How Safe Is Aquarium Water To Drink?

[daizeUK]

Okay I'm not planning on purposely drinking any aquarium water, although I might be guilty of occasionally putting my lips on siphon tubes etc. and I guess many of us have accidentally swallowed a mouthful over the years!
 
Out of pure curiosity, how does an average tank of aquarium water rank in terms of potable fitness?
 
Obviously it's dechlorinated and so there is a chance for nasties but what are the chances of getting ill from drinking aquarium water compared to natural river water or other non-chlorinated sources, for example?

 

[catfish4ever]

well, you care for your fish, you choose what goes in the tank, as long as you dont purposely inject viruses into the tank if you keep up with waterchanges it should be fine, i use mouthwash after

 

[techen]

I agree, I'd expect you have more chances of getting ill drinking from a river being somethings died in it further up than you are drinking from your fish tank.

 

[benthyer]

See I was wandering this myself yesterday after I had Legionella training.
 
The temperature at which we keep our tanks is the right range for Legionella to "breed" as such and with Legionella actually being present in all water, I was interested to know if it would be present in our fish tanks?
 
However drinking water containing Legionella is safe as you can only contract Legionaires disease through inhaling a fine mist so you have nothing to worry about there.
 
But it does still beg the question for me as to whether or not it would be present?

 

[Zikofski]

most likely remeber also some deaseses, viruses
may be present in the water that will effect humans but not fish and vise verca im sure humans cant catch white spot (ich) and im sure fish cant catch a common cold just because its safe for fish dosnt mean its safe for us to drink but fish peoduce waste slim, algae is on the tenk and other things my water TDS from tap is 50 or there abouts once its been in the tank for a week that TDS os 250-300 personaly i would never drink the water from a fish tank nor will i use a syphon where i need to use my mouth thats my opinion

 

[Ch4rlie]

Chances are, tank water is probably safe enough to drink if you so desired.
 
Although knowing whats in the tank after a week is kinda off-putting  

 
Using a syphon hose system does not mean you have to get a mouthful of water every time, in my first few weeks of fish keeping I got a mouthful of water maybe 3 or 4 times.
 
I noticed very quickly that you only have to get water in hose to go over the rim of the tank or bucket then gravity takes over as long as tank is higher than bucket or vice versa, so you do not need to constantly try to create suction all the way to end of hose, a clear hose helps greatly here

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You are allowed to spit out water you accidentally sip when starting a siphon, you do not have to swallow it.
 
Chlorine and chloramine as well as chlorine dioxide all pretty much waste legionella in water supply systems.
 
But the strongest indication that the occasional sip of tank water is not normally life threatening is the failure of many 1,000s of fish keepers to end up in the hospital or morgue every year.

 

[daizeUK]

I don't even use mouth suction for siphoning Charlie, usually I immerse the tube to fill it with water then raise it and allow gravity to do the work as you said.  The only time I would ever siphon by mouth is when the water level is too low to immerse the tube (e.g. when completely draining the last dregs out of a tank).
 
I have heard of people contracting fish Tuberculosis although I think that's through a cut on the hand rather than swallowing.
 
So worst case scenario, what's the worst that could possibly happen if you drank a glass of aquarium water?

 

[stanleo]

It always depends on the area you are in and what your immune system can tolerate. I would drink out of a tank here but I would never drink out of one in Mexico.

 

[Byron]

I am amazed at the posts in this thread.  You should never, ever swallow water from an aquarium containing live fish (or other creatures).  The chlorine/chloramine process purifies your tap water (hopefully...) but these chemicals are made ineffective by conditioners so that ends their usefulness.  And fish carry many diseases which may not have any detrimental impact on them, but several of which can still be transmitted to humans.
 
TB is one, and this is very serious.  There are many aquarists who will not put their hands in their fish tank unless wearing those safety gloves.  I admit that I do not go this far, but I wash my hands afterwards and am careful never to put my hands in if I have open cuts or scrapes.  The TB that several fish keepers have contracted from their fish is not pleasant believe me.
 
I recall a member on another forum once posting how she became violently sick after accidentally swallowing a mouthful of tank water, and another who had to go to the hospital.  These are not isolated cases.
 
This article from PFK with photos should change your thinking:
http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=6079
 
Byron.

 

[stanleo]

I once ate a scorpion on a dare so a little tank water doesn't scare me lol

 

[Alasse]

Had many a mouthful of tank water....still here
 
The TB thing doesnt phase me too much either, i have a natural immunity to TB thankfully

 

[TwoTankAmin]

As far as i am concerned that article linked to in PFK is intended to do one thing, scare people needlessly. Do some actual research on this stuff and you find it is pretty rare. Start here :
 
 

 
Mycobacterium marinum cutaneous infections acquired from occupations and hobbies
 
Background. Non-tuberculous mycobacteria l (NTB ) infections are not commonly diagnosed in Thailand. The dissertation of reported cases among 10 published reports of 44 cases w ith in 20 years revealed only six cases of cutaneous infect ions in which M. marinum was not included.
Methods . The proven cases of M. marinum infection were studied at the Institute of Dermatology. Bangkok from 1981
to 1990. The clin ical data. histopathol ogy, tuberculin test, chest x-ray, and trea tments were recorded. Results. M. marinum skin infection accounted for 18 cases (81.8% of NTB skin infectio n), 10 men and 8 women.

from ftp/58.137.211.168/public2_nopassword/phpweb/files/PDF/Ref78%20Mycobacteium%20marinum%20cutaneous%20infections.pdf
 
 
Basically it is possible to get this disease if you have exposed cuts when you work in a tank. However, it is not common at all. Anecdotally, I have been working in my tanks now for about 14 years. I rarely wear gloves on both hands/arms (I do wear one on my right hand due to being allergic to stuff in the N complex and squeezing out sponges etc. can cause a reaction). I also do a lot of work around the house and it is rare that i do not have a siore or would on a hand or arm when I work in tanks. So far, so good.
 
I do not mean to belittle any potential for somebody to catch this infection, however i would ask you all to consider this. Most of us have fish keeping friends, many may beong to fish clubs. A lot of us post on other fish sites as well as this. So in all the years of reading posts on threads, how many times have you read somebody post that they got some sort of rash or infection that they even thought came from their tanks(s) let alone which was diagnosed as such.
 
Now if the article in PFK, or one like it, were to state that 1 in 10 or 1 in a 100 or 1 in 1,000 hobbyists contracted this sort of disease from their tanks, we could make an intelligent assessment of the actual risk. People are killed in airplane crashes every year, but most of us still fly. More are killed in car accidents, but we all still drive. We calculate the the odds involved with the risk, and this dictates our behavior.
 
Here is a more recent US based study http/cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/3/390.full
 
But here is the stat PFK saw fit to print:

 
It’s now estimated that around half of all global cases of M. marinum infection come from fish and fish handling.

 
How many cases is that? And lets not forget they also come from fish related industries as well as fish keeping. So how many people keep fish as a hobby in the world and how many actually get this disease from that as opposed to being fishermen, fish processors and hobby fishermen? That is the only thing we need to know.
 
Oh yes, it seems that to catch from a tank you need to have an open sore etc. that allows the bacteria in. So if you don't, the risk seems close to 0. Nor did I read anything about getting it from swallowing water.

 

[daizeUK]

Aha thanks for the info!
 
Hmm yes I never put injured hands into a tank, not since I read a post from somebody on this forum who only found out what was killing her fish after she personally was diagnosed with TB.  Just last week I decided to abort tank maintenance after I cut my hand on the metal light reflector.
 
The PFK article does give a figure I think:

Infection rates in people are low. In the USofA, where they seem to get it a bit more than in the UK, the rate (for all cases, not just aquaria) is around 0.27 infections per 100,000 population. In the UK, the current rate of murder is 1.22 per 100,000 population. So, you’re likelier to be killed by a loon with a machine gun than catch it. It’s pretty rare. 
 

Although that obviously doesn't account for what percentage of the population works with fish or keeps aquaria.
 
Also good news that fish TB is less likely in well maintained tanks.
 
 

I once ate a scorpion on a dare so a little tank water doesn't scare me lol

 
Darwin Awards candidate 

 

[noobgamers]

+1 to ttt's point you dont have to swallow water you accidentaly get in your mouth when using a siphon