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Can I Use Bottled Water For My Fish Tank?

With the popularity of the fish keeping hobby being at an all time high and the number of people purchasing their very first aquarium as well as some entry-level fish increasing every month, we have lost count of the number of questions that we see each month from the community about keeping fish.

We do see a wide range of questions but one that we have noticed more frequently from the community is about if you can use bottled water for your fish tank or not.

There is often debates on social media about if you should use bottled water, tap water, chemically treat water or something else to fill your fish tank so we wanted to publish our own article going over the topic.

Our hope is that we will be able to help as many of our readers as possible who are looking for advice on using bottled water in their fish tank and help clear up some of the incorrect information that we see on social media time and time again.

We have decided to focus on three main questions that most people tend to ask about using bottled water in their fish tank and our table of contents below should make it as quick and easy as possible to navigate the article.

Structuring the article in this way should make it as easy as possible to provide our readers with all of the information that they need to safely use bottled water in their fish tank and not put their fish at risk.

Can I Use Bottled Water For My Fish Tank?

You are able to use bottled water to fill your freshwater aquariums but you do have to make sure that the water in the bottle is not sparkling or flavored water.

Just because you can use bottled water doesn’t mean that you should though as bottled water is definitely one of the more expensive water sources for an aquarium!

The vast majority of our readers will be much better off simply using some tap water along with a decent tap water conditioning product to reduce any potential risk from the tap water.

A single bottle of high-quality tap water conditioner is able to purify a huge amount of tap water for your aquarium so it does work out to be considerably cheaper in the long run and the majority of our readers who are new to fish keeping tend to be on a budget making this the best choice.

One argument that we have seen people make with regards to using bottled water to fill their aquariums is that bottled water can be free from chlorine and chloramines but this is not always true.

You have to read the label carefully in some areas as companies can brand their bottled water as “natural spring water” due to it being sourced from a natural spring and then add chlorine or chloramines to it later.

Can You Use Bottled Spring Water in A Fish Tank?

Some people do use spring water to fill their fish tank but spring water can be rich in trace minerals due to the process of the water making its way into the spring that it is harvested from.

Depending on how sensitive the species of fish you keep are to their water parameters, these trace minerals may end up causing problems that could have easily been avoided.

This is we see so many people go wrong as they presume that spring water is natural and pure and although that is technically correct when it comes to human consumption, this may not be the case for sensitive fish.

This is due to the majority of fish people keep in their aquariums having been bred in captivity for generations and their immune systems having weakened due to being kept in optimal water conditions free from pollutants.

Although this does increase the quality of life of the majority of fish as it offers them the absolute best conditions to live in, it does cause some problems with their immune system where something as insignificant as trace minerals from bottled spring water may cause issues.

This is evident when people put their pet fish into bodies of natural water where that same species has lived without issue for long periods of time and the previously pet fish starts to clamp its fins as it is not used to the high mineral content of the water.

The Best Bottled Water For A Fish Tank!

The best bottled water for a fish tank is the one that has zero trace minerals in it to reduce the risk of the bottled water causing a flare up in your fish.

Thankfully, this is usually the cheaper bottled water produces that are essentially just tap water and this can help to keep your costs as low as possible!

Now, depending on your country, the laws and regulations for bottled water can literally allow people to bottle tap water and sell it with some fancy marketing so you should still read the label.

Even if you are taking this route of using bottled water without trace minerals in it, the water can still have chlorine and chloramines in the water meaning that you will have to use a decent tap water conditioning product on the water even though it is from a bottle.

This is why we just recommend that our readers go with tap water and a conditioning product for the water to remove the impurities to make it safe for their aquariums.

It is usually easier and cheaper with some bottled water products still needing you to use these conditioning products on them anyway with some bottled water having minerals in them that are actually good for humans but bad for fish.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over if you can use bottled water or not for your fish tank to an end. We hope that we have been able to help as many of our readers as possible and that we have been able to convince you to at least consider just using tap water. Although there is definitely a trend in the fish keeping community of using bottled water for your fish, there is usually no need to do it and there almost always being a much better, often cheaper alternative available that you can take advantage of instead.