Where To Get Fish & Water

[Lisbeth Oden]

Happy weekend all! I am wondering where you will get your fish and where do you get your water? I’m just getting this tank re-started after a move that forced me too put away my tank for several years. I did everything right on the set up and all of my test strip water tests are perfect. PetCo tested water too & said it was fine. Though I do think there something else wrong with my water so from here on out I think I will be using only the 5 gallon filtered water from the store for my fish tank. Where do all get your water?

I got the fish from Petco. The nearest good aquarium stores are an hour plus away. Happy to drive that far but how do I safely get the fish home again? I know there’s mail order fish… That sounds incredibly stressful for the fish.

Any ideas or suggestions for best water to use and where to get fish greatly appreciated. Have a great weekend!

29 gallon freshwater tank currently with only two guppies. (The 6 neon tetras and 3 other guppies died in the 1st 2 weeks )

 

[Colin_T]

Prefilter the tapwater with activated or highly activated carbon for a few days, in holding containers before using it. If you have nitrates in the tapwater, use a pozzani filter as well as carbon.

Tell the pet shop the fish will be bagged up for 2 hours before you get home.
Ask them to put oxygen in the bags. If they don't have oxygen, get them to use bigger bags and fewer fish per bag.
Put the bags of fish in a foam esky, or wrap them in towels and put them in a cardboard box on the back seat of the car.

 

[Metalhead88]

Hello. We get our water straight from the tap and treat it with water conditioner.

Over by me, there's 3 reputable fish stores within 15 minutes which I shop for fish.

Are you aware of the nitrogen cycle? You said your water is good, but what were the readings.

Petco and Petsmart sometimes give awful advice. I'd still buy fish from the ones by me, they are all pretty well kept.
But I do cringe when they try to give me bad advice that I didn't ask for lol.

You can order fish, but usually it ends up being very expensive with shipping. An hour and a half is longer than I've ever had to drive home with a fish. I haven't done it so I'll let someone else speak from experience, but I'm sure there's a way.

 

[Lisbeth Oden]

Hello. We get our water straight from the tap and treat it with water conditioner.

Over by me, there's 3 reputable fish stores within 15 minutes which I shop for fish.

Are you aware of the nitrogen cycle? You said your water is good, but what were the readings.

Petco and Petsmart sometimes give awful advice. I'd still buy fish from the ones by me, they are all pretty well kept.
But I do cringe when they try to give me bad advice that I didn't ask for lol.

You can order fish, but usually it ends up being very expensive with shipping. An hour and a half is longer than I've ever had to drive home with a fish. I haven't done it so I'll let someone else speak from experience, but I'm sure there's a way.

Thanks! Yea I’ve never done that long of a drive with new fish. Thought once I moved from Arizona back to Colorado with a full well established tank and and I made several Tupperware tanks and added air hoses with the pump run off the car battery. They all lived!

As for nitrates it’s all perfect if my Tetra 6 way strips.

Thanks

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[Bettapuppy]

I just use treated tap water too. From what I understand using bottled water in a new tank can be difficult because it doesn’t have trace amounts of beneficial bacteria in it. Correct me if I’m wrong, a I’m still very new at this. I got my betta from PetSmart.

 

[Colin_T]

No drinking water, tap water or bottled water should have any bacteria in it. They use chlorine/ chloramine to specifically kill bacteria in drinking water.

You don't get filter bacteria from water. The bacteria are in the air and land in the tank, where they start to grow.

 

[Lisbeth Oden]

No drinking water, tap water or bottled water should have any bacteria in it. They use chlorine/ chloramine to specifically kill bacteria in drinking water.

You don't get filter bacteria from water. The bacteria are in the air and land in the tank, where they start to grow.

Thanks. Generally I would agree with you. But I live in a rural area and my water is delivered and sits in a cistern for up to 6 weeks at a time. Any chlorine it has from the city when delivered evaporates off fairly quickly. Additionally because I live in a mining area it is possible that there is fracking material in the water that is even more deadly than bacteria. I very carefully filter all of my drinking and shower water but I filled the Fishtank with unfiltered water. I won’t make that mistake again. [emoji3064]


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[Lisbeth Oden]

I just use treated tap water too. From what I understand using bottled water in a new tank can be difficult because it doesn’t have trace amounts of beneficial bacteria in it. Correct me if I’m wrong, a I’m still very new at this. I got my betta from PetSmart.

Which is why I used the tapwater but I think there are other contaminants in the water that caused me problems. So from here on out I have to use filtered water but now that the tank is set up that hopefully won’t be as much of an issue.


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