Dechlorinating Water & Other ?'s

[elle]

Hi,

Total newbie here with some basic questions! Sorry!

1: Whats the best way to dechlorinate water? At the moment I'm leaving a bucket full of water to stand for 24 hours with some suitable water treatment drops. Is this sufficient?

2: Whats the best way to aereate the water? What does this actually mean?!

3: I dont have an isolation tank at the moment and one of my fish has a bacteria infection. In order to isolate the fish I have used a clear plastic bag (provided by LFS) to hold the fish with some tank water within the tank itself so that the temperature remains high then medicating the water within the bag which holds the fish. Is this advisable (changing the bag water daily?). It seems to be freaking the other fish out a little!

4: Since introducing some aquatic plants, my tank has been infested with snails!! There are about 2 dozen of the little blighters! Will this many cause a problem or are they a good introduction!?

Fish Tank: 60cm x 30cm x 38 cm (24in x 12in x 15in)

4 mollies
4 neon tetras
2 rams
1 angelfish

Thanks in advance for any help on the above!

 

[Tolak]

How long has the tank been running, what are the results of water tests, & what are you medicating the sick fish with?

The best way to dechlorinate is to use dechlorinator. Water filtration plants used to use just chlorine, whish would gas out in 24 hours. They now also add chloramine, which stays in water no matter how long you let it sit. You would want a dechlorinator that deals with chlorine, chloramine, & ammonia. Ammonia is a byproduct or neuteralizing chloramine. I suggest Prime, it's a readily available product that has a proven track record. Using a product like Prime you can add the water right away without having to let it sit.

Aeration involves running an airstone in a container of water, with todays products it's mostly unnecessary.

You would probably be better using a small container, such as a plastic cup clipped to the side of the tank. Being sealed in a bag limits the oxygen transfer to the water. A non-transparent container will help in the freaked out fish department. Be careful medicating such a small volume of water, it's easy to overdose in that situation.

Plants & snails go hand in hand, I avoid live plants for that reason. They really won't harm anything that I know of, if they get to be excessive, just start picking them out & tossing them.

Just a couple comments on your stocking; Angels grow fairly tall, 16" is the minimum reccomended tank height, I wouldn't go less than 18" for veils. Neons are the natural food of angels, watch as the angel gets bigger. If the neons start to dissapear, you'll know where they are going. Mollys tend to be nippy towards angels, if the angel starts to look a little ragged, that is what is happening.

BTW, welcome to TFF!

Tolak

 

[freddyk]

Aeration is the disturbance at the water surface in order to promote the absobtion of oxygen into the tank. Hanging filters , airstones, or air driven filters will all do this for you.

If you are using dechlorinater then 'aging' the water becomes pointless because these products work instantly. Most water companies still use old fashioned chlorine, but keeping fish it's always worth a call to the water company to find out what they treat it with, that way you can be sure to use the right product.

Get yourself a hospital tank because a medicated tank needs to be well aerated, which won't happen in a seperate container the way you've got it now. All you need is a small tank with a sponge filter.

Whether snails are a pest depends on the snails - for the most part people don't like them just because they are arguably unsightly, but some will chew up plants.

 

[elle]

Hi,

Thanks for replies and comments, they were very helpful.

I use "Stress Coat" to dechlorinate the water and leave it in a bucket for 24 hours to climatise the water.

The Fish Tank itself is about 2 months old. I took a water sample to the LFS yesterday and all the readings were good, 0 for Ammonia and Nitrites, below 10 for Nitrates, the PH level is slightly high at 8.1 but this is normal for my area in the UK apparantly.

Cant really afford the isolation tank and all the equipment needed within (heater, filter etc!)....so I purchased a isolation net and placed it in the tank (replacing the sealed bag which I was using before). The infected fish is a molly which has ulcers on both its gills and now also showing a small brown/yellowy lump on one side near the tail. I bought some Anti-Internal Bacteria treatment yesterday and treated the whole tank so we'll see what happens. As the water condition is good it is perhaps just a weak fish.

I see you can also buy some Anti-Snail treatment so perhaps I'll invest in some of that next!

One other question, when you treat water with a dechlorinator (Stress Coat) how long does it take for the water to be dechlorinated?!

Cheers,
Gary

 

[OohFeeshy]

No, DON'T buy chemical treatments! If you kill all the snails at once, the bodies will rot in the tank, causing ammonia/nitrite spikes... Take them out manually.

 

[elle]

Good point. Thats what I have been doing up till now.

Its only a small tank but there must be dozens of snails in there, with dozens more on the way if the collection of egg clusters are anything to go by!!

Cheers.

 

[freddyk]

If you are using dechlorinater then 'aging' the water becomes pointless because these products work instantly.