Filtered Water vs Tap Water?

DJasak · 01/17/2015, 08:16 AM

Hey guys-

So yesterday I made a post about my diatom issue and was convinced to get an RO/DI unit to have higher quality water. But in the mean time, between where I'm at now, and saving the money I need to buy the unit, I'm trying to keep the cost of things down as much as possible, simply because I'm expecting a baby within the next month and I need to save every penny I have! So I'm not going to go out and buy 30 gallons of distilled or purified water because what may make sense to me, may not make sense to her. So my question is I have a Brita filter that we use to make our drinking water, can I use the water from a Brita to do water changes between now and when I get the RO/DI unit or is there not much of a difference? Thank you guys for all your help and input, it's really helped clarify things and give me a better understanding in the short time I've been on here.

dkeller_nc · 01/17/2015, 08:21 AM

Presuming your Brita filter has a non-expended cartridge (i.e., it's "fresh"), then yes, running your tap water through it would be better than using tap water for your tank and a dechlorinator. The Brita will only remove chlorine/chloramine - it will do nothing to remove dissolved ions like copper.

Because evaporation concentrates the contaminants in tap water, I would strongly advise you to purchase distilled (not "purified for drinking") water from the grocery store to make up for evaporation from your tank. You can use the filtered tap water to make seawater for water changes until you can afford to set-up an RODI. Whether or not this works out for you sensitively depends on where you live and the amount of dissolved substances in your water. Some of us live in the East and have very soft tap water (mine is about 20 ppm TDS), and this is ideal; others in the West have extremely hard water in the 400ppm - 700ppm range. That'll be sort of OK to use for making seawater on an emergency basis, but absolute disaster to use as evaporation make-up for any length of time.

DJasak · 01/17/2015, 08:34 AM

Ok thank you, I have a fresh cartridge I can put in. Not sure how I would do this or if it's even worth ny time but what about boiling the water, collecting the vapor and condensing it back to water, like a little science experiment. Would that help remove all the contaminants?

dkeller_nc · 01/17/2015, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJasak

Ok thank you, I have a fresh cartridge I can put in. Not sure how I would do this or if it's even worth ny time but what about boiling the water, collecting the vapor and condensing it back to water, like a little science experiment. Would that help remove all the contaminants?

In theory, yes. But you'd have to do it with DIY still with all 316 stainless steel or glass components, and for your average person, this isn't practical. And it wouldn't be any cheaper than going to the grocery store and paying about $1/gallon for distilled water.

01/17/2015, 08:16 AM	#1
DJasak Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 197	Filtered Water vs Tap Water? Hey guys- So yesterday I made a post about my diatom issue and was convinced to get an RO/DI unit to have higher quality water. But in the mean time, between where I'm at now, and saving the money I need to buy the unit, I'm trying to keep the cost of things down as much as possible, simply because I'm expecting a baby within the next month and I need to save every penny I have! So I'm not going to go out and buy 30 gallons of distilled or purified water because what may make sense to me, may not make sense to her. So my question is I have a Brita filter that we use to make our drinking water, can I use the water from a Brita to do water changes between now and when I get the RO/DI unit or is there not much of a difference? Thank you guys for all your help and input, it's really helped clarify things and give me a better understanding in the short time I've been on here.

01/17/2015, 08:21 AM	#2
dkeller_nc Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Central NC Posts: 5,062	Presuming your Brita filter has a non-expended cartridge (i.e., it's "fresh"), then yes, running your tap water through it would be better than using tap water for your tank and a dechlorinator. The Brita will only remove chlorine/chloramine - it will do nothing to remove dissolved ions like copper. Because evaporation concentrates the contaminants in tap water, I would strongly advise you to purchase distilled (not "purified for drinking") water from the grocery store to make up for evaporation from your tank. You can use the filtered tap water to make seawater for water changes until you can afford to set-up an RODI. Whether or not this works out for you sensitively depends on where you live and the amount of dissolved substances in your water. Some of us live in the East and have very soft tap water (mine is about 20 ppm TDS), and this is ideal; others in the West have extremely hard water in the 400ppm - 700ppm range. That'll be sort of OK to use for making seawater on an emergency basis, but absolute disaster to use as evaporation make-up for any length of time.

01/17/2015, 08:34 AM	#3
DJasak Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 197	Ok thank you, I have a fresh cartridge I can put in. Not sure how I would do this or if it's even worth ny time but what about boiling the water, collecting the vapor and condensing it back to water, like a little science experiment. Would that help remove all the contaminants?