No Chemicals

[ketyana]

My brother in law came to visit us and was talking with me about my fish tank and the one his ex girlfriend had.

He was talking about the straight from tap syphons and I asked how she used to add the chlorine removing chemicals, he said about how adding chemicals were bad for the tank and that she didnt do it.

Im a bit lost here how can the chlorine not kill the bacteria? Surely it is more a case of removing added chemicals with the declorinator rather than adding chemicals?

He could not give me any information as it was she and not him that did it all, all he said was that he thought it was because she had charcoal in the filter

Do any of you run a healthy tank adding tap water that you have not declorinated before you add it? How is it done?

 

[DaveW]

I think that chlorine actually damages the fishes gill in some way, I think I'm right away!
So to NOT treat the tap water can harm/kill your fish, IMO.

 

[Rodders]

If you leave some water in a bucket for a few days it will age. The chlorine should go. So I believe

 

[rdd1952]

If you leave some water in a bucket for a few days it will age. The chlorine should go. So I believe

The chlorine will go away but the chloramine won't. It can only be removed with water conditioners.

Your friend is right in that chemicals are bad for a tank. The only chemicals you should ever use are dechlorinator and possibly fertilizers if you have a planted tank. Others such as pH adjusters, algae killers, snail killers, etc truely are bad for the tank and will cause more damage than good..

 

[prankster705]

If you leave some water in a bucket for a few days it will age. The chlorine should go. So I believe

That was old school, and that worked before, it just evaporated into the air, now for about a year, they are using a different kind (not really kind, it's stiil chlorine) that doesn't evaporate.

 

[DaveW]

a different kind that doesn't evaporate.

Well I didn't know that!

 

[freddyk]

Some people have tap water good enough for the fish without additives, others have chemicals and metals that need to be neutralized with a water conditioner. I don't add anything to my tap water either, but it's not something I'd recommend to anyone. You can get all the info on your own local water and see what you're dealing with.

 

[qwikimpss]

I live in an area that is lucky enough to not have any chlorine/chloramine crap in my water. Tap water comes out fish ready!

 

[Bignose]

1) Activated Carbon can adsorb chloramines. How much depends upon the quality of the carbon. Also, the carbon should become saturated pretty quick so you would need a lot of it. Also also, the carbon could slowly leach chloramines back into the tank if other chemicals are adsorbed onto the carbon. All in all, a much more expensive way to treat the chlorine and chloramines

2) The chlorine and chloramine neutralizing chemicals used today are very very safe for the fish. There are several post (search for 'em) where there are letters from Tetra and other manufacturers. Basically, you could dump an entire bottle into your tank without worrying about the health of your fish. In any event, a bottle of neutralizer is far cheaper than replacing the carbon with every water change.

 

[consp]

If she takes water straight from the tap it has chlorine, certain metals and other nasites in it.

It depends on what area you live in I suppose. Where I am, we have far too much of either to add fish to nontreated water.

I've heard of people using water butts to fill their tanks but then you still need to worry about the kind of nasties that may be in that (esspecially if you live in a pollutted area) and in addition to that you may get mosquito laeve which gives you another problem when they all start hatching in your house >.<

TBH using treatment is the safest way to go even if you think your tap water is completely safe. I know I wouldn't risk it even if I lived in a clean area.

 

[ncjharris]

We don't have chloramines in the water in the UK.

Your water in the SW would be pretty soft and of a reasonable quality anyway.
Chlorine can evaporate from water. At room temp its a gas, and is added to the water under pressure. Standing a bucket of water will still age it, but you wont remove the heavy metals.

Try it, next time you are filling a bucket, put your finger over the tap and squirt it out, under pressure, into the bucket. Watch as it bubbles up, and then smell!!

 

[ketyana]

Thanks all, I didnt know of a way either, I have sat with the info and tried to work out how but couldnt, I have looked on the internet and found nothing.

I am not as big an expert as a great many here, but I do have OATA qualifications from when i worked selling fish and still couldnt work it out.

Thanks especially to consp, it is hemel hempstead water so the info you gave helped convince me it wasnt just Herts water

 

[consp]

Thanks all, I didnt know of a way either, I have sat with the info and tried to work out how but couldnt, I have looked on the internet and found nothing.

I am not as big an expert as a great many here, but I do have OATA qualifications from when i worked selling fish and still couldnt work it out.

Thanks especially to consp, it is hemel hempstead water so the info you gave helped convince me it wasnt just Herts water

NP. Yeah, I can't imagine the water in Hemel being much different from where I am and I only live 10 mins away.

If the chemicals were so bad for the fish that fish shops would not be allowed to stock them... PETA would make sure of that

The only safe water that has no additional chemicals would be RO water and unless you have a RO unit then she shouldn't have let that nasty tap water anywhere near her tank.

 

[yvez9]

very few communities use chloramines as far as i know
I know of one near my city that does, and they didn't warn the people about the effects it could have in aquariums as lots of people buy cheap water conditionner that only removes chlorine.

They talked about it on the news and how many people lost there fish that week.