fishly Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Hi all,Just to confirm if I am doing right or wrong. When doing partial water changes, I fill tap water in a bucket, then add the water conditioner and stir the water using the water pump for 2 hours. After that is it safe to add them into the tank? or I have to wait until 7 days?Regards,Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeW Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Tony -You don't need to wait the 2 hours. Most water agers work more or less instantly. So give it a quick mix (a minute?) then add to the tank .HTH - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest big bad burundi Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 The one thing de-chlorinators do affect is the Ph value of your water.Here in Adelaide we are being told lately to use 2-3 times recomended dose,this is fluctuating Ph values big time. :rolleyes: The de-chlorination creates hydrochloric acid when burning off the chlorine hence lowering Ph values which do sort themselves out with a little time.[From my experience anyways] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishly Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 Thanks YeW. Great :^: so I don't have to wait that long. So I don't have to add anything right except the water conditioner? I assume the sera aquatan that I am using have de-chlorinator as it says "... binds heavy metals"Thanks for your reply big bad burundi :D, I do agree with you. It happened to me before, the PH in my 3ft tank drops to 5.5 after so many times I did partial water changes without measuring the PH of the water :oops:, so I added the bicarbonate to increase the KH and PH :D. By the way does anyone know what is the recommended dose for Sydney water ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exiledonmainstreet Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Yes, the only stipulation with allowing water to age, or mature is when you initially set up the tank, allowing the biological filter to establish. Water changes can be done almost instantly in either fresh, or salt water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donbennie Posted December 5, 2003 Share Posted December 5, 2003 lol every1 here is so paranoid about their water, i leave tap water in buckets out for a week then when it comes to water changing time i add some more ager just incase hahha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thermofish Posted December 5, 2003 Share Posted December 5, 2003 Hey Fishly,I live in Newtown and the pH is bang on 7.I just add water ager to the water throw it in the tank a minute later and everythings fine. Never had a prob with my water parameters.cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hungsta Posted December 5, 2003 Share Posted December 5, 2003 I do the same as Donbennie but i dont put any water conditioners, i do not see the need.Been doing this for ages and have no porblems, i mean why waste money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav Posted December 5, 2003 Share Posted December 5, 2003 hungsta,why waste money not doing it? chances are eventually you will do your change just when sydney water decides to hit the water supply with an extra hit of chemicals to "clear things out". they do it about every three months. even ager isnt enough for this stuff, I use "safe" to make sure. you can and WILL lose fish if you don't treat your water properly, its just a numbers game as for when it will happen. my mum lost the entire contents of a 6x2x2 recently due to a water change WITH ager. it was just one of those times they did a hit, and she decided to do a 40% change cos she hadnt done one in a while. ammonium and nitrite spikes were the result and over $2000 worth of fish died in two days while nobody was home. use ager as a minimum, or preferably something like prime or safe. it may cost more short term, but its less crippling than an empty tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted December 5, 2003 Share Posted December 5, 2003 Thanks YeW. Great :^: so I don't have to wait that long. So I don't have to add anything right except the water conditioner? I assume the sera aquatan that I am using have de-chlorinator as it says "... binds heavy metals"Thanks for your reply big bad burundi :D, I do agree with you. It happened to me before, the PH in my 3ft tank drops to 5.5 after so many times I did partial water changes without measuring the PH of the water :oops:, so I added the bicarbonate to increase the KH and PH :D. By the way does anyone know what is the recommended dose for Sydney water ? Personally I just dump Prime into the tank (at just above the recommended level), and just add tap water straight into the tank; can't be bothered hauling 100L of water around.Disclaimer: I have a heavily planted tank that I need to add Potassium Nitrate to just to prevent the plants from yellowing, so the ammonia is appreciated, and I have never has a positive ammonia reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishly Posted December 5, 2003 Author Share Posted December 5, 2003 use ager as a minimum, or preferably something like prime or safe. it may cost more short term, but its less crippling than an empty tank Hi kinerata, what are the differences between water ager, prime and safe? Which one is the best in terms of quality and price? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon_Lord_Tia Posted December 5, 2003 Share Posted December 5, 2003 the only time ive had a lose with water ager was when i picked up aqua clear instead of chlorine clear lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Osmos Posted December 5, 2003 Share Posted December 5, 2003 MLB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishly Posted December 5, 2003 Author Share Posted December 5, 2003 Thanks Anthony,I'll buy SAFE from my LFS soon. Thanks heaps mates. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 2, 2004 Share Posted January 2, 2004 Fishly, I am not so sure that Seachem SAFE works out cheaper than PRIME. If you check the dosage rates recommended by Seachem, PRIME works out about 30% cheaper than SAFE, per water volume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bit Racer Posted January 2, 2004 Share Posted January 2, 2004 I age my water in two of those 200 litre blue drums with strong aeration and prime for 7 days before pumping into my tanks. This method works best for me. I couldn't possibly use water straight from the tap. Surely this would stress the fish out and cause a slow death over time. Ever wondered why the uncle's gold fish die after a few weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaZ Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 I add my water straight from the hose, treating the tanks with Prime or Safe at the same time. If you are going straight from the hose it is important to remember that whatever dechlorinator you choose should be able to break down chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Both Prime and Safe do this, not sure of any other brands. Another thing to remember is you need to treat the whole tank volume this way, not just the water being added to the tank. Daniel, I've had a similar experience with safe, it doesn't seem to be any more economical to me, and I find prime easier to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishly Posted January 3, 2004 Author Share Posted January 3, 2004 Hi Daniel, Thanks for letting me know upon your research. By the way, after I read all replies, I bought Prime. I was amazed by it's concentration (5ml can treat 200lt of water). But, I decided to use 5ml for 20lt of water (10 times than normal dose). Bit Racer, I wish I could do the same like the way you are doing. But I live in a limited space Baz, did you have any fish dead due to water condition? cause I think the way you are doing is a bit too risky. Correct me if I am wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 I was amazed by it's concentration (5ml can treat 200lt of water). But, I decided to use 5ml for 20lt of water (10 times than normal dose). I was told not to do this; I was having problems with fish loss, I suspect due to high chloramine in the water supply, and was having problems stabilising things. I had been using Prime, and one LFS said an OD can deplete the water of oxygen (not sure how true, but fishes were dying daily), and suggested I use a less concentrated product (by Sera, Acutans I think) to reduce the risk of overdosing. I suspect the fishes were stressed by the increased Chloramine, and the OD in Prime probably pushed them over... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaZ Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 Baz, did you have any fish dead due to water condition? cause I think the way you are doing is a bit too risky Never. I can only find 2 disadvantages with my system: -I have to use a little more conditioner to treat water already in the tank, which means a slight cost increase but it's best to be safe than sorry hey? -The water I use is obviously cold. The first problem isn't a big one, as I feel the increased cost in conditioners is well worth it if I don't have to keep big barrells of water around the place, and the cold water just seems to promote spawning anyway The system works for me, and always has. That doesn't mean it will work for everyone. I just prefer to keep my hobby as simple and fun as possible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 I agree with BaZ. I use the hose to fill my tanks. However, you have to run the hose for a few minutes first because the gases from the hose heating in the sun are dangerous; so flush it out first. I've used a number of different water conditioners, ranging from very expensive to home made cheap and there doesn't seem to be a great difference IMO. merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E4G13M4N Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 I basically do the same as Baz straight from the tap and i use Biotec ACN at the rate 2ml per 60L. Plus i also use Geo.. I double dose the ACN as Adelaide is shocking this time of year Refrase that to most times of the year I did a few test in buckets and found now that we are useing chloromons here that after useing Prime and Tristart there was a fair amount of ammonia present, after adding them but the ACN showed no ammonia after adding.. One of the reasons i made the change from prime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 I did a few test in buckets and found now that we are useing chloromons here that after useing Prime and Tristart there was a fair amount of ammonia present, after adding them but the ACN showed no ammonia after adding.. Apparently this is dependent on the test kit you are using; Prime is suppose to bind the ammonia into a safe form, but most test kits will still show as Ammonia +ve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E4G13M4N Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 That may be so but from what i can understand as i dont know much about chemistry Tristart does not remove any trace of ammonia or convert ammonia to ammonium when it converts the chloromon to ammonia (which im led to beleive the reaction causes??) Prime does convert to ammonium i beleive, but ACN seems to leave no trace of either and i have had no problems useing it .. As our water board has stated to me "The water is within our guide lines to be safe for consumption, but fish wont live in it" Makes me wonder how safe the water actually is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 I always find it funny that what is in our drinking water is dangerous to fish, and what we add to our fish water is dangerous to people Maybe thats why we don't live under the sea I add straight from the hose With quality conditioning of course I just never change alot of water at one time because of the temperature fluctuations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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