Terry

I'm not sure if this post belongs here, but it may be the best place.

About a year ago I set up a small tank in my office, and one of the guys I work with did the same. My fish thrived and he had continual problems with keeping his alive. He'd buy fish and they'd always end up sick and dyeing after only a day or two. We compared what we each did with our tanks and eliminated, one by one, what he had done differently than me. We eliminated things like the fabric type plants he had, in favor of plastic plants like I was using, compared tank temperatures, etc., etc. By the time we got done we ran out of things to try until I thought of the actual water itself!

I had been using dechlorinated tap water and I found he had been using the bottled water from the office water coolers. As soon as he went to using tap water his fish started thriving. The only thing I could think of was that the water in those big bottles used in the water coolers was treated with something - maybe algaecide or biocide to keep the water clean? Whatever it was there was something in that water that would not support fish life. It wasn't pH or hardness, it was something else that we couldn't determine via simple tests in the lab we have on site. I doubt if this is true with all bottled water, but it's one more thing to consider when you get stumped trying to solve a problem.

justhelping

I really don't know much about water, but I've read a few discussions on this subject. It seems that it is not because something has been added to bottled water that it kills fish, but what has been taken out of the water. Apparently, during the process of making bottled water, the life source is removed. Whatever that is? lol

This is not to say that you should never use ANY bottled water in a fish tank. It is used by many people in different amounts, added to their regular aquarium water in order to soften it.

This is all here-say, as I have read it in different articles, but can't produce those articles for you, as I don't remember where I read it at. But if fish can't live in bottled water cause the life force has been removed, doesn't it make you wonder what exactly you are drinking when you tip up that cup or bottle of water to drink?

If anyone is really interested in the subject, I suppose they could find more info. on it if they searched the web..

Butterfly

There are certain minerals that are in tap water that fish need and have been removed (read purified out of) from bottled water. It would be like a human having a vitamin deficiency for fish to live only in bottled water.
Carol