Water for fruit fly media?

[beatsnotbombs]

Tap water vs distilled water?

I have this fruit fly media my AP bio teacher gave me-I'm supposed to just mix in equal parts distilled water.

Is there a difference? The media was used to culture Melanogaster, will this work with hydei? Thanks!

 

[itzjustjeff]

Distilled or RO water works best!

 

[PhilinYuma]

Distilled or RO water works best!

Why?

 

[jcal]

I use tap water all the time. I boil it so it mixes faster.

 

[Rick]

It is difference. However, I always used tap water.

 

[ismart]

Why?

I would think because there are no chemicals, or little organisms swimming around in distilled water? I suppose it's the same reason why i would not drink tap water, and only filtered water.

 

[frogparty]

the biggest difference comes from whether you have your tap water treated with chlorine or chloramine. chloramine doesnt dissipate with boiling

 

[Termite48]

When in doubt with culturing, why not use drinking water to be safe? Who knows what is in the municipal water where you live, without a test?

 

[ZenViouS]

I say tap or spring water because in the end you're trying to get microorganisms to begin breaking down the media and decomposing it. Could be easier if there're already some minerals and such in the water to aid your micro life. BUT in a scientific environment (ei lab since you're doing this for AP bio) the distilled could be your best choice to reduce your risk of harmful mold to start growing in the culture. The medium should already have mold inhibitors but why add another independent variable?

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Why?

This brief list of water contaminants that could very likely be present in your tap water is representative but hardly exhaustive of the full range of drinking water contaminants. According to one recent research study, there are now more than 2100 known toxins that can be present in tap water.

• Chlorine: Chlorine is perhaps one of the most dangerous and insidious poisons in our drinking water supply. Surprisingly, it is a municipal additive to drinking water. Water treatment facilities use chlorine as a powerful disinfectant to kill or inactivate biological water contaminants, but that same chlorine that is so toxic to biological contaminants is also poisonous to our bodies. Chlorine in drinking water is currently a leading cause of bladder and rectal cancer and asthma. Health officials are now linking chlorine ingestion to breast cancer, as well.
  Lead: Lead makes its way into tap water through corrosion of the pipes in a home's plumbing system. Because lead contamination occurs after municipal treatment, there is no way that municipal facilities can control for it. Lead in drinking water is especially harmful for young children and pregnant mothers. Ingestion of lead can result in severe developmental delays and/or learning disorders in children.
  Giardia and Cryptosporidium: Giardia and Cryptosporidium have been the plague of the water treatment industry for several decades. Resistant to chlorine, these protozoa can lead to severe and widespread outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease if released into a municipal water system. They often make their way into tap water via sanitation breakdowns, and municipal water treatment facilities have no way to control for them.
  

Clearly, tap water is unsafe and unsuitable for drinking, and bottled water is not as safe as we would like it to be. In many cases, bottled water is nothing more than reconstituted, rebottled tap water. The only viable solution to the problems of tap water lies in home water filtration. Water filters, with their use of both chemical and physical processes to block contaminant passage, are the only type of water treatment that can effectively and efficiently remove chlorine and reduce other dangerous contaminants from drinking water. The dangerous nature of tap water clearly warrants the use of a drinking water filter.

 

[meaganelise9]

I agree. My tap water is loaded with chlorine. Why risk it when cleaner water is available?

 

[PhilinYuma]

I found this on the CDC website: "Ensuring safe and healthy drinking water may be as simple as turning on the tap from an EPA-regulated public water system." Unless I'm misunderstanding you, Nick, it would seem that if you are right, CDC must be wrong. Is that true?

​

I have not had any problems with the local water, which has more than its share of dissolved solids, and microbes that are pathogenic to humans are not likely to affect fruit flies --pathogens are usually host specific -- and I imagine that most of the chlorine is driven out in the mixing process and again, I cannot imagine how it would adversely affect either humans or insects. The usual critters that are affected by high chlorine levels are fish, because their gills are bathed in the stuff and can become irritated. It's an interesting topic, though.

​

 

[meaganelise9]

The chlorine is also there to kill things like brain-eating amoebas (unless you live in Louisiana).. heh. It's also used in insecticides.

 

[frogparty]

remember to find out if your water district uses CHLORAMINE instead of CHLORINE. Chloramine is much harder to remove from your water.

I bring home deionized water from work

 

[angelofdeathzz]

@ Phil:

I need only smell and taste the difference between tap water and a filtered(from my sink) or bottled "SPRING" water to know that me and my family don't drink from the tap, no parts per million meter needed, and I live in the metro Detroit area which believe it or not is supposed to have some of the best tap water in the USA.

But in all fairness I do speak about the long haul in people, not so much in a ff culture, but all my culture's do get filtered water as well as my misted mantis and even my daughters guinea pig, lol. It just comes down to personal preference.

 

[lunarstorm]

Tap water conditions vary greatly, I suspect some (maybe even most) tap water is perfectly fine for ff cultures but YMMV.

Personally, I use distilled water for all of my mantid activity - misting, cultures, etc. I suspect it might be unnecessary but I don't want hard water stains on my enclosures and the cost of distilled water (~$1.00 per gallon) is worth the peace of mind that my nymphs and feeders are getting water with minimal amounts of additives intended for human consumption.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yeah, I think that folks who say they use distilled/filtered water for their own peace of mind are in an unassailable position.

In addition to any scientific considerations, though, I am a foreigner, and most of us have never been able to understand the American enthusiasm for paying for water. Also, 16 gallons of distilled water would cost me about as much as 1.75l of Canadian whiskey.Something to think about!

 

[frogparty]

deionized water is free for me...which works out nicely

 

[itzjustjeff]

remember to find out if your water district uses CHLORAMINE instead of CHLORINE. Chloramine is much harder to remove from your water.

I bring home deionized water from work

Tap water conditions vary greatly, I suspect some (maybe even most) tap water is perfectly fine for ff cultures but YMMV.

Personally, I use distilled water for all of my mantid activity - misting, cultures, etc. I suspect it might be unnecessary but I don't want hard water stains on my enclosures and the cost of distilled water (~$1.00 per gallon) is worth the peace of mind that my nymphs and feeders are getting water with minimal amounts of additives intended for human consumption.

Yeap! Not to mention RO/DI water has a lower pH so it may inhibit mold growth ever so slightly.