Copper in distilled water

I think what Randy is trying to say is some places use copper distills. Since we don't know who is or who isn't it's best to atleast test for copper to find out or use rodi. I lugged distilled for my 75 for the first 6 months. A spectrapure refurb unit is $130. If your spending $100 a year on water it would only take 1. 3 or so Years to get your money out of it and that's if everything runs perfect if you start having issues it can take alot of water to get it back in shape. I use alot of water and in my first year I changed just the pre filters. The Di lasted me over a year and the ro is still going over 2 years later. The less you use the longer they will last so you may get 2 years before you have to change any filters.
 
Randy,

I appreciate the concern. I wonder just how much of the "distilled" water out there really is distilled. Any "distilled" water I've ever bought stated in small print on the bottom that it was made by reverse osmosis OR distillation. I'd have to put my money on RO over true distallilation. Much cheaper to produce.


Cdogsailr,

Would you check your distilled water and see if it says the how its processed?
 
I use distilled from Belmont Springs. Before deciding I spoke with one of their technicians and obtained a report of what was in there other than H2O. Absolutely nothing. No Cu no nothing. And they deliver!
 
JoelA7 said:
I use distilled from Belmont Springs. Before deciding I spoke with one of their technicians and obtained a report of what was in there other than H2O. Absolutely nothing. No Cu no nothing. And they deliver!
Click to expand...

:lol:

That water is likely OK to use, but I'll note that never is "nothing" the amount of inorganic ions in a water sample. In their report on their distilled water, they say

"not detected, absent or present at less than testing method detection level"

but they do not tell you the limit of their detection for any ions, and they are comparing copper to an FDA allowed level of 1 ppm, which is hugely too much if it had even 1/10 that much.

So if they can detect 0.0001 ppm, then that is a good result. If they can only detect 0.1 ppm, it does not guarantee suitability. :)

FWIW, here's the report:

http://www.water.com/files/nonbrand/waterqualityreports/distilled_water_quality_report.pdf
 
2_zoa said:
Randy,

I appreciate the concern. I wonder just how much of the "distilled" water out there really is distilled. Any "distilled" water I've ever bought stated in small print on the bottom that it was made by reverse osmosis OR distillation. I'd have to put my money on RO over true distallilation. Much cheaper to produce.
Click to expand...

I have no idea, but distillation would seem to be an expensive process relative to RO. Maybe many have switched over time as RO was developed and implemented on a wider scale, but didn't want to upset customers who like to use "distilled water" for whatever application. :)
 
Above Randy stated:

So if they can detect 0.0001 ppm, then that is a good result. If they can only detect 0.1 ppm, it does not guarantee suitability.

FWIW, here's the report:

http://www.water.com/files/nonbrand/...ity_report.pdf

Which is all correct.

The technician I spoke with supplied me with a rather more detailed report, which I have on a 5 page pdf. If anyone would like it pm me your email and I'll forward.

WRT Cu, the limit of detection was 0.005 mg/L.

My tank is still "new" but the softies and LPS in it have very good extension. I'll try to get some photos up later.
 
That sounds a lot better. :) I still wouldn't use 0.005 ppm (5 ppb) copper water for top off, but the actual value is probably substantially lower. :)

FWIW, when I measured it, my tank ran about 13 ppb in copper and the RO/DI/Instant Ocean that I use had less than 10 ppb copper, which I determined was my limit of accurate quantitation.
 
Yeah I know Cu is very very bad for coral. But this distilled is a very good option for those of us with no space for an RO unit (Condo living..., a bit different than when I was in the burbs and plumbed to the basement for sump, water making, maintenance, etc...). And the fact that delivery is free is huge as I have 8 cases of 6 gallon jugs delivered every 2 weeks. Poor driver, it's by far his worst delivery. I'll have to tip him well at the holidays. :-)
 
JoelA7 said:
Yeah I know Cu is very very bad for coral. But this distilled is a very good option for those of us with no space for an RO unit (Condo living..., a bit different than when I was in the burbs and plumbed to the basement for sump, water making, maintenance, etc...). And the fact that delivery is free is huge as I have 8 cases of 6 gallon jugs delivered every 2 weeks. Poor driver, it's by far his worst delivery. I'll have to tip him well at the holidays. :-)
Click to expand...


IF, you wanted to get extreme. They make adapters for the faucet. You can set the unit on the counter and just let the waste flow into the sink. I've read of folks doing this all the time.

Just depends on how valuable your storage space is.:D
 
Purified water and drinking water sell at groceries are RO water unless it specifically stated that it is distilled water.
It is cheaper to purified water with RO than with distillation.
 
Ever actually see or even hear of anyone changing any of the filters on the grocery store water stations? I never have.
 
JoelA7 said:
Yeah I know Cu is very very bad for coral. But this distilled is a very good option for those of us with no space for an RO unit (Condo living..., a bit different than when I was in the burbs and plumbed to the basement for sump, water making, maintenance, etc...). And the fact that delivery is free is huge as I have 8 cases of 6 gallon jugs delivered every 2 weeks. Poor driver, it's by far his worst delivery. I'll have to tip him well at the holidays. :-)
Click to expand...

You have room for 8 cases of 6 gallon jugs but you don't have room for a RODI? Any time someone says they don't have room for RODI I think they must be living in a shoebox or something. If you've got room for a tank, then you've got room for RODI. Get a sink adapter and put it in the closet when you're not using it. Or behind the fish tank.
 
It's possible, but three reasons make this is less of a concern (IMO):

1. Copper isn't very soluble in "pure" ethanol coming off a still
2. Temperatures are lower than water stills, again decreasing the potential for copper release
3. The amounts dosed are so much lower than top off water that the copper concentration would need to be much higher to be a problem.
 
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