# Distilled water vs. undistilled



## LAking (Aug 25, 2004)

Does a Tarantula need undistilled water to drink from? I know many people including myself use distilled water in their misting bottles because it does not leave mineral deposits on the glass of tanks, but is it any less beneficial for a T to drink from this water opposed to your standard filtered water? I know that distilled water is not as beneficial to humans and most other animals because it lacks the minerals that regular water has. Does this apply to T's as well? I just got my first arboreal T's and wanted to know if it was important to spray the tank with the undistilled water so when it drinks off of leaves it's getting the proper nutrition.


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## conipto (Aug 25, 2004)

There's been no evidence either way that it helps or doesn't help.  Most experienced keepers will tell you that they use tap water for their water dishes, and MAYBE mist with distilled - but only for aesthetics.  (No hard water spots on the glass / plastic)

Bill


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## Tony (Aug 25, 2004)

6+ years with tap water, not counting my short ownerships before that...
I'll use it right out of the tap sometimes, but most of the time I rotate 2 quarts in that has been sitting a day or two....I've heard the chlorine levels have been upped in Chicago water and I don't want an unnecessary risks... Friend told me this, works at a pet shop and said fish normally tolerant of tap water were dying and his friend from the treatment plant told him the levels are way up since 9/11. True? Who knows, but with something like P metallica I wouldn't want any risk when misting...
T


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## MilkmanWes (Aug 25, 2004)

I have a filter that the water runs through in my fridge. I get it out of the drink dispoenser there and let it come up to room temp before using it. Probably as good as bottled, but cheaper.


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## Sequin (Aug 25, 2004)

i use tap water with vitamin D3, for my t's and lizards......


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## Michael Jacobi (Aug 25, 2004)

*I've commented on this in another thread, but I'll summarize my opinions and practices here.

- if tap water is safe for you to drink and does not have an unpleasant taste or odor use it - preferably after allowing it to sit in an open container for at least 24 hours so that the chlorine dissapates

- if you have hard or soft or well or some other less desirable water coming out of your tap use bottled water/spring water for water dishes - I believe that the minerals in water are important for my reptiles; whether or not they are also important for my inverts is unstudied, but I like to think that mineral-free water for drinking is unnatural

- for misting use distilled water or reverse osmosis (R.O.) water to prevent unsightly mineral deposits; I am fortunate enough to have a wholesale customer here in town [a huge fish/reptile specialty shop] that fills two 5 gallon jugs each week for me from their high-tech R.O. system at no cost - that is what goes into my automatic misting systems on my gecko cages and into my misting bottles that I use for other herps and inverts

And finally, all tarantula cages containing spiders above approximately 2" in legspan should have a water dish in their cage (it is very difficult to provide a safe water dish for smaller spiders and frequent feedings will provide sufficient moisture). For arboreal species use a double cup system - one as a holder and one that is removable to replace or clean. I use 2 oz. condiment cups - one is attached to the side of the enclosure 2/3 of the way up (with hot glue for plastic and aquarium-safe silicone for glass) and the other is placed inside and kept filled with fresh aged tap water. I buy the cups by the thousand at Sam's Club and throw them away as necessary rather than clean them to save precious time. Misting may provide sufficient access to water, but it isn't there 24/7 and may not be there when they most need it. Plus, frequent misting is likely to create excessively damp conditions, which  leads to a host of problems. There are many who are completely anti-misting. I am not one of those. The problem is that many confuse light misting with saturation. Use common sense, ventilate well and allow substrate to completely dry between mistings. If you don't create dampness or stagnant humid air then a little simulated rainfall should be a good thing. Between misting there should be a water dish with clean water available - always.

Cheers, Michael*


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## cichlidsman (Aug 25, 2004)

i use tap water out of my plant spray bottle.  If i see the dish is low i will refill it with that water.  it may be in the spray bottle for sometimes 2 weeks.


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## Greg Wolfe (Aug 25, 2004)

*Water...*

I use tap water for my T's water dishes, but use filtered water for misting only because the water here is extremely hard and leaves mineral deposits that are hard to clean.


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## tarantula666 (Aug 25, 2004)

i think distilled water for drinking is not a good idea 
because of the difference in disolved minerals ( none in the Distilled water and a lot in the body )
you will get osmoses, the transfer of water to balance the concentration of minerals. for this reason drinking distilled water is also not recommended for people, so i guess for T's is also not recommended

you can try a simple experiment to see the effects

remove the eggshell of an egg (unboiled ) by putting it in vinager when the eggshell is gone you will have an egg with a thin peal keeping it together
now put it in distilled water and see what happens.

it will do a very good impression of the universe , it expands until it blows up   

imagin that happening to the cells of your stomach or your T's


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## Brian S (Aug 25, 2004)

I also use regular tap water. There is no chlorine in my water since we have our own well.


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## LAking (Aug 25, 2004)

OK, i'm not sure i got a straight answer after all those posts ;-)
I always have a water dish in my T enclosures and i keep it filled with tap water. I also use some water conditioner to remove the chlorine. Is this a bad idea? I live in Los Angeles and we have pretty high levels of Chlorine from what I've heard over the years. My question has more to do with distilled water though. Distilled is different then regular filtered water. From what i understand, all the minerals have been removed, thus taking away much of the benefits of drinking water. Regular filtered water (like Sparklets, or from your fridge's dispenser) still has those minerls. It's just that the chlorine and other possible chemicals have been removed. Am i right about this stuff? 

All i want to know is if it's OK to mist the tank with the distilled while keeping tap water in a dish? I've heard of some Arboreals not using their water dish and just drinking from the mist on the leaves. That's what i'm worried about.


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## tarantula666 (Aug 26, 2004)

the distiled water should not be used for drinking , not by humans or any other creature , because of the effcts of osmoses there can be cellular damage
for humans just drinking one glass of distilled water CAN cause severe stomach aches, drinking more can even lead to stomach bleeding
if you have lots of chlorine in your tap water you could use bottled water for your T's
unfortunatly i can't tell you anything about the conditioned water, have no idea how that works and if there are still unwanted chemicals remaining.
i live in the netherlands and our tap water is probably the cleanest in the world. so i don't have to worry about that stuff to much


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## David_F (Aug 26, 2004)

For just misting, to keep humidity up, distilled should be okay.  For drinking, tap water is fine.  The minerals present in tap water, filtered water, etc are necessary for most animals to my knowledge.  Can't see how it would be different for Ts.


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## caligulathegod (Aug 26, 2004)

Distilled water being bad for consumption is a myth.  We don't get our minerals from water, we get it from our food.  Distilled water doesn't leech minerals from cells.  It removes waste and unused minerals, but not those already bound in our cellular structure.  Considering drinking water only has a few parts per million of minerals and yet has the capacity to become completely saturated (to the point of becoming concrete), common sense alone should tell you that 17 parts per million isn't going to protect you from water leeching your minerals if it would so choose.


As far as chlorine, if we were filling a fish tank we could be concerned; but all one need do is leave water in an open container over night and the chlorine evaporates.  Tarantula water dishes are pretty shallow.  I wouldn't think that it wouldn't take too long for the chlorine to evaporate from them.  It's not like tarantulas run right over the the dish and start slurping away like a dog.


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## tarantula666 (Aug 26, 2004)

> Distilled water doesn't leech minerals from cells


indeed it doesn't leech minerals from the cells

osmoses is the transfer of water (H2O) not minerals or larger molecules such as proteïns 

the cells soke up the distilled water, wich if you take in enough distilled water
can lead to cells bursting

most of the molecules inside a cell are to large to pass through the membrane
but water can move freely in and out through this membrane

just try the experiment with the egg and see the effects for yourself

 NaOCl + NaCl + H2O. (called sodium hypochlorite) is added to chlorinate water, when leaving it the chlorine will evaporate creating CL2 wich is chlorine gass  ,wich is very toxic , used in the first world war to gass thousands of soldiers in their trenches

probably the amount released from a T's waterdish isn't enough to kill it , but healty ????  i don't think so .

if you can use undistilled and unchlorinated water, do so !!!
that's just my advise


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## caligulathegod (Aug 26, 2004)

I've read much conflicting opinion this and even the fact there is a conflict says something.  If something were known to be true, then there would be some evidence one way or the other.  From what I've read, some of this might be true of de-ionized water, but not distilled water.  This is just something people assume to be true with nothing to support it.  There are too many people drinking it without falling over dead, let alone a stomach ache from one glass, for me to believe this.  The body is over 60% water.  If the cells were that eager to absorb water then 15-30 ppm isn't going to stop them.


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## tarantula666 (Aug 26, 2004)

like i said, try the experiment and see for yourself.


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## word (Aug 26, 2004)

tarantula666 said:
			
		

> the distiled water should not be used for drinking , not by humans or any other creature , because of the effcts of osmoses there can be cellular damage


wow, this is an amazing untruth!  there may be reasons for not drinking distilled water but this is certainly not one of them.


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## word (Aug 26, 2004)

tarantula666 said:
			
		

> like i said, try the experiment and see for yourself.


try the experiment with distilled and tap water   you'll find the same results.


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## caligulathegod (Aug 26, 2004)

word said:
			
		

> try the experiment with distilled and tap water   you'll find the same results.


 That's what I was thinking.  Unfortunately, I'm out of vinegar.  I need to get some.


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## caligulathegod (Aug 26, 2004)

If one were to drink nothing but distilled water (or any water, for that matter) with no food for an extended period of time, then some of this might be true.  Our kidneys would work overtime in trying to keep the body's salts and minerals.  We get salts and minerals from our food.  Water is just a medium.  The salts and minerals you get from that hamburger you had for lunch more than make up for any supposed lack thereof from distilled water.  I'd say the same for your tarantula's cricket dinner.  Plus, it's not like tarantulas are drinking massive quantities of water.  They get most of theirs from their food.  That little bit one might drink from its water dish is not nearly enough to cause a tarantula any harm.


In which case, the egg experiment proves nothing.  Your cells don't get exposed to nothing but pure water for extended periods of time with no other sources of minerals, etc.


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## LAking (Aug 26, 2004)

word said:
			
		

> wow, this is an amazing untruth!  there may be reasons for not drinking distilled water but this is certainly not one of them.



That's what i was thinking. If distilled water were so dangerous they probably wouldn't be selling it in the "drinking water" isles in super markets and the labels wouldn't say "drinking water" either.


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## tarantula666 (Aug 27, 2004)

strange.....
here in the netherlands distilled water is in the cleaning liquids section in the supermarket , next to items such as chlorine, ammonia, and thinner
and is labeld : not for human consumption.


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## Tamara (Aug 27, 2004)

The main reason why it would be labelled that way is because distillation does not remove certain volatile organic chemicals and chlorinated hydrocarbons. Before distilled water is safe for consumption, it should be followed by solid carbon filtration. That's why the distilled water is not in the drinking isle at your supermarket. Mineral depletion in the body from distilled water fasting occurs only after long periods, not from one glass. In fact, distilled water may be recommended for certain detox diets because it acts, over time, like a magnetic charge to pull out toxins. Overall, mineral water is the best for consumption, but there is no great fear from drinking distilled water provided it has been carbon filtered as well.
Tamara


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