does anyone know?

[patagonia]

can i use spring bottled water in a freshwater tank? there are 2 platies living in it...its a 5 gal tank so for a water change id be needing only about 2L...thats about a dollar so money is not a problem...the thing is my tap water contains chloramine...so everytime i have to do a partial water change id be adding ammonia to the tank...even if it is in a "non toxic" form...has anyone tried this? ...thanks

 

[WILDER]

I wouldn't as you don't no what in it.

 

[sylvia]

Most tap water has chloramines in it now a days. I would just use the tap water and get a de-chlorinator that says it removes chloramines. There are plenty.

With bottled water, you never know what important minerals etc are missing and different brands might have a different composition - something that could potentialy cause problems.

 

[pahansen]

Definitely follow Sylvia's advice. It's probably cheaper in the long run, too. I spend about $5-7 on a dechlorinator that lasts my 20 gallon tank about four months -- that's way less expensive than buying the spring water, plus yours will last much longer with a five gallon tank!

-- Pamela

 

[Paul_MTS]

I use Waterlife Haeloex (something like that) on my tanks as i add hot water straight from the tap which contains other heavy metals aswell, this stuff covers it all.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

actually, for a liquid to be sold as "spring water", it must have the same chemical composition and quality as the natural water source. if it has added chemicals, then these additives must be indicated on the label. so long as you carefully read the product information and buy the same brand everytime, it should be fine. you would actually do best to buy the cheapest brand of spring water since it would have recieved the least amount of treatment in the bottling process.

in terms of simple money, it would be much cheaper to use a dechlorinator and tap water. any live plants in the tank would use ammonia compounds produced by the neutralization of chloramine. so you would be fine.

i used the bottled water method when i was at my internship. it was simply more convenient for me to not keep up with dechlorinator, measuring utensils, buckets, etc. i was keeping my puffer and khulii loach, as well as some newts, in the Wal-mart brand spring water. i did this for several months and am aware of no problems from it.

but you have to be careful to verify that the water is pure spring water. don't try to use floridated water or water with "minerals added for taste" (simply because you don't know exactly what they are).