Water changing setup

[ArkyLady]

latazyo, there was a discussion about this not long ago. Some say it's fine to do that and some say it's not heh

I'd prefer ideally to have the water fully filtered/treated before adding it to my tank, but that's not always possible depending on the circumstances.

It's my understanding that the chlorine in the water damages their gills. No matter how quickly you treat the water after adding it to the tank, the fish would surely have some contact with the chlorine. Seems reasonable to me that over time this could cause problems.

Perhaps I'm just too overprotective, my teenage son acuses me of that all the time But I won't drink my tap water without it being filtered and I wouldn't expect my fish to live in water I won't even drink.

 

[TnCgal]

Originally posted by latazyo
does newly added tap water have to be treated before entering the tank, or can you treat it IMMEDIATELY afterwards?

what I mean is:

can I pump it form the tap into the aquarium (with the fish and the other 70% of the water in it)

THEN treat it with amquel?

Latazyo,

Yes this "should" be fine, but with qualification :

I would do this if and only if you use either Amquel or Prime to dechlorinate.

The reason for this is that much of the tap water that is being used across the country now is being treated with Chloramine as a relatively inexpensive water treatment. It only takes a very small amount of Chloramine exposure for a very short period of time to wipe out an entire tank full of fish which is why it is SO important to be extra-careful now with our dechlorination practices and we really need to make sure that all of our dechlorinators specifically say they eliminate Chloramine, but Chloramine is not eliminated as quickly with some dechlorinators as it is with Prime or Amquel due to their chemical makeup. The only way to be totally sure of the composition of your water is to visit your water department's website or ask for a copy of the report.

So yes, you "should" be fine, but make sure that if you are going to make that a practice, that you continue to use Amquel as you have been.

 

[ExPeNsIvE HoBbY]

It is ok to treat once in the aquarium. One thing to keep in mind tho, if you have a 100gal tank for example, and you do a 50% water change, that does not mean add the recommended amount for 50 gallons, you treat for the whole volume in the tank. If you pretreat however, and enuff to treat 50gal.

I've been doing this same practice for years, and the only reason I've lost a fish is predation. It will be fine. I put in prime however before I add the new water.