I Have Some Questions...

[AmyStardust]

So I've been fish-keeping for about 6 weeks now and I have some questions!

I accidentally killed one of my guppies the other day by adding cold water to the tank - I think the cold water shock killed the poor little guy....

For some reason I thought you weren't supposed to use the hot water tap??

Anyway - I know now to make the water temp warmer before adding, but I have shrimp and people have said that I shouldn't use hot tap water because of the copper content -

Is it ok to use hot water that I've boiled in the kettle? (I'm pretty sure it has an Alluminium element)

Also - The fish have been in the tank for 5 weeks now -

Should I be cleaning the filter?? Wash the media in tank water right??

Any advice would be great!

 

[Corleone]

How are your water stats and maintenance routine? Unless it was a very big water change, or very cold water, temperature changes in a water change won't usually kill healthy fish. There's some concern with certain types of hot water heaters that water that's been sitting in them can have higher copper levels than water coming fresh out of the mains. I usually temperature match by hand by playing with the hot and cold taps - the water should be slightly cool to the touch, but not cold. Ten degrees either way isn't a big deal with a 20-30% water change.

I give my filter media a gentle rinse in tank water any time that the flow is reduced, generally works out to ever month or so for hanging filters, less for canisters. I'm overly paranoid sometimes, but I do avoid cleaning all of the filter media at once, since whenever you clean, you do lose some bacteria. Overly zealous filter cleaning has been known to cause mini-cycles.

 

[OldMan47]

In any modern plumbing, the hot water tank will usually be fiberglass lined so it will not put copper into the water. On the other hand, the water that lays in your pipes might very well pick up some copper. I find it safest to run the hot water until it feels hot and the cold until it feels cold. By doing so, I do not use the water that has been laying in the copper pipes so the levels of dissolved copper is quite low. At that point I will blend the water at the tap, like Corleone said, to roughly match my tank temperature. It is easy to do because I keep a small container of the water I have drained sitting right next to the sink while I fill the refill bucket. It lets me test back and forth with my hand and I find it easy to match temperatures within less than a degree.