My water company's sent us a letter saying they'll be replacing some old pipes in our area. My immediate thought was is this going to cause an issue for my water supply for my tanks e.g. chemicals etc. The work is due to take place over four months, I was thinking of emailing them but not sure what to ask. Is there anything people would recommend? Or is it worth switching to RO for this period? My other half is actually a window cleaner so we do have access to RO water but I have zero experience with it and not sure how it works, I'd need an idiot's guide so to speak!
Whiskyfish
New Member
I wonder if you could store water now? Maybe just enough to get you through a month if you find the tap water going foul.
(This is where you tell me you own 20 tanks..)
(This is where you tell me you own 20 tanks..)
if it's the pipe feeding into your home (maybe they are replacing it cause it was made of lead) , I would think just waiting a few days after the replacement would clear up any sediment etc.
I've has this before, and here it means within a few miles of where we live. They did warn us when they were working in the immediate vicinity that the water could be discoloured, and even turned off for a few hours. Once we had that second letter I knew to do water changes the day before and not for several days afterwards.
Does your water company have a page on their website which says where they are actually working on which dates? Like this -
Does your water company have a page on their website which says where they are actually working on which dates? Like this -
Lol definitely not 20, just 2 but I live in a flat so nowhere to store water unfortunately.
I'll have a look, they just sent us a generic letter for now and said to contact them with any queries so I'll do that first and if I don't find anything I can ask via email. All I know is they said it'll take place between Feb and June this year so it's quite a significant period of time.
Yes, it's going to cause a problem. When they do work on the water pipes, they add extra chlorine or chloramine to the water to make sure nothing is alive in it. It can take several days for this heavily chlorinated water to get used up by other properties and back to normal levels of chlorine/ chloramine. However, if they are going to be doing it over a 4 month period, you could poison your fish.
You need to find out if your water company adds chlorine or chloramine to the drinking water. If they add chlorine, you can fill up some containers with water, add a double dose of dechlorinater and then aerate it vigorously for a few days before using it. You can do a similar thing with chloramine but it doesn't come out with aeration so you should also invest in a chlorine test kit (available online or at pet shops). Test the chlorine level before adding dechlorinater and again an hour or so after you have dechlorinated it. If there is still chlorine present then add more dechlorinater, aerate it and wait another hour before testing it again. I'm not sure if a chlorine test kit will read chloramine so that will need some research or experimenting.
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Another option is from Whiskyfish, start storing water now and use it when they start working on the pipes.
If you have friends or family that live somewhere that isn't getting the water pipes replaced, you could visit them once a week and get some tap water from there to use on your tanks. It's time consuming and strenuous carrying 10 or 20 litre bottles to the car but it might be an option.
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A reverse osmosis (r/o) unit might help but the carbon filter could end up becoming full quite quickly due to the high levels of chlorine/ chloramine in the water.
A reverse osmosis unit consists of a number of filters that physically remove dirt and minerals from the water, and then they filter the water through carbon and possibly other substances to remove chemicals and heavy metals. The water goes in one end and there are two outlets. One outlet has the pure water in and you collect that for the fish tank. The other outlet contains the unwanted minerals and this is considered waste water that usually goes down the drain or onto the garden.
Reverse osmosis units are slow to produce any water and big units can put out 10-20 litres an hour but most smaller units do less. They also use a lot of water. When looking at r/o units you look for the waste water vs pure water ratio. The good units will have a 1:1 ratio whereby they produce 1 litre of pure water and 1 litre of waste water. Cheaper less efficient units might have a 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1 ratio whereby they get 1 litre of pure water to 2, 3, 4 or even more litres of waste water.
If you use r/o water, you might need to buffer it up for the fish. R/o water is free of minerals and if you keep livebearers (guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails), rainbowfish, goldfish or African Rift Lake cichlids, you will need to add some mineral salts to the r/o water to increase the hardness.
If you keep tetras, angelfish, gouramis, barbs, rasboras and Corydoras, you won't need to add anything to raise the hardness.
You need to find out if your water company adds chlorine or chloramine to the drinking water. If they add chlorine, you can fill up some containers with water, add a double dose of dechlorinater and then aerate it vigorously for a few days before using it. You can do a similar thing with chloramine but it doesn't come out with aeration so you should also invest in a chlorine test kit (available online or at pet shops). Test the chlorine level before adding dechlorinater and again an hour or so after you have dechlorinated it. If there is still chlorine present then add more dechlorinater, aerate it and wait another hour before testing it again. I'm not sure if a chlorine test kit will read chloramine so that will need some research or experimenting.
---------------------
Another option is from Whiskyfish, start storing water now and use it when they start working on the pipes.
If you have friends or family that live somewhere that isn't getting the water pipes replaced, you could visit them once a week and get some tap water from there to use on your tanks. It's time consuming and strenuous carrying 10 or 20 litre bottles to the car but it might be an option.
---------------------
A reverse osmosis (r/o) unit might help but the carbon filter could end up becoming full quite quickly due to the high levels of chlorine/ chloramine in the water.
A reverse osmosis unit consists of a number of filters that physically remove dirt and minerals from the water, and then they filter the water through carbon and possibly other substances to remove chemicals and heavy metals. The water goes in one end and there are two outlets. One outlet has the pure water in and you collect that for the fish tank. The other outlet contains the unwanted minerals and this is considered waste water that usually goes down the drain or onto the garden.
Reverse osmosis units are slow to produce any water and big units can put out 10-20 litres an hour but most smaller units do less. They also use a lot of water. When looking at r/o units you look for the waste water vs pure water ratio. The good units will have a 1:1 ratio whereby they produce 1 litre of pure water and 1 litre of waste water. Cheaper less efficient units might have a 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1 ratio whereby they get 1 litre of pure water to 2, 3, 4 or even more litres of waste water.
If you use r/o water, you might need to buffer it up for the fish. R/o water is free of minerals and if you keep livebearers (guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails), rainbowfish, goldfish or African Rift Lake cichlids, you will need to add some mineral salts to the r/o water to increase the hardness.
If you keep tetras, angelfish, gouramis, barbs, rasboras and Corydoras, you won't need to add anything to raise the hardness.
Thanks @Colin_T . I have access to RO water that we can buy locally as my partner is a window cleaner, if I was to use that would I still need an RO unit? I really don't have anywhere to store water long-term as we live in a flat but my partner has a 300 litre RO tank in his van so I could steal water from there as needed potentially? If that's viable that is - I know next to nothing about RO having never tried it. If it is then I could in theory start the transition from my next water change
I only keep cories, ADFs and a single betta on his own if that helps.
If all they are doing is replacing old lines then put an in-line sediment filter somewhere before your tap . That will catch anything like metal flakes and dislodged rust and dirt . Any of that should be minimal anyway and won’t be a problem after water has been running through the new pipes for a few days .
On the list of solutions, this would rank near the bottom. But as a fail safe to a degree (at least for one tank), get enough water ready to do both tanks, but do one tank one day, and use the same stored water for tank number 2 the next day. At least, if tank 1 is okay 24hrs after using the water, you can rest easy for tank 2, but only after hoping tank 1 is okay. If that makes sense.
I do this anyway as a rule. It does mean, emotionally, deciding what tank gets the water first (and therefore is at most risk if you are unlucky with that days water supply).
I do this anyway as a rule. It does mean, emotionally, deciding what tank gets the water first (and therefore is at most risk if you are unlucky with that days water supply).
Close your main valve before the work begins. Refrain from using any water for a little while after the repairs are done, let the neighbours rinse the aqueduct before opening back your main. Give it a good rinse from the closest sink in your house once open.
A descent city should be able planning a transition that is quick enough for you not to need bottled water to do you laundry.
Even less delay too much your water changes schedule. We had unexpected repair lately and the water cleared out the same day.
A descent city should be able planning a transition that is quick enough for you not to need bottled water to do you laundry.
Even less delay too much your water changes schedule. We had unexpected repair lately and the water cleared out the same day.
Whiskyfish
New Member
This looks like a good solution to me.
I use water from my distiller. It's not RO but it's pretty close to the same result. I add minerals (shrimp GH+KH+ its called I think).
You may or may not need to do the same.
As long as the water tank holding the r/o water is food safe, then it's fine to grab r/o water from there.
Reverse osmosis water is simply filtered and purified tap water. It has no taste, should have 0 GH (general hardness), and 0 KH (carbonate hardness), and a pH of 7.0. Because it doesn't have any GH or KH, the pH can drop rapidly so most people buffer it a bit (to maybe 100ppm).
Bettas are fine in soft water and frogs should be too. If you contact your water company by website or phone, they should be able to tell you what the GH, KH and pH of the water currently is. If it's hard and has a high pH, then use r/o water to dilute the aquariums slowly over a period of months (if possible), or add minerals to increase the GH, KH and pH so it's similar to the tap water.
The work is taking place over 4 months, just checked their website and they plan to start on Tuesday 7th Feb and end some time in June. It's replacing an old pipe but doesn't say exactly when the switchover from old to new pipe will be.
This is my water quality report, it doesn't mention pH, but I know my tank pH is generally about 6ish (haven't tested it for ages tbh), the water is pretty soft here.
I can start slowly adding a little RO water from next week when I do my next water changes, that'll give me some time to read up on it. At least the work is planned and the new pipe won't be in use for some months which gives me time to prepare and hopefully get it right!
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