Let's review. ( Remember, I gave one solution right up front. )
Option one... use tapwater and dechlorinate. This only works in some areas and only some of the time.
Option two... buy your water from a fish store that not only sells, but uses, the same water they sell.
(This is important, IF THEY DON’T USE IT, YOU DON’T WANT IT.)
Option three… buy a unit and make your own bottled water. Use it to make better tasting coffee, iced tea, sell it to your friends, and give yourself the best water you could start with, barring collected rainwater, for use in either fresh or marine aquariums. I don’t drink coffee. If you shop at a local Starbucks ask how they process the water they use. If they use water directly from their faucet I’d consider using a different store.
Listen, it could be worse. I’ve lived on board multiple ships. Me and around 4999 other guys. We processed seawater, used most of the water we produced to launch airplanes, gave much of the rest of the water to other smaller ships and then we could only take short showers, during certain times of the day. We did laundry using seawater. We also used a lot of deodorant.
Another thing, to be politically correct, water worldwide is an issue. It’s not a major issue except for regional problems here in the United States. I feel it’s an economic rather than a scarcity issue. A few years ago a world-wide symposium was held in Mexico to discuss these issues. They probably hold meetings like that annually. It’s a disturbing topic. If you’re easily agitated I’d avoid the topic on the web.
ADDITIONAL INFO- So many people have asked this that I felt I needed to add this: How do you know the system you're purchasing water from works? The simplist way is to test the water source and the output of the system with an ALKALINITY TEST. The test of the source will probably have a high alkalinity. The output should be low. If they're the same the cartridges need to be changed.
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