Portland, OR tap water?

[Meriwether]

I'm brand new to all of this, and trying to decide how to approach watering my soon-to-be plants. Ideally I could just fill up a few gallon jugs with tap water, let them sit to de-chlorinate for 24 hours, and have at it. Somehow between that idea and actually putting things into practice, I've ended up using a gallon of distilled water for my "pre-watering" instead of tap. I suppose since I'm so new to this, my instinct is to cut down the variables I can, and it seems like using distilled water for my first grow might conform to the KISS principle. That way hopefully I'd avoid messing around with pH levels. I'm using Fox Farms OF soil. Does this make sense or am I overthinking things here? Is there any downside to using distilled water besides cost? Should I germinate my seeds in distilled water if I'm planning to water that way?

Thanks 420!

 

[Stealthboat]

I'd use distilled water for everything up until the plants are 3 weeks old, then switch to dechlorinated tap water. If money isn't an issue, just use distilled the whole time, it will makes things easier. I'd suggest checking the ph of everything so you keep things optimum. I used distilled then switched to tap water at the 3 week mark, ph of my tap is 8.0 so I have to adjust my nutes every time using ph down.