treating water + lights

[brendan]

being new to this game how do i dechlorinate water before adding new water to tank? Also what light cycle do tropical fish favour? lights on all the time or half the time?? Basic questions i know but still don't know answer!!!!!!!!!!!! Brendan

 

[MAM]

there are many "dechlorinators" the market, you could use one of these or you could fill a couple of buckets and let them sit overnight to naturally dechlorinate

as far as lights, theyre more for the plants than the fish. depends on your fish. what do you have? what size tank do you have? live or fake plants? heater? my mollies for example (and some have noted the same with tiger barbs) are very skittish and become stressed when the light is always on. and if you ahve noctural bottom dwellers, they don't like constant light either (for obvious reasons).

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> and let them sit overnight to naturally dechlorinate

This will remove Chlorine, but increasingly, water companies are using Chloramine, (appx 10% of UK water for example now). Boiling or just leaving water will not remove chloramine - it takes weeks to disperse by itself. I would check to see if your water supplier uses chloramine before using this method.

 

[kuter]

The products that remove chlorine and cholramine are some of the cheapest of all the products we buy for our fish. With that in mind I would not take the chance of chloramine being in the water. I use a product called Stress-Coat. There are many more on the market depending on where you live.
I am doing a cycle with fish in the tanks and I am doing a 20% water change daily. I put my water in clean containers, add the stress coat per the directions and let the water sit for 24 hours. As soon as I do my water change, I refill the containers for the next day.
I also monitor the water temp of the water I am adding. If the water is too cool, I put some in the microwave and remix until I get the desired temp to closely match the temperature of the tank.
I add the water slowly in one end of the tank. 2 hours later I take a water sample and test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, water hardness, Ph, etc. If the ammonia is above .25, I will make another 10% water change before I retire for the evening. At this time I rarely have to do this.
Hope this helps.