# Is spring water ok for my fish?



## v-paw (Feb 17, 2013)

For the past 7 years that I had fish, I never treated the water I gave them, I don't give them tap water of course. I gimp e them spring water, the water my whole family drinks and we get it from water and ice. They always seemed fine. Is it ok to give them that., should I treat it? 


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## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

Actually, you should be using tap water and use tap water conditioner to dechlorinate the water.


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## v-paw (Feb 17, 2013)

What is the difference between that and spring water? I don't wanna buy conditioners, I'd rather give them nice water the pat we drink. Is that harmful?


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## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

I'm not sure about the differences, but I can almost guarantee that just about everyone on this forum uses tap water. That's why we have to adjust the pH and other water parameters to suit our fish.


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## ivwarrior (Jul 27, 2008)

You say you've been using spring water for seven years. I'd think if it was a problem, you'd have realized it a long time ago. I say if it's not broke, don't fix it.

Tap water comes from many sources, some better than others. Some is spring water, some ground water (wells) other places use stream/river water. Some areas use a combination of sources.


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

I think it depends on where you live. Are there any industries or areas where oil or antifreeze, or runoff from a coal mine etc ?


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

speak for yourself joey..lol..i don't do anything to condition my tapwater other then dechlorinating...and i don't often do that even...the only time i dechlorinate is when i set up a new tank or when i do more than a 40% water change.....
i don't see that "spring" water should be much of a problem..


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## v-paw (Feb 17, 2013)

Oh ya, I live in a place where some people drink tap water, it's a desert... Hills... The spring water is from a store called water and ice and you bring your jugs there and fill them up with spring water. So that's what I've always done. Haha I guess if its been this long it shouldn't be a problem XD


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## weedkiller (Nov 18, 2012)

I add stress coat to my tap/r.o water nothing more... there are some that use spring water as it is natural source and should be perfect as long as there are no contaminates upstream as bv77 says, think if I had a natural spring running through my back yard I would use it.
get a good test kit and test the water before you use it to satisfy yourself


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I really think "spring water" is a pretty vague term. Although it should be water from a natural spring (water coming up from the ground) which usually has more minerals than surface water (water from rain) some commercial "spring water" is filtered tap or surface water or well water with minerals such as epsom salts added to give it some taste. Most are fine for fish but some formulas are "unbalanced" and if you were a control freak, you'd want to know what's in it an supplement what isn't. Once you start messing with supplements though, you might as well get RO instead and add everything back.

I agree with the "if ain't broke, don't fix it" advice. If the fish are doing well don't change their water source without a reason. And if you do change it, do so gradually.


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## PuterChickFL (Feb 23, 2010)

bullseyejoey said:


> I'm not sure about the differences, but I can almost guarantee that just about everyone on this forum uses tap water. That's why we have to adjust the pH and other water parameters to suit our fish.


I would almost guarantee not.

v-paw, stick to the spring water. it's probably the closest to ro/di water I can think of, which is void of all the stuff that is usually in tap water. the water machine I used to get my water from was ro/di, so now i have the system at home


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