How do I get rid of the iron in water?

[Red15]

So my new fishes will be here in a few days and I started to change my tank water today so that i can provide them with a clean, healthy environment. After draining 70 percent water, i started to refill the tank with tap water (the chlorine goes away in a few days, right?) when I realized, the water smells like iron and tastes like iron and is cloudy like there's too much iron in it. This usually doesn't happen.
Some people have told me that i can clear the iron by using alum before adding it to the tank and it won't harm the fishes. Is that true?
If not, how do i get rid of the iron???

 

[Magnum Man]

2 things… 1st… most municipalities have switched to using chlorine compounds, rather than just chlorine gas, and these stay in the water longer… I’m not positive how long it would take for water to be safe, without adding a chlorine remover???

Most of of what is talked about as iron in the water, is actually calcium… that’s not saying that some places in the world don’t use iron pipes, but “usually” the staining is caused by calcium which is much more easily dissolved into water, than iron

And in all my years of having aquariums and living in a hard water area, I’ve never heard of using alum to treat a fish tank… curious what others might think…

 

[Magnum Man]

I did a little digging on alum…

This from ancient water treatment systems…

“The Egyptians knew how to use alum (potassium aluminum sulfate) to coagulate material out of cloudy water to speed its settlement and facilitate its filtration. It is the first chemical water treatment known.”

“Excess alum use can cause kidney damage and toxicity in the body. Consuming alum powder might have some benefits, but a large amount of alum consumption can lead to gastrointestinal distress and it may lead to nausea, diarrhea and vomiting”

So I question to use of alum, at best it would require filtration of the bound compounds to get them out of the tank, and at worst, it could kill your fish…

I live in an area with “rock hard” water, and I’ve had to install an RO filter, to remove hardness from my aquarium fill water, to be able to keep some of the fish I want to keep

 

[Colin_T]

Are you sure it's iron and if yes, what is the concentration (ppm or mg/L)?
Most aquarium plants love iron and will use it to grow. Fish can tolerate 1ppm (or 1mg/L) and will be fine. They can tolerate 2ppm for a few weeks too.

If you want it gone I normally recommend doing a big water change. However, if the tap water has iron in it, you can do all the water changes you like and it won't remove it. Carbon will remove iron and chlorine.

Do you have chlorine or chloramine in your water supply?
You can contact your water company by phone or website and see if they add chlorine or chloramine. If they add chlorine, it will come out of water after 24-48 hours with just aeration. The time frame is extended if there is more than the safe recommended dose of chlorine in the water and might take 4-7 days with aeration. Vigorous aeration will help get the chlorine out of the water faster. Sunlight will also break down chlorine and leaving buckets of water outside in the sun for a few days will remove the chlorine.

If you have chloramine in the water, you need a dechlorinater that will break the chlorine ammonia bond and neutralise the chlorine. A dechlorinater will also neutralise chlorine in minutes if you only have chlorine in the water.