Distilled VS. R/O

[BigLou]

I was thinking about trying to use distilled water, instead of going to spend a whole bunch of money on an R/O. For those of you who don't know, distilled is when you evaporate water and collect the evaporation. I was wondering if anyone knows the difference between the output of water quality. They both seem to be pure water, so I would think distilled would be good.

 

[Great Lakes]

Well, distilled can be OK for when you are doing water changes, thus mixing it with salt giving it the ability to buffer for ph.

But otherwise, distilled has no buffering abilities, meaning if you are using for say, top off reasons, it could induce a ph swing.

GL

 

[Phantom Thief]

Well, distilled can be OK for when you are doing water changes, thus mixing it with salt giving it the ability to buffer for ph.

But otherwise, distilled has no buffering abilities, meaning if you are using for say, top off reasons, it could induce a ph swing.

GL

R/O is pretty much exactly the same thing.

It doesn't have any buffering capabilities either, because it's pure water.

P.T.

 

[Navarre]

Simply boiling water and collecting the evaporation isnt good enough. As soon as the water turns to steam it will collect particles of dust and nutrients from the air very quickly and thus it will probably still contain nutrients. Agreed that you may well get rid of a few eliments but for it to be a completely viable option you would need to operate it in a near vacuum ) RO water is a far better option and far more effiicient.

 

[BigLou]

R/O water won't do the same thing and still become contaminated through contact with the air?

 

[Navarre]

RO is usually used immediately and thus only its surface layer comes into contact. RO water is uaually stored in airtight and light proof containers thus minimising the chance of contamination.

Distilled water forms in steam first of all.. 1st point of contact... then it must collect and condense 2nd point of contact, and finally stored in large containers which (depending how its stored) is a 3rd point of contact.

There is a person I know on another forum who works in a laboratory, she has the apparatus to create and store distilled water in what I would say is perfect conditions yet she chooses to use RO water over distilled. Im no chemist so i really dont know any other reason why this would be done other than i have mentioned .


I guess Ro water is simply easier to create and store than Distilled at the end of the day... trying to get enough distilled water fora top up of my tank (roughly a gallon a day) would be difficult.