Water Troubles

P

partmemjustin

AC Members
Jul 6, 2008
49
0
0
Hello,

I just got a 30gal tank given to me by a friend. and I'm trying to prep it for use. But using and conditioning the right water is a great deal of concern for me. I have very bad tap water that contains a large deal of chlorine and phosphates, and it ends up having ammonia problems which then translates into ammonium phosphate.

I was wondering if it would just be easy to go get water for a backyard stream and using that, since technically its natural water anyway?
 
no, not a good idea.. streams are subject to changes in environmental conditions..ie rain leaches/washes chemicals etc into the water.


if your water is too terrible you may want to consider bottled water or an RO unit.

prime locks up or removes chlorine and ammonia..

plants may help too
 
What are the exact readings on your tap?

ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, GH/KH...
 
Not too sure what tap water problems would result in ammonia problems - I'd look elsewhere for the cause of that. A dechorinator will deal with the chlorine, and there are phosphate absorbers avalable.
 
KarlTh said:
Not too sure what tap water problems would result in ammonia problems - I'd look elsewhere for the cause of that. A dechorinator will deal with the chlorine, and there are phosphate absorbers avalable.
Click to expand...
if there is alot of ammoina in the tap water, it can lead to raised ammoina in the tank.
 
jm1212 said:
if there is alot of ammoina in the tap water, it can lead to raised ammoina in the tank.
Click to expand...

Ah. Measurable levels of ammonia in the tapwater in the UK are pretty much illegal. But the poster didn't mention ammonia in the tapwater, but ammonia problems developing later, which makes me wonder what's happening.
 
the reading for just the tap water are as follows:

the pH fluctuated around 6.3 to 6.5... nitrites and nitrates were all 0, and the highest ammonia reading I got was 0.06. Although I did multiple tests and the ammonia fluctuated between 0.02 and 0.06
 
Presumably that's NH3 rather than combined NH3/NH4+? But at pH 6.3, 0.02ppm NH3 would correspond to around 30ppm of total NH3/NH4+ - which would be injurious to human health. Can you confirm exactly what your test measures?
 
partmemjustin said:
I'm pretty sure it just measures NH3 rather the the later.
Click to expand...

Can you post what test you're using? The figures are so high that I would use that water for cleaning surfaces, but I would neither cook with nor drink it.

However, although in the UK the total ammonia legal limit is 0.5ppm, looking at http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/contaminants/contaminant.php?contamcode=1003 I see that you guys have no legal limit, and some states routinely showing two to three thousand parts per billion, which is 2-3ppm, and some as much as 14000, which is 14ppm, so your figures, whilst higher than this, are in the ball-park.

I'd use an ammonia removing chemical in this case - not what I'd normally do, but this is exceptional.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom