Remineralize Distilled Water

[AydenLincoln]

I got off track and started a whole other discussion on someone’s post oops. Anyway, so I started to top off with distilled water when I accidentally spilled my bucket of fresh RODI water/used it all, and it dropped my calcium and magnesium levels, etc., to critically low levels. I even talked to my lfs about this and started adding Reef Complete to my top-off water, and everything has been good. After doing some further reading, it’s recommended that remineralize distilled water most mentioned freshwater because the water is too pure, but I did read some articles about adding minerals to distilled water in a reef tank. Others have mixed things to say. Please note I’m referring to top-off water, not saltwater which has the added minerals in the salt mix. Does anyone else do this too? Thoughts? And I’m aware RODI water and distilled are both pure forms of water. This is based off my personal experience and some reading.

 

[Karen00]

I top off with distilled and have never had my levels drop. RODI and distilled are almost the same. Are you sure something else isn't going on? The only time I have read about remineralizing distilled is for freshwater tanks. The salt mixes we use in ours are the minerals. I could only see levels dropping with distilled if the topoff is more than what has actually evaporated but that would happen with RODI as well. Both RODI and distilled are supposed to have 0 TDS.

I'm sure others will chime in but I have never had this issue with distilled.

 

[Sean Clark]

I would say that the drop in minerals was a result of a lowering of salinity, the rodi and distilled water have the same chemical composition and are basically interchangeable. The only difference is the process which they are derived from.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I top off with distilled and have never had my levels drop. RODI and distilled are almost the same. Are you sure something else isn't going on? The only time I have read about remineralizing distilled is for freshwater tanks. The salt mixes we use in ours are the minerals. I could only see levels dropping with distilled if the topoff is more than what has actually evaporated but that would happen with RODI as well. Both RODI and distilled are supposed to have 0 TDS.

I'm sure others will chime in but I have never had this issue with distilled.

Yes because I used fresh RODI water first and levels were all good and then I started using distilled but never added anything and my levels dropped low. I got it tested at my lfs and in addition to testing myself and they told me it was probably the cause (it’s also where I get my saltwater and did get my RODI water) and when I started adding minerals to my distilled water everything went back up and has been stable so it’s the only logical explanation I can see. So now I have a happy tank and corals that seem to be growing faster than before despite my tank being a few months old.

 

[sfin52]

I would expect a salinity drop as well. if you put that much fresh water in to dilute elements to extremely low lvls.

How much did you put in? What where the numbers before and after?

 

[sfin52]

What type of corals and how big a system.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I would expect a salinity drop as well. if you put that much fresh water in to dilute elements to extremely low lvls.

How much did you put in? What where the numbers before and after?

You know I never thought of this as being a possibility lol as it was also before I got my ato…but I did a cup or two a day. So it’s possibly that this is the answer.

 

[AydenLincoln]

What type of corals and how big a system.

It’s a 20 gallon and various corals but I will say my levels haven been steady and I add it to my ato reservoir weekly or whenever I need to add more water which is about once a week

 

[sfin52]

It’s a 20 gallon and various corals but I will say my levels haven been steady and I add it to my ato reservoir weekly or whenever I need to add more water which is about once

What are you adding to rodi?

 

[AydenLincoln]

What are you adding to rodi?

Reef Complete but I add like half a capful to my ato reservoir not directly in the tank.

 

[sfin52]

Sorry that’s important lol Reef Complete.

If you have corline and coral growing they will use alk and calcium. But you still didn't tell us your numbers before and after.

 

[AydenLincoln]

If you have corline and coral growing they will use alk and calcium. But you still didn't tell us your numbers before and after.

400 pm on calcium and 890 magnesium before and now close to natural seawater I believe last I tested not too long ago that is looking at the chart in the Salifert Kit. I need to test it again and will let you know.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

If I remember correctly you have a Nano tank. If you accidentally added more RODI than just what evaporated, this will reduce your salinity and drop all the big 3 equivalently. Ex if your salinity was 35ppt 9dkh 450Ca 1350mg before and salinity dropped to 30ppt I would fully expect 8.7dkh 385ca 1157mg.

If you overdo it on the top off by just a little bit (ex lowered tank salinity by less than 1ppt), it won't hurt beginner friendly corals. Just let the extra evaporate out and your parameters will get back in check on their own.

If you dump waaay to much in, remove some of the water and replace with saltwater until the change is less than 1ppt (you can mix higher salinity in these cases)

I looked up reef complete by seachem and this will not fix your parameters as a single additive. It only contains calcium and magnesium. It does not contain any carbonate, bicarbonate, or hydroxide which is the other half of the coral skeleton building block needed to maintain alkalinity.

For your size tank, parameters can be kept stable purely from water changes. It's too easy to overdose with an additive in that small of a tank and a 25% water change on a nano is real cheap. If you do want to dose to limit water changes, you are going to also need baking soda to maintain the alkalinity. Unless you have substantial corraline algae and stoney corals like SPS or LPS you should not need to dose at all.

 

[Sean Clark]

400 pm on calcium and 890 magnesium before and now close to natural seawater I believe last I tested not too long ago that is looking at the chart in the Salifert Kit. I need to test it again and will let you know.

890 mag?

 

[AydenLincoln]

If I remember correctly you have a Nano tank. If you accidentally added more RODI than just what evaporated, this will reduce your salinity and drop all the big 3 equivalently. Ex if your salinity was 35ppt 9dkh 450Ca 1350mg before and salinity dropped to 30ppt I would fully expect 8.7dkh 385ca 1157mg.

If you overdo it on the top off by just a little bit (ex lowered tank salinity by less than 1ppt), it won't hurt beginner friendly corals. Just let the extra evaporate out and your parameters will get back in check on their own.

If you dump waaay to much in, remove some of the water and replace with saltwater until the change is less than 1ppt (you can mix higher salinity in these cases)

I looked up reef complete by seachem and this will not fix your parameters as a single additive. It only contains calcium and magnesium. It does not contain any carbonate, bicarbonate, or hydroxide which is the other half of the coral skeleton building block needed to maintain alkalinity.

For your size tank, parameters can be kept stable purely from water changes. It's too easy to overdose with an additive in that small of a tank and a 25% water change on a nano is real cheap. If you do want to dose to limit water changes, you are going to also need baking soda to maintain the alkalinity. Unless you have substantial corraline algae and stoney corals like SPS or LPS you should not need to dose at all.

I do weekly water changes too.

 

[AydenLincoln]

890 mag?

Yes!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Reef Complete but I add like half a capful to my ato reservoir not directly in the tank.

So basically you're saying that you need to dose your tank due to coral consumption of alk, ca, and Mg; NOT that distilled water caused your levels to drop.

 

[AydenLincoln]

So basically you're saying that you need to dose your tank due to coral consumption of alk, ca, and Mg; NOT that distilled water caused your levels to drop.

No because this was in the beginning before I added any corals. Like a few months ago after adding distilled water for a few weeks but as someone suggested it’s possible that sample that I took to my lfs was diluted with too much freshwater.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

400 pm on calcium and 890 magnesium before and now close to natural seawater I believe last I tested not too long ago that is looking at the chart in the Salifert Kit. I need to test it again and will let you know.

Check your salinity asap. That kind of drop in magnesium is only possible if your salinity is incredibly low like below 25ppt. That low of salinity is deadly to corals.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

No because this was in the beginning before I added any corals. Like a few months ago after adding distilled water for a few weeks but as someone suggested it’s possible that sample that I took to my lfs was diluted with too much freshwater.

Why would you be dosing (or even testing) these parameters if you didn't have coral?
I think you've gotten some bad info from your LFS...