstance?

 

[BettaBettas]

It certainly does work; but is it really needed in every circumstance?

No, I never said it was. I wouldn't use distilled for a larger tank, that's to expensive. (like 1$ a gallon)

 

[DaveK]

...
Testing is certainly a good idea. But whats "too hard". "Too hard" for certain species that you've tried and failed; or "too hard" based on what the internet says? ...

It's a question of what levels of GH and KH do you want your tank to run at. There is no hard fast answer because this depends on many factors, expecially the fish and plants you want to keep.

I tend to like very soft water, since most of my fish are small tetras. I run the tank at about 6 gh and 6 kh, but others do things differently, and I would not call them wrong as long as they are getting good results.