Drinking Water?
- Thread starter SRT80
- Start date
DMBillies
Active member
I sure hope I'm not wrong about this...
I sure hope I'm not wrong about this...
Because I live about 45 minutes from the Critter (which is where I like to shop most) I hate driving out there if all I need is water (whether top off water or for regular changes). As such, I've taken to buying the Culligan water from the Walmart that is 2 minutes down the street and mixing my own. From what I understand, the water gets charcoal treated, RO/DI, and then UV treated as it leaves the nozzle. Depending on where you go, they might not treat it that thoroughly, but I have had 0 problems with using it. I had used my own home water for a little while because that is what I always did with freshwater, but found out that it had a ton of copper in it, which was not good for almost anything in the tank (luckily I found out after only a couple of snails kicked the bucket and was able to treat with Cuprisorb and do a huge water change to fix the problem). I would say as long as they maintain their equipment, put it through an RO/DI unit, and don't add anything back to it, you're fine to use the water. There should be a maintenance schedule posted on the water dispenser that indicates when they last serviced the filters and most that I have seen have an explanation of how they process the water. I know a lot of people buy RO/DI units so that they can make their own water, so I see no reason that it isn't good enough. That said, I know that the Critter uses a little bit of a different method (can't remember what it is called) which is supposed to get even more impurities out.
Sorry about the novel...
I sure hope I'm not wrong about this...
Because I live about 45 minutes from the Critter (which is where I like to shop most) I hate driving out there if all I need is water (whether top off water or for regular changes). As such, I've taken to buying the Culligan water from the Walmart that is 2 minutes down the street and mixing my own. From what I understand, the water gets charcoal treated, RO/DI, and then UV treated as it leaves the nozzle. Depending on where you go, they might not treat it that thoroughly, but I have had 0 problems with using it. I had used my own home water for a little while because that is what I always did with freshwater, but found out that it had a ton of copper in it, which was not good for almost anything in the tank (luckily I found out after only a couple of snails kicked the bucket and was able to treat with Cuprisorb and do a huge water change to fix the problem). I would say as long as they maintain their equipment, put it through an RO/DI unit, and don't add anything back to it, you're fine to use the water. There should be a maintenance schedule posted on the water dispenser that indicates when they last serviced the filters and most that I have seen have an explanation of how they process the water. I know a lot of people buy RO/DI units so that they can make their own water, so I see no reason that it isn't good enough. That said, I know that the Critter uses a little bit of a different method (can't remember what it is called) which is supposed to get even more impurities out.
Sorry about the novel...
Angela Short
New member
FWIW I tested the water from the cool springs wal mart and it had a pretty high amount of phoshate in it with a salifert kit. I guess they just haven't cleaned there unit in awhile.
