# Using Brita Filter for aquarium



## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

You can but expensive. Your TDS should be 0, with 0 GH, and more importantly, 0 kH and no minerals.
If you want to use it in your tank you will need to remineralize it.


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## Edward (Apr 11, 2005)

OVT said:


> You can but expensive. Your TDS should be 0, with 0 GH, and more importantly, 0 kH and no minerals.
> If you want to use it in your tank you will need to remineralize it.


 How would you do it?


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## Ken Keating1 (Nov 22, 2017)

I believe there's some confusion here on the Brita Filters. Brita makes different products, the most common being the pitcher type where you fill the top part of the filter, water trickles through the water cartridge(which to me looks like activated carbon), and into the pitcher for drinking. The filter cartridge filters out some contaminates, but nothing near that of a RODI system.


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> You can but expensive. Your TDS should be 0, with 0 GH, and more importantly, 0 kH and no minerals.
> If you want to use it in your tank you will need to remineralize it.


Most Brita filters sold are basic carbon filters to improve test and remove organics. Britt does sell RO systems but I don't believe that is about. 

If it is a basic filter system it is OK to use. However if it is a RO system remineralize the water with a sulfate GH booster such as Sachem Equilibrium or nilocg GH booster.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Brita "pitcher" filters reduce copper, mercury, zinc, chlorine, cadmium, lead, asbestos, and benzene, as per their User Guide. Most of that stuff should not be in your tap to begin with. I cannot find any claims to lower pH.


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> Brita "pitcher" filters reduce copper, mercury, zinc, chlorine, cadmium, lead, asbestos, and benzene, as per their User Guide. Most of that stuff should not be in your tap to begin with. I cannot find any claims to lower pH.


If you home has copper pipes you will have copper in your water. My tap water has 0.06ppm of copper in it. Some older homes actually have Lead pipes. Water utilities are required to add stuff to the water to limit corrosion of pipes. A few years ago flint Michigan decided to stop adding corrosion inhibiters to the water to save money. Lead pipes started to corrode and people got sick. Eventually people found out and some people in the water utility convicted . Flint is now replacing lead pipes with Copper. They hope to be finished in a couple of years. Orthophosphate is frequently added to water to inhibit corrosion of pipes. 

Chlorine is commonly used to kill bacteria in water. There is a 99% chance chlorine is in the northern california water you drink. 

Abestos is a type of rock found in nature. Some Well water is sometimes rich in asbestos and or, arsenic and some heavy metals .

Zinc is a plant nutrient and is typically found in small amount in streams and rivers. Cadmium Mercury can also come from rocks or pollution. Benzene is present in gasoline. Small spills from cars and motor boats can often result in very small amounts in drinking water. 

Water utilities do what they can to minimize these contaminates so that the water is safe to drink. But problems can and do occur from time to time and sometimes the contaminate levels go up. Water utilities often test their water to catch and correct problems before you know about them. Some small community water utilities only provide suitable for hygiene, cleaning and gardening and recommend that you do not drink it. 

I don't know why his PH dropped so much. We simply don't know enough about the filter and what was in the water to determine that


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

No argument with any of the above. That is why we switched from Brita to Zero Water https://www.zerowater.com

My answer was: it's expensive and I have no idea how they lower pH. Maybe for a 10g? What is the throughput of those $50 systems?

There multiple alternatives for larger water volumes, none are that cheap or convinient.


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## Edward (Apr 11, 2005)

Some Brita “filters” from function description are made of carbon and cati ion exchange resin regenerated with HCl. Carbon removes organics, chlorine and cati removes metals, leaving acidic molecules. 

Yes you can use it, but need to monitor GH, KH and pH.


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## Ron_E (Apr 14, 2021)

Do I need to add anything to the water after filtering withe the Cleanwater filter?

Sent from my SM-T830 using Tapatalk


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