Difference Between Ro/di And Distilled Water?

[jiggy]

whats the difference between ro/di and distilled water?
by distilled i mean, filling up a container with tap, treating the water with conditioner, and letting it sit for at least 24 hours...

bottled water is just distilled tap water isnt it?

 

[badpacket]

Don't take this the wrong way, but you really should consider using Google or a dictionary. Tap water treated with conditioner is just tap water treated with conditioner. Distilled is, well a 10 second search on that and reef will give you a lot of information.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I discuss my concerns with using tap water (treated or not) in this article:

Tap Water in Reef Aquaria
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2004/chem.htm

I discuss how RO/DI works and what it removes in this article:

Reverse Osmosis/Deionization Systems to Purify Tap Water for Reef Aquaria
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/index.htm


Distilled water is created by boiling water to steam, and then condensing the steam to liquid water again. It is a good purification method IF the cooling coils are not metal and especially not copper. In store bought distilled water, they likely are metal and may be copper, so it wouldn't be my recommendation.