Water: Distilled vs purified vs everything else

[John]

With all due respect, Brita tests its products for human consumption, not for amphibians running around in it. In all likelihood it is fine for most amphibian purposes. However, I do not use water sources for sensitive amphibians like dart frogs unless I can guarantee consistent water chemistry. That's why I always start from distilled and add chemicals to it myself.

It simply isn't possible to guarantee consistent water quality using a small filtration system like a Brita. I don't speak from an amateur or advanced amateur point of view - I speak as a Ph.D. chemist whose research for almost a decade was concerned with water soluble substances, pollutants, and their removal.

[wesleybrouwer]

Indeed a great layout of the different types of water.

Maybe i read the thread not thoroughly enough.
But what i missed was a warning on this.

NEVER use pure osmose or distilled water on youre frogs for soaking purpose,
since it WILL kill them.
Because of the principal of reversed osmosis,
this water will extract minerals from you're frog to compensate the balance between the water in the frog and in the bowl.

There has been cases where people used purified water in order to soak the frogs for a treatment.
In a matter of minutes they will die because important minerals are extracted out of the animal.
ALWAYS mix it up with ventilated tapwater or rainwater to make the water less aggresive.
Same for people using any kind of automated rainsystems using metal spraying nozzles, the aggresive water will solve parts of the metal and spray this into you're tank.
Therefore, please use purified water with caution!