A dying question?

[shimmy]

Yes I remove all the desired amount of water I intend on replacing first before I add any new water to the system and I picked up a rubber tub last night and just looking for an old powerhead to make the water changes more affective. Yes the way I do things is lots of work but I do not have lots of room in my condo to have a fancy setup.
I stopped using tap water and started using purified bottled water (the 5 gallon jugs that you fill up at the grocery store) about a week ago and never had any problem with that water. Is that bad water to be using for my thinking was if it is purified and good enough for me to drink why not them?

[mike31154]

Using the grocery store water is a good start, but ultimately it's going to be another chore and expense that would be better addressed by getting an RO DI system. I'm pretty sure that the water from the store is RO (reverse osmosis) only and it will still have some TDS (total dissolved solids) in it. The DI (de-ionization or demineralization by ionization) stage of a RO DI system will bring the TDS of your water to 0 so you're mixing your salt in absolutely pure water. Check out some of the threads and info on RODI systems and you will find plenty of information. The initial investment may seem costly and although I don't know what your store charges for the bottled water, in the long run you will have better results and save money with your own RO DI system, especially with a 72 gal tank. The trips to the store for water will get old fairly quickly. As mentioned I do fairly large water changes on my 77 gal, about 25 gallons each time and I would not enjoy hauling that amount of water from the store every few weeks.