Well Water

[Wolfdog]

Im on a well out in the country. Which means im not on city water.

My Dad says theres no chlorine and "other crap" in well water as there is in city water. Just wonderin if i still need to dechlorinate my water?

Also, is there any other easier way to do water changes? I syphon out how evere much im taking out, then i end up taking juice pitcher after juice pitcher of new water to fill the tank back up.

I thought of "reverse syphoning" but i couldnt get it to flow from bucket to tank?

ANy ideas would be great!

Wolf

 

[ddm18]

Hi,

Your well will (I'm 99% certain) have completely natural water, straight out of the ground, meaning that it won't have chlorine in it - the chlorine is added at water treatment plants, so yes, your Dad is correct, it won't have chlorine in.

However, he may be incorrect about the "other crap" bit - it depends on the water, but if it sits there day in day out, it could have plenty of crap in it (which is why water treatment plants put the chlorine in - to remove that crap).

To my mind, a well is a hole in the ground with water in the bottom of it, in which case (and I'm more than prepared to be corrected), I wouldn't risk it for my fish. However, I suspect that there might be some kind of American/British language issue here - if you have what I would call a spring, where you can actually see the water coming out of the ground, then trickling down a stream, or similar, then I'd be more confident that it was pure water, and I probably would use it.

In short - if you'd drink the water, use it, if not don't...

Worth mentioning, of course, that I have absoluely zero experience of well/spring water, and no understanding of the relevant chemistry/biology...

EDIT: On the subject of syphoning - you can only syphon water downwards, water doesn't flow uphill!!! If you want to syphon the water back in, you need to get your bucket above the tank. Alternatively, if this is impossible, you could invest in a small electric pump to get the water up into your tank.

 

[SirMinion]

Water conditioners neutralise a lot more than just chlorine. I'd still use it.

 

[yvez9]

i would put water conditionner in it and let it sit for a day (it neutralizes many heavy metals as well as chlorine)

most of the crap will be eliminated/evaporated this way.

 

[colegamby]

in my old house we had well water. it ran through a filtration system. modern day well water is different then old timey well water. I'm sure yours runs through a filter system before you drink it. It does still have alot more minerals in it though. We had fish in my old house So im sure yours will be alright just use some water conditioner just in case.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

what size tank have you got? if its a deep one like mine (24") then you can just pour in water from a 5 gallon bucket (fill the bucket up in the bathtub ) i can only lug around 3g at a time without spilling it, but that's because i've got little girly arms.

the easiest way to know how much water you've got in the bucket is to take the aforementioned juice pitcher and fill the bucket up, one pitcher at a time. using a sharpie, draw a big fat mark at the 1g, 2g, 3g, and 4g water lines. you can see the mark through the plastic on most buckets.

you may want to look into a Python system since you're on well-water. a Python is essentially a big hose that hooks directly onto a standard sink tap. i don't use one because i'm uncomfortable with how i would dechlorinate the water using it, but that wouldn't be an issue for you! lucky boy!

 

[silvershark]

Im on a well out in the country. Which means im not on city water.

My Dad says theres no chlorine and "other crap" in well water as there is in city water. Just wonderin if i still need to dechlorinate my water?

Also, is there any other easier way to do water changes? I syphon out how evere much im taking out, then i end up taking juice pitcher after juice pitcher of new water to fill the tank back up.

I thought of "reverse syphoning" but i couldnt get it to flow from bucket to tank?

ANy ideas would be great!

Wolf

just make sure the bucket is higher than the tank and it will work, unless you live outside of normal gravity!!

 

[Wolfdog]

Well i think i will probably still use the water conditioner stuff.

Now to brainstorm ideas on how to get a bucket above my tank...
Its not really an issue on my two 10gals, but it gets a bit tedious with my 29. Maybe i am able to just pour it right from the bucket...

Thanx for all the help guys

Wolf

 

[Tolak]

Before I switched over to a 2 hose system to drain & fill, I Would fill a 5 gallon bucket with the right temp water, add dechlor, and use a small submersable pump with a length of hose to pump it in. Putting the bucket on a chair helps with the lifting thing. For $15, it sure helped on the back.

Once it got to the point of changing out 200 gallons a week the bucket & pump thing was getting to be more of a workout than I needed, so I got a couple of 50 foot hoses, 1 to drain into the sump pump, 1 to fill from the utility sink. Never break a sweat.

Tolak

 

[littlefishie]

Dechlorinate regardless of it being well water. A friend of mine is running off of well water and noticed an improvement in the health of his fish when using dechlorinator.