Boil Water Notice and Fish

[FishGuest5123]

We are still under a boil water notice here in Texas after freeze. However, pressure is back and water looks good. I read that bacteria that affect people during such notices do not affect fish. Anyone know if it is safe to clean tanks during this notice?

 

[Slaphppy7]

I'm wondering the same thing...problem is, who knows what got into the lines, if you had water main breaks?
I usually do my tanks (WC's) on the weekends, may skip this weekend, until the water lines have been used alot...also, consider that your local utility may increase the amount of chloramine they use after this event, my town always does, and they (usually) advise us of it....in the past when that's happened, I just increase my dosage of Prime...but still may skip this weekend.

If you've been doing regular WC's, your fish should be just fine skipping a week...

 

[Sgooosh]

i think you should do a water check on a piece of water from outside left for like a week

 

[FishGuest5123]

I'm wondering the same thing...problem is, who knows what got into the lines, if you had water main breaks?
I usually do my tanks (WC's) on the weekends, may skip this weekend, until the water lines have been used alot...also, consider that your local utility may increase the amount of chloramine they use after this event, my town always does, and they (usually) advise us of it....in the past when that's happened, I just increase my dosage of Prime...but still may skip this weekend.

If you've been doing regular WC's, your fish should be just fine skipping a week...

I clean every Monday so skipped past Monday due to storm. Monday will be 2 weeks. Yuk!

 

[FishGuest5123]

Guess I’ll go test Params in some of various size.

 

[AbbeysDad]

Aquariums have loads of the bacteria that you would boil water to kill. So that's not a problem. A bigger problem is following pipe work (when mains freeze and burst) often chlorine/chloramine levels are increased for public safety. Our club president lost his entire fishroom following a water change, not knowing that the chlorine/chloramine levels had been jacked up following pipe work.
So the water need not be purified by boiling for fish, but take care to ensure that chlorine/chloramine levels have not been increased. If they have, you need to use increased conditioner to neutralize.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Thanks, @AbbeysDad. Would it hurt to double the Prime just to be safe?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Thanks, @AbbeysDad. Would it hurt to double the Prime just to be safe?

Seachem's website states that you can safely dose up to 5X the regular dosage amount safely (in extreme conditions), so 2X the dose should be just fine, I've done it before

 

[Utar]

Thanks, @AbbeysDad. Would it hurt to double the Prime just to be safe?

Nope doubling up want hurt a thing, because I regularly use more than necessary, about twice the amount.

 

[eatyourpeas]

I employ that strategy since our island water looks like tea when the city flushes the mains, and I know the chlorine/chloramine content is higher. I let the water rest in an open bucket a couple of days with a double dose of water conditioner.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I added Prime to all the tanks at normal dose just to protect another 24 hours. Hopefully, the boil notice will go off by then. Fingers crossed.

 

[Slaphppy7]

I think I'm going to wait a week, change out the poly floss in the HOBs, top off with treated water.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Also, Poly Filter is a great thing to have for situations like this.

 

[AbbeysDad]

Another caution...with chlorine you can draw water into a bucket or barrel and especially with aeration, the chlorine will readily dissipate. Not so with chloramine as it remains stable much longer which is why many municipalities are switching to it. So especially if there is chloramine in your supply water, ensure that you use sufficient conditioner to neutralize... and extra conditioner may be required if the water authority has increased the dose.

 

[Slaphppy7]

I've never heard of that stuff before...