wlbadger, in my experience putting tap water through a brita does alter the hardness of the water slightly, but the main thing the filter does is take out most of the heavy metals and contaminants that the water authority pump into the supply to keep it safe for us. Remember there has got to be sufficient purification in the supply to dissapate veils disease. I try to use filtered water to replenish my tank. I find it rewarding even though its time consuming.
Water changes
- Thread starter hussarman
- Start date
Oh, and just one other thing I wanted too add is it filters out copper. I hear you saying,"copper", so... If you have domestic pipes in your house and its copper like most pipes will be unless you live in a Victorian mansion. The water that stands inside the pipes picks up minute residues of copper which is lethal to fish and other aquatic life. A lot of fishy treatment is based on chelated copper ions. So what I suggest is if you do use tapwater and you decide not to filter it first, let your taps run for at least 1 minute before using the water. Try to avoid using the hot taps. Remember your hot water unless it comes from a combi instantaneous heater is stored in a huge copper cyclinder, made of COPPER. So filtering does assist in better water quality as it FILTERS out these metals. Just thought I would throw that piece in,you know 
Great Lakes
Always do right, not popular...
Cheater, two posts for one answer.. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Great Lakes
Always do right, not popular...
Rose, you can never steal my soul. I always wear my amulet.
It was made out of the hair of a lycanthrope,(rare to find), bonded with the winter sweat of a 30 yr old vigin maiden,(an even rarer thing to find), and enchanted under a harvest moon by an 175 yr old tibeten alchemist. The perfect charm to ward off your evil.
Kind of stinks though.. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
It was made out of the hair of a lycanthrope,(rare to find), bonded with the winter sweat of a 30 yr old vigin maiden,(an even rarer thing to find), and enchanted under a harvest moon by an 175 yr old tibeten alchemist. The perfect charm to ward off your evil.
Kind of stinks though.. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
What can I say!!! :laugh: :laugh:
For once I'm speechless.....Not for long though.......
I'LL BE BACK!!! Capiche.
For once I'm speechless.....Not for long though.......
I'LL BE BACK!!! Capiche.
Great Lakes
Always do right, not popular...
Rose. you stole his soul, and I got his tongue....trade ya.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Well, i change water about 25-50% every week. I have 3 tanks, 450 liter, 200 liter and quarantine tank 55 liter. They all are normal freshwater tank.
If you think about nature, the water change all time. Like crossoheilus siamensis, which live in little river (or should i say in streams), is getting all the time fresh water.
Now i have seen in the shop some "wonder" chemicals that you only need to change water once a months/6 months. No one professional hobbyer doesn't use such kind of chemical in tank. Or do they? Hopefully not!! ( http
/www.aquaristikshop.com/cgi-bin....artic_e )I know it easy to say that is better to change water more and couple times a week (like for discus) when your tap water is good. Here in Finland tap water is mostly slightly over pH 7 and soft. Where I live i can put the water direct to tanks from tap. No need to use water preparation - like neutralizing chloride or something like that...
Mr V. IMHO most of these miracle/wonder chems don't work. you have to maintain conditions between the parameters the lab setup had. and as you'r experienced yourself you know that two identical tanks will have different levels in them. For the whole I think most folk do a 20/30% water change weekly but someone here hasn't done a water change for over a year(Can't remember who posted that and I don't know what there secret is. maybe a lot of evapouration so constant top ups do the trick).
Rose don't forget to use the chicken in the correct way if you want to maximise the evilness.
GL. the amulate is powerless against me. it's a fake. The martini maiden(not Rose) swaped them when you weren't looking, serves you right for not taking them on Holiday to Scotland. :laugh:
Rose don't forget to use the chicken in the correct way if you want to maximise the evilness.
GL. the amulate is powerless against me. it's a fake. The martini maiden(not Rose) swaped them when you weren't looking, serves you right for not taking them on Holiday to Scotland. :laugh:
Oh god! Well, when i got my first aquarium, i was then about 10yo. Then it was usually way to take care of your tank that you washed it couple times a year. No water changes, and when the aquarium water seems to be dirty (gravel too), you put fish and plants into pail and clean gravel and filters. Awful!
No one given me any information about nitro-bacter (nitrobacter and nitrosomonas) and no one told me that i should check water values too. It was about 15 years ago
Lucky nowadays it's much more easier to find good literatur about "How to take care of your fish".
True enough. I think the person in Q said that all the levels were fine etc. Must be the luckiest guy to ever keep fish.
When I started I knew about water changes but not why or the water cycle. Always had fish dieing on me for some reason so I would give up. That was twenty years or so ago. As you said things are a lot different now and with the internet available more peeps are researching things rather than just going by trial and error like we did in the old days
When I started I knew about water changes but not why or the water cycle. Always had fish dieing on me for some reason so I would give up. That was twenty years or so ago. As you said things are a lot different now and with the internet available more peeps are researching things rather than just going by trial and error like we did in the old days
Great Lakes
Always do right, not popular...
For the record, I am the lazy gent who frowns on water changes :laugh:
But remember, I don't overstock, have live plants, and filter well. You will all be happy to know however that I did do a 20 percent water change and vacuum half my gravel over the weekend.
To add, I do have about ten percent evaporation every week, more in the winter months.
once again let me defend myself by pointing out that I hear of more troubles after a person has done a massive 50 percent water change with questionble tap water, than if they had left it alone.
Remember, when you are cycling a tank, you are achieving a biological "balance", This will maintain itself quite well until a shock to the ecosystem is introduced, ie; chemicals, fish, fresh water changes, auquascaping, filter changes.
But also, I am definitely not all knowing, and I have lost my tinfoil hat somewhere..
But remember, I don't overstock, have live plants, and filter well. You will all be happy to know however that I did do a 20 percent water change and vacuum half my gravel over the weekend.
To add, I do have about ten percent evaporation every week, more in the winter months.
once again let me defend myself by pointing out that I hear of more troubles after a person has done a massive 50 percent water change with questionble tap water, than if they had left it alone.
Remember, when you are cycling a tank, you are achieving a biological "balance", This will maintain itself quite well until a shock to the ecosystem is introduced, ie; chemicals, fish, fresh water changes, auquascaping, filter changes.
But also, I am definitely not all knowing, and I have lost my tinfoil hat somewhere..
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