adverse effects of hot tap

O

orthikon

AC Members
Aug 22, 2005
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I found this quote and was wondering what your opinion on this is.

from http://www.petshrimp.com/articles/whyshrimpdead.html

Many people use the hot water tank to regulate the temperature of the tap water when making water changes during the colder months of the year. Shortly after the water change your shrimp start dying one by one.

Suggestion: *Never* use the hot water tap. The hot water has increased levels of copper, lead and possibly other heavy metals toxic to shrimp. Due to certain chemicals added to the hot water, the copper pipes corrode more easily and release copper directly into the water. Other chemicals are also added to the boiler which, helped by the temperature of the water, release heavy metals into the water. Whereas fish will be fine (in the short term anyway), shrimp will react adversely immediately.
Click to expand...
 
I guess if the water is sitting in the pipes or water heater for a long time, then it could get contaminated. If everyone in the household washes with warm water everyday, then there shouldn't be much of a problem.
 
I have read about this before and conducted a test about 6 months ago. You can get a copper test kit in UK for marine fishies so i got one, got some realy hot water waited till 80f and tested - not a drop of copper at all. My tank is 1 year old but pipes are about 40years old! just run the water for a bit to make sure what you are using has been sitting in the tank not the pipes.
Run a test to double check. My amanos have no problems at all with it.
You can boil the cold water in a pan but I have heard this removes KH
 
The outcome of your experiment is reassuring Charlie.

We have a brand new water heater but I don't know how old the pipes are in this new house we moved into.

I do let the hotwater run for a few minutes before adding it into the bucket.
 
I never had thought of that either! Hmpfh!

I have had lots of inverts and never had them die off... I live in the northeast US so it's impractical to use only cold water for water changes, I just use it lukewarm out of the tap. I have mostly PVC (changed over a few years ago), but I still have copper piping in places. I'll have to test my water and make sure I'm not slowly adding copper to my tank (I would assume like most metals it builds up over time).

Thanks!
 
well it happened like this... bought hagen mastwer test kit for FW for my 30g. Thought hmmm bigger tank, then thought oooh marine on small tank. I read online (can't remeber where - sorry!) marines especially inverts hate copper and it can stay in your tank for ages (lots of buildup i guess??). Test was brand new and had only been at LFS for 2 weeks so not "off" as far as I know.
Expensive though.... £10/$17.
My test I will admit was fairly crude as I 'spose you don't know how fast tank/pipes degrade under normal conditions.

Set my mind at rest though......
 
The basis of this issue has been outlined pretty well. old copper tank water heaters that are not cleaned or maintained will leach residue. newer models and or cleaner systems will not cause trouble. If in doubt test or avoid it.

If anyone is curious, many water heater manufacturers reccomend purging your water heater monthly to keep it clean. When I first started using my water heater as the source water for my basement tanks, I had quite a bit of sediment come out through the hose (I'm talking enough to fill a milk Jug).

Since I use that water frequently now, there is never an sediment visible at all. It was a matter of Purging the tank. I would be leery of any old copper tank with inverts, but otherwise Hot water would not scare me at all.
dave
 
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