My betta has popeye- water change questions

[cliffordsmom]

I will try to get pictures up later, but my fish definitely has popeye.

I'm about to do a 100% water change, and this is where I have questions.
I usually use bottled distilled water when I do water changes because I've heard that the tap water at my college is pretty gross and works poorly in fish tanks. However, I would assume that people who say this don't treat the water beforehand. Either way, I'm still hesitant to switch to tap water since I've never used it in Clifford's tank before. BUT, I want to treat him right away and don't have any bottled water on hand.

I was thinking about maybe filtering the tap water with a Brita pitcher and then treating it with API Stress Coat. However, I'm concerned that the carbon in the filter will get into the water and I'm assuming that could be bad.

So my question is should I filter tap water and then treat with stress coat, or should I not filter?

[kevinbacon]

Mmm, generally it's not a good idea to suddenly shift water sources. If you want to change his water (and with popeye you really should ASAP), I would try to slowly shift him from the bottled that you were doing and slowly introduce the treated tap. Also, get your tap water (treated but unused) tested at a local fish store, or with your own kit, to make sure that even treated it is still able to sustain your fish and doesn't have any bad pH, etc. since you've heard bad things. That's what I'd do.

[cliffordsmom]

I took your advice, thanks!
Clifford is doing well in his QT tank with new water source. I think I'm going to start using tap water instead of bottled. It's such a pain to have to buy so many gallons of water that often.

[kevinbacon]

Yup, have to do it over the college breaks when I take my little fishy friend home with me (there's something at my house's water that mysteriously kills fish overnight, even the pet stores are dumbfounded, think it might be in the pipes...) so I definitely feel your pain there!