# Keeping bettas in distilled water?



## firebelly (Jul 11, 2012)

We have rock hard tap water here in LA so I've been mixing my tap water with distilled (half tap, half distilled) but my betta's fins are still curling. Is it a bad idea to just go 100% distilled with Seachem Equilibrium? 

Also, is there an actual difference between distilled and RO water? I keep reading different things but no actual answer. I like distilled because I can just buy it at the grocery store in gallon jugs, so I'd rather stick with that if I can.


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## Mr Degausser (Apr 22, 2013)

Distilled water has no minerals in it, so it's not a good idea to use 100% distilled water.

I'm pretty sure there IS a difference between distilled and RO water, but I'm not positive about what it is.

Have you tested the PH of your water as well? 

Driftwood is a good natural way to keep the PH down, and I've also heard that it softens the water too.


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## Mashiro (Dec 2, 2012)

Did a little Googling and found this article for you detailing the differences between distilled and RO water. ^_^

http://blog.reverseosmosis.com/2010/12/difference-between-distilled-reverse.html


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## DefStatic (Mar 17, 2013)

Why not use non-distilled?


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## firebelly (Jul 11, 2012)

My tap water is really hard (last I measured it was around 14dh, pH out of the tap is around 8). It's making my halfmoon's fins curl and look all distorted ): I've been mixing it with distilled but it doesn't seem soft enough for him. I remember hearing that if you're importing a betta from Thailand you have to keep him in RO water because they can't handle hardness/high pH at all so I'm just curious if I can use 100% distilled with Seachem Equilibrium to add the minerals back in since I don't have access to an RO unit.


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## sainthogan (Sep 27, 2012)

From what I understand, once their fins are curled, they will always be curled, regardless of what you do to the water after that. This is true in my female's case. Her anal fin is curled from hard water from the pet store, and now that she's in relatively normal water, it's still curled. My male on the other hand has perfect fins.


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## ShukiAi (Feb 15, 2012)

I was scared about using my tap water as well so when I first started out I would buy 2 gallon jugs of "drinking water" from Walmart. All my fish did just fine with it so instead of distilled go with drinking water?


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## logisticsguy (Sep 7, 2012)

I have rockhard tap water too. You must be very very careful here. It can be very dangerous to mix tap with distilled and RO ect. This is because you can create huge fluctuations in your params. All changes must be done very slowly and params must stay consistent. I suggest having a test kit handy and proceed with caution.


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