Hot Water

[AncientMariner]

An LFS where my mate goes told him you shouldn't use water from the hot tap when doing water changes.

Why would this be?

 

[Ginge]

Becasue it could have been siting in your boiler for ages and wouldnt be at good for aquarium use. Sure there are other reasons aswell.

 

[Durbkat]

Because there are minerals and other things in the hot water that would make the water unsafe for fish.

 

[Wanda hornsey]

ummmm if it been sitting in there for ages I can see the problem but if you have a combi (potteron) heater that heats it as you need it no problem at all......anyway.....worse things can get in the water I am sure and somtimes when it -5' outside you just have to heat water before adding it and a small amount of hot water from the tap has to do I guess.

 

[AncientMariner]

ummmm if it been sitting in there for ages I can see the problem but if you have a combi (potteron) heater that heats it as you need it no problem at all......anyway.....worse things can get in the water I am sure and somtimes when it -5' outside you just have to heat water before adding it and a small amount of hot water from the tap has to do I guess.

The reason I ask is when ever I do a water change with my 'Syhon Pyhon' I finger test the tank water & turn both hot & cold taps on to get it roughly the same temp. I have a mixer type tap set up & have a combi heater.

 

[Wanda hornsey]

I would think that would be fine...hey its better than cold water ....little fishy icecubes and a few icebergs would not be good

 

[AncientMariner]

I would think that would be fine...hey its better than cold water ....little fishy icecubes and a few icebergs would not be good

Cheers Wanda.

 

[Iann]

A lot of combies are treated with a inhibitor fluid which stops the parts from rusting or getting covered in limescale. In the UK, boiler fitters use a product called sentinal x100 when fitting the combie. You are supposed to get them tested every so often, to make sure the inhibitor fluid is at the right leval.
Don't know weather or not it would have an effect on fish though? Or if the fluid even mixes with the water?

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

I haven't a clue to that but I do use the hot water in my water changes. And I've not lost a fish to doing so yet.
At this time of year and with the amount of tanks I have there's no way I could have a dozen buckets hanging around waiting to warm up to a decent temp before adding them. Besides which they'd get cat hairs and the like in them. Blegh.
Hugs,
P.

 

[Durbkat]

Oh well then it should be fine, here in the US they we use boilers where the hot water sits there waiting to be used and ours is old anyway so thats why I don't use hot water. I just put my spare 50 watt heater in the bucket to warm it up some before adding it to the tank.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Yeah think it's fairly similar to our set up in the UK with boilers. My boiler is not enormous and I'm often running through the system so it gets flushed through daily...as it should in many homes with the average boiler. Therefore the water isn't sitting around that long and certainly no longer then some leave theres to sit for anyway. I might not feel the same if it was the old type that used to sit in the attic and could end up with dead things floating in it. Thankfully it isn't and they aren't very common nowadays.
Hugs,
P.

 

[juelz]

is it ok to boil the water in a kettle then let it cool down to a room temperature then put it in the tank?

 

[CFC]

I wouldnt recomend using water from any hotwater system, copper is highly toxic to aquatic life and copper from the water cylinder and heating elements leaches into hot water far more easily than it does into coldwater.

Also having cut up several hot water cylinders and old boilers to get the copper out for selling as scrap i can assure you if you saw the crap and gunk inside them you'd never take a bath again let alone put water from there into your fish tanks.

 

[Wanda hornsey]

Well then how do you get cold water??? here in the UK, and I am sure this goes for most homes you get cold water from a water tank in the loft (even in some flats) it then has to come through pipes (copper) to get to the taps...unless your able to get it straight from the main ( in which case you may well have a greater amount of Clorine etc as in the cold tank in the loft it tends to sit for a while) your rather stuck.

At the end of the day we can only do the best with what we have and I still think that adding water straight from the main is possible more of a problem as at this time of year here its very very cold, there are not many households were it practicle to leave buckets of water sitting around for a few hours to warm up etc.

Oh and the water / inhiberter fluid is for Central Heating units not tap water units...can you imagin having that in your bathroom taps eewwww.
if your not filling from a tap straight of the main and standing the water to warm its going to cause a problem....? what if you dont have acess to straight from the mains water then what...arrrggggg

 

[CFC]

All drinking and cooking water comes straight from the mains, its only heating systems and cold water for the bath, bathroom sink and toilet that comes from storage tanks in the loft, and trust me you DO NOT want to be drinking that, in never ceases to amaze me how many spiders, beetles and wasps etc drown in loft water tanks not to mention the odd bat, bird or squirrel.

Unless you are doing seriously large water changes there is no need to warm the water prior to adding it to the tank. I do 25% water changes on my 9 running tanks every weekend and the temperature never drops more than 4 degrees over the course of the change.