Distilled water

[SpacedCowboy]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of setting up a nano tank at the office, and I'm trying to think through some of the problems ahead of time ... One of them is obviously going to be water changes - I'm a software engineer, it's not as though there's a sink in my office to run an RO/DI [grin]

So, I was thinking of using a portable water distiller (something like http://www.nutriteam.com/servlet/the-3/distiller-water-distillers-water/Detail) to create pure water and then adding in "instant ocean" (or whatever) for changes or just using straight as top-off.

Can anyone see any problems with that ?

Cheers,
Simon.

[bertoni]

I'd take a look inside and make sure there's no metal in contact with the water. Otherwise, it should work, although buying distilled water might be easier. The power consumption will be fairly high for that device.

[SpacedCowboy]

I'd take a look inside and make sure there's no metal in contact with the water. Otherwise, it should work, although buying distilled water might be easier. The power consumption will be fairly high for that device.

According to the description...
First water in the stainless steel boiling chamber is brought to 212 degrees farenheit(boiling point)at which time bacteria (including e-coli), parasites, and other living organisms are killed.

Next as water vapor or steam rises it leaves behind the solids including dead organisms, fluoride, iron, calcium, lime and a wholelist of others we should not be drinking. As the steam rises into the stainless condensing coils it is cooled enough to condense and drip down through a carbon charcoal filter which removes VOCS (Volatile Organic Compounds)such as chlorine that are considered a gas.

Finally your finished pure distilled water drips into the collection bottle ready for consumption

Does that sound ok ?

Simon

[bertoni]

I'd like to know what was being used for gathering the condensate before I said anything. It's likely to be safe, but not certainly so.

[Flipper62]

I used Steamed Distilled water from Walmart for the first year, for my office BioCube. Then I bought another RO/DI unit for the office.

The other way is to buy RO/DI water from your LFS.

[7hogwarts]

I have a Kenmore home distiller. The stainless steel may have impurities in it. And the condensing coil- What's it made of? Might be copper. I used mine for just a couple of gallons once upon a time, darn near killed my tank. Never again. Go for the RO water.

[SpacedCowboy]

I have a Kenmore home distiller. The stainless steel may have impurities in it. And the condensing coil- What's it made of? Might be copper. I used mine for just a couple of gallons once upon a time, darn near killed my tank. Never again. Go for the RO water.

Well, it says they're stainless-steel condensing coils in the description above. Still, the proof is in the pudding as they say where I come from. If it kills the tank, it's not exactly top of my list.

That's a real damn shame though, it's far less convenient to get RO/DI from a store around here, and it makes the office tank less likely [sigh].

Simon

[bertoni]

I suspect you're right, and the water will be fine. It could be tried, although even very small amounts of copper or brass exposure could be a big problem. One of the table-top DI filters might be safer, although they are expensive to run, over time, for any but a very small tank.

[maynardjames]

walmart distilled is less than a dollar a gallon. seems like with a nano it would be the way to go. cheap & maybe a gallon a week for top off