Hi, I was wondering since i don't have an RODI system, could i use distilled? I heard that i shouldn't because some components aren't broken down all the way. but i would love to know your guys opinion on it!
A good RO/DI system will produce purer water than the distillation process. This is because certain impurities have a lower boiling than water and can "tag along" as the steam is converted back to water. In the absence of RO/DI, distilled water is your best option. It will have less impurities than tap water. You can add Seachem Prime, or something similar, to the distilled water as a safeguard.
Id choose distilled water any day over ro/di. Yes you can use distilled water for the reef.
My reasons are many. But basically it comes down to that distilled water is made simply and if you don't monitor it, it should still produce 0tds. Unlike a ro/di. An ro doesnt filter to zero on its own. Usually it purifes to 20-2ppm on its own. Those remaining impurities need to be removed by the deion resin. Which can only remove like 340-600ppm of tds. So when that runs out it will surprise you with bad water.
Heres how complicated an ro/di is:
Tap water-sediment filter- carbon filter (all to protect the ro membrane from damage)- then reverse osmosis membrane(which can leak ammonia) then to the deionization resin. Now you got clean water.
Heres how a distiller works:
Tap water- boil water- collect steam- carbon filter for organics. Pure water.
Now answer this question, which system would be more likely to produce failure?
Ro/di
Id use distilled if it wasnt so expensive to boil water. But yeah you can use distilled as long as the coils that made it arnt made of copper. Most are stainless steel though.
As a matter of fact I use snow now for my reef lol. The tds of snow is 0-1. Pretty good for free. But it hasnt snowed in a while and I need to use my ro filter
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