Ways Of Adding Tap Water

[`Peter]

Hi everyone just wondering on your opinions of adding and treating tap water that goes in your tank. What I do is use a water gallon jug to fill with tap water and then I dose it with Top Fin Water Dechlorinator before adding it to the tank, gallon by gallon.

At the moment I'm kind of paranoid of adding chlorinated tap water that hasn't been treated fully since I'm still cycling my tank and don't want the chlorine to destroy my beneficial bacteria. On the Top Fin Dechlorinator it says to add 1ml for every 10G/38L of tap water so I do less than 1 mL since the dosage would mean for 1 gallon I'd have to put less in. Should I keep doing it this way or is it ok to overdose it to make sure the water is safe, and is so how much can I add of dechlorinator per gallon?

Also should I let the water sit for a few minutes before adding the jug to the tank?

 

[mattyeatsmatts]

I fill a bucket with luke warm water(whilst adding conditioner to mix) then set a syphon to take it from the bucket into the tank. No disturbance in the decor

 

[`Peter]

I fill a bucket with luke warm water(whilst adding conditioner to mix) then set a syphon to take it from the bucket into the tank. No disturbance in the decor

Ye same when I am doing weekly water changes, but what about just refilling the tank due to evaporation and things like that? What should the proper dosage be if your using only about a gallon of refill.

 

[CezzaXV]

I just refill straight from the tap, overdosing on dechlor beforehand and after too for good measure, making sure the filter is off while it's refilling.

Might not want to do this during cycling though, just to be safe, as your bacterial colony is still growing.

 

[onidrase]

I use an aqueon water changey hose thing, so I always just refill from the tap directly into the tank, dosing 75% of the dose reccomendation before filling and the rest after filling.

 

[`Peter]

So theres no negative effects of overdosing dechlorinator? Thanks for advice guys

 

[TheMaEsTrO]

So theres no negative effects of overdosing dechlorinator? Thanks for advice guys

Depends how much you're overdosing... There is some thought that too much of the dechlorinator can hinder some of the nitrosomas bacterial growth, but Ive also read that is more of a concern in a newly established tank rather than one that is much more colonized...

I have a water softener, and so I have to bypass it to do water changes. The problem is that the water in my hotwater tank is softened, and it would mean emptying a 60gal hotwater tank to fill with non-softened water... So instead, I purchased two 15 gallon green food waste bins with heavy duty lid and wheels on the bottom. I fill these with the cold non-softened water, dechlorinate and then put in an inexpensive 25w aquarium heater in each one. I do this at the end of my weekly water change, then the containers sit warming up until the next change.... I also purchased a marnineland 320gph fountain pump and I attached a new dishwasher bendable hose to it, I drop that into the water container, plug it in and fill up the aquarium in no time... I used to use buckets to re-fill, but it used to take over an hour just for the water and it was messy... this takes like 10mins (i have the pump on the lowest setting) and the pump raises the water high enough to to into the aquarium....

And I found out the hard way -pardon the pun- that using the water from my watersoftener kills fish within a short period of time... so I used the 'hard' water (which is actually just plain old city water) and thus the elaborate setup given above!!

 

[Ruskull]

I fill a bucket with luke warm water(whilst adding conditioner to mix) then set a syphon to take it from the bucket into the tank. No disturbance in the decor

Ye same when I am doing weekly water changes, but what about just refilling the tank due to evaporation and things like that? What should the proper dosage be if your using only about a gallon of refill.

I use Tetra Aquasafe Plus and it claims it works in seconds, but it takes longer than that to get to from the sink to the tank anyway. Usually I'm bailing it from the 5 gallon bucket with a quart sized container so it's def. mixed up and that process is much better fish the fish, bacteria, and plants.

My father lives in a more rural area & he has well water so no dechlorinator necessary. I envy him.

So theres no negative effects of overdosing dechlorinator? Thanks for advice guys

You'd have to pour a lot in there

 

[`Peter]

Sounds good thanks everyone

 

[raptorrex]

Hi everyone just wondering on your opinions of adding and treating tap water that goes in your tank. What I do is use a water gallon jug to fill with tap water and then I dose it with Top Fin Water Dechlorinator before adding it to the tank, gallon by gallon.

At the moment I'm kind of paranoid of adding chlorinated tap water that hasn't been treated fully since I'm still cycling my tank and don't want the chlorine to destroy my beneficial bacteria. On the Top Fin Dechlorinator it says to add 1ml for every 10G/38L of tap water so I do less than 1 mL since the dosage would mean for 1 gallon I'd have to put less in. Should I keep doing it this way or is it ok to overdose it to make sure the water is safe, and is so how much can I add of dechlorinator per gallon?

Also should I let the water sit for a few minutes before adding the jug to the tank?

just dose for the entire tank volume, then add you new water. (oh yeah, dose the tank not the water jug).
just make sure your conditioner /de chlorination fluid has a heavy metal binding action.

just one more point. the consensus here is/was water changes, of up to 25%, dont really need de chlorination.
indeed i didn't use it for several years (no ill effects) I only went back to it because of the metal binding content.

 

[Katch]

Hi everyone just wondering on your opinions of adding and treating tap water that goes in your tank. What I do is use a water gallon jug to fill with tap water and then I dose it with Top Fin Water Dechlorinator before adding it to the tank, gallon by gallon.

At the moment I'm kind of paranoid of adding chlorinated tap water that hasn't been treated fully since I'm still cycling my tank and don't want the chlorine to destroy my beneficial bacteria. On the Top Fin Dechlorinator it says to add 1ml for every 10G/38L of tap water so I do less than 1 mL since the dosage would mean for 1 gallon I'd have to put less in. Should I keep doing it this way or is it ok to overdose it to make sure the water is safe, and is so how much can I add of dechlorinator per gallon?

Also should I let the water sit for a few minutes before adding the jug to the tank?

just dose for the entire tank volume, then add you new water. (oh yeah, dose the tank not the water jug).
just make sure your conditioner /de chlorination fluid has a heavy metal binding action.

just one more point. the consensus here is/was water changes, of up to 25%, dont really need de chlorination.
indeed i didn't use it for several years (no ill effects) I only went back to it because of the metal binding content.

This assumes that there is only chlorine in the tap water - but more often than not there is also chloramines and these do not gas off.

There is a big scary myth about the danger of chlorinated water to fish and filters - yes it's bad, yes it will do harm but it takes time to do so. So you don't have to make sure your water is gassed off before it enters the tank.

I refill my tanks straight from the tap and dose 1.5 x recommended of a cheap dechlor that also binds chloramines.

 

[`Peter]

Hi everyone just wondering on your opinions of adding and treating tap water that goes in your tank. What I do is use a water gallon jug to fill with tap water and then I dose it with Top Fin Water Dechlorinator before adding it to the tank, gallon by gallon.

At the moment I'm kind of paranoid of adding chlorinated tap water that hasn't been treated fully since I'm still cycling my tank and don't want the chlorine to destroy my beneficial bacteria. On the Top Fin Dechlorinator it says to add 1ml for every 10G/38L of tap water so I do less than 1 mL since the dosage would mean for 1 gallon I'd have to put less in. Should I keep doing it this way or is it ok to overdose it to make sure the water is safe, and is so how much can I add of dechlorinator per gallon?

Also should I let the water sit for a few minutes before adding the jug to the tank?

just dose for the entire tank volume, then add you new water. (oh yeah, dose the tank not the water jug).
just make sure your conditioner /de chlorination fluid has a heavy metal binding action.

just one more point. the consensus here is/was water changes, of up to 25%, dont really need de chlorination.
indeed i didn't use it for several years (no ill effects) I only went back to it because of the metal binding content.

This assumes that there is only chlorine in the tap water - but more often than not there is also chloramines and these do not gas off.

There is a big scary myth about the danger of chlorinated water to fish and filters - yes it's bad, yes it will do harm but it takes time to do so. So you don't have to make sure your water is gassed off before it enters the tank.

I refill my tanks straight from the tap and dose 1.5 x recommended of a cheap dechlor that also binds chloramines.

Ye I made sure the one I use binds chloramines, chlorine and heavy metals.

 

[Tolak]

just one more point. the consensus here is/was water changes, of up to 25%, dont really need de chlorination.
indeed i didn't use it for several years (no ill effects) I only went back to it because of the metal binding content.

This does include water with chloramine; http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/161413-water-changes/

 

[Ruskull]

I only top off my tanks with treated water. The dechlorinator is expensive but you only use a tiny bit, why take the chance?