Ageing Water Before Use ...

[darrel69]

Does anyone 'age' water before they use it to replace water from a water change ? Ive heard of people doing it before, also read about a guy who kept Tanganyikan cichlids and always aged his water 24/48 hrs before use, but it didn't say why.

Doing abit of research on the net, apparently its mainly done for various ph reasons & filtering out any 'nasties' also aeration/heating.

Do you think its worth it, or pointless ?

 

[Ferris]

I've never bothered - I just get the buckets to approx temp, add some dechlor and in it goes. Takes long enough to do 5 tanks as it is and one of those is marine - i don't need any more delays.

I do monitor the Ph and have some buffer if neccessary but the Mbuna tank pretty much looks after itself these days.

 

[darrel69]

LOL, i know what you mean... water changes can get time consuming at times.

But do you think it could be worth doing ? (for those who have time...) or is water straight from the tap perfectly fine and just as good. Well, i know water from the tap is totally fine when declored, but would aged water be better ???

Also, how do you bring your water up to temp ? water from the kettle? hot water tap? or wait for an aqarium heater to do it ?

 

[Esfa]

You sure they dont age them instead of using dechlorinator? It would get rid of the chlorine, anyway.

 

[Ferris]

LOL, i know what you mean... water changes can get time consuming at times.

But do you think it could be worth doing ? (for those who have time...) or is water straight from the tap perfectly fine and just as good. Well, i know water from the tap is totally fine when declored, but would aged water be better ???

Also, how do you bring your water up to temp ? water from the kettle? hot water tap? or wait for an aqarium heater to do it ?

Hot water tap, roughly 1 quarter hot and 3 quarters cold. It's only approximate but important for me as when i do the big tank, i can be changing 150 litres of water - when i add that back, if its all cold, it changes the tank temp way too much.

I agree with what esfa said - the only reason i can think of to "age" water in that way would be with an airstone to get rid of the chlorine etc rather than using dechlor. Each to their own but i don't see the point.

 

[darrel69]

Ok, cool. I just thought aged water may be healthier for them, but if its all the same...

Also, ive been using hot water from the kettle because in a fluval guide on aqarium maintenance, it said that hot water from the tap contains higher amounts of metals esp copper, so as to use kettle water. But alor of people seem to use it from the tap..

 

[Ferris]

Also, ive been using hot water from the kettle because in a fluval guide on aqarium maintenance, it said that hot water from the tap contains higher amounts of metals esp copper, so as to use kettle water. But alor of people seem to use it from the tap..

Thats partly true but the quantities are still minimal - if you are really concerned, a better way would be to use all cold water and a powerful heater, say 300W - a 10 litre bucket will be up to temp in no time. Thats what i do with the RO water for my marine tank.

 

[jgray152]

The benefits of well water

Im glad I don't have to play with city or town water.

 

[backtotropical]

Using water from the kettle actually has it's disadvantages too.

The heating element in a kettle gets a build up of limescale over time and each time water is boiled in this, some of the limescale will dissolve into the water, making the water harder and the PH rise.

This is not desireable in many tanks, although it depends on what fish you are keeping.

I personally always use water from the cold tap as hot water has a lower oxygen saturation. I've never had any problems, even doing 50 - 75% water changes.

To answer the original point, ageing water can have it's advantages as already explored (temp matching etc), but unless extreme changes in the water parameters would result from not ageing the water, i agree that is not worth while.

That said, it is a viable method of dissipating chlorine, but if you have a bottle of dechlorinator to hand, again i don't see the point. It can be useful if you run out of dechlorinator, for instance.

Cheers
BTT

 

[darrel69]

Using water from the kettle actually has it's disadvantages too.

The heating element in a kettle gets a build up of limescale over time and each time water is boiled in this, some of the limescale will dissolve into the water, making the water harder and the PH rise.

Yea, i never thought of that !! Though i guess it dont matter if keeping African's ???

I personally always use water from the cold tap as hot water has a lower oxygen saturation. I've never had any problems, even doing 50 - 75% water changes.

75% water change with freezing cold water ... id be scared of shocking my fish !!

 

[jgray152]

Using water from the kettle actually has it's disadvantages too.

The heating element in a kettle gets a build up of limescale over time and each time water is boiled in this, some of the limescale will dissolve into the water, making the water harder and the PH rise.

Yea, i never thought of that !! Though i guess it dont matter if keeping African's ???

I personally always use water from the cold tap as hot water has a lower oxygen saturation. I've never had any problems, even doing 50 - 75% water changes.

75% water change with freezing cold water ... id be scared of shocking my fish !!

I can't do cold water in my mbuna tank. Just doing a 25% water change will drop the temp down into the 60s

I wouldn't worry about the low oxygen content since the water is only going to hold as much oxygen as it can, putting cold water in your tank and warming it up will still lower the amount of oxygen the water can handle. Plus with all the aeration that happends when filling a bucket of water, I can tell you the water is well oxygenated.

 

[poopsydrew]

Using water from the kettle actually has it's disadvantages too.

The heating element in a kettle gets a build up of limescale over time and each time water is boiled in this, some of the limescale will dissolve into the water, making the water harder and the PH rise.

Yea, i never thought of that !! Though i guess it dont matter if keeping African's ???

I personally always use water from the cold tap as hot water has a lower oxygen saturation. I've never had any problems, even doing 50 - 75% water changes.

75% water change with freezing cold water ... id be scared of shocking my fish !!

I can't do cold water in my mbuna tank. Just doing a 25% water change will drop the temp down into the 60s

I wouldn't worry about the low oxygen content since the water is only going to hold as much oxygen as it can, putting cold water in your tank and warming it up will still lower the amount of oxygen the water can handle. Plus with all the aeration that happends when filling a bucket of water, I can tell you the water is well oxygenated.

How small is your tank and what temp are you keeping it at?? Unless you are keeping them temp extremly low and puring in water that is nearly freezing that kind of drop should be mathematically impossible, that is unless your tank is tiny.

I have 19 tanks no time for buckets, geting the temp right etc, python goes in, 50 percent comes out, and 50 percent goes back. Temp is just guessed by me and my hand and I always go colder.

Like I said you can do the math, if your even close to a subtropical range and changin 50 percent, mathematically the drop annot be that much.

Drew