Even Shakespeare could give his thoughts on this ...

How many people treat there tap water with Aqua Plus ( or another product ) during water changes, I'd be really interested to know as I DO but with the amount of tanks and water changes I do its rather expensive.

Keeping in mind i don't have somewhere where i can let tap water sit for days while the clorine evaporates I was wondering if everyone does treat or not and if not is there any ill effects,

look forward to your thoughts....thanks

yes, i treat my water, i really wouldnt like to try and see what happnes without curing the water first. I would be keen to see what happens if the water wasnt treated.

I have 54 tanks full of Discus and do daily waterchanges of 50-80% (depending on how fully stock the tank are).

I use Prime for water conditioner even though I let my water sit in barrels overnight with heavy airations. 5mls for 200ltrs is value for money.

Can't afford to risk stressing the discus resulting in diseases outbreak or worse killing them LOL. Already invested so much $$$$$ in it and a little bit more don't make much different. Better safe than sorry and make sure you don't lose your day job

Cheers,

Ronnie

if i cant age my water ill use stress coat on my tanks

i don't.

i have an on the sink filter attached to our taps. (though i don't think it does much anymore due to how old it is)

i fill a pot from there, put on stove, bring to tank temp, and put in tank.

no problems with any fish.

the only time its different is with the wcmm's. then its straight from the filter to the tank.

edit - Mark says he has been filling his tank like this (with the exception of the heating part) for the last 5yrs and have had no ill effects on the fish. or may be it's just the fish he keeps or the water.

It all depends whether you're willing to take the risk.

For me saving $50.00 against thousands of dollars is not worth risking

Ronnie

I use water that's been aged for 24 hrs (heated to tank temp and aerated). If I need more water I fill it up and add hot from tap to get right temp, and add water ager. $3.15 for 120ml, brand is Blue Circle. Stress coat is probably better but this is best value for money i've found for a chlorine removing chemical. Like Ronnie says not worth the risk ay?

The active ingredient in these preperations is sodium thiosulphate which is not very expensive, I think it is also used in photography. Anyone with a swimming pool and chlorine testing kit could work out how much of a stock solution was required to remove the free available chlorine and you would have a cheap DIY neutralizer. Fortunately I live on the right side of the Bombay hills in the unpolluted south and use pure spring water straight from the tap

That Prime stuff uses complexed hydro-sulfite salts and smells like Rotovegas. Suppose it's so expensive cuz it uses something different? $40 for a 250ml bottle hurts the wallet, yo!

I used to use Aquaplus in all my tanks but I have stopped using it for the past 2 years and just use plain tap water.

fish don't seem to mind and I do have discus, clown loaches, blue rams, killies etc.

I do about a 20 - 40% change at any one time and plain cold tap water back in... there have been no stress or ill effects on my fish.

I wonder if that is the cause of my fish not wanting to do the wild thing? :roll: Hmmm something to ponder :lol:

Good question

I have done water changes straight from the tap using warm water for years with no ill effects. But i do squirt some stress coat in for good measure. My tank with clown loaches and head standers loved the 30% water changes every three weeks. Well they showed better colour anyway. But on saying that i think Discus should have the water conditioned first.

The active ingredient in these preperations is sodium thiosulphate which is not very expensive, I think it is also used in photography. Anyone with a swimming pool and chlorine testing kit could work out how much of a stock solution was required to remove the free available chlorine and you would have a cheap DIY neutralizer. Fortunately I live on the right side of the Bombay hills in the unpolluted south and use pure spring water straight from the tap

LOL!!! My dad has a pool and he keeps goldfish. This is exactly what he does.

I think a lot of it comes down to your water supply, our water is quite good here in Napier but I know that even as close as Havlock Nth (about 20-30 mins away?) a compleatly differant set of rules apply.

Never bothered using the stuff unless setting up a new tank thats 100% tap water and then even then i just use half the dosage on the bottle, as far as i know we haven't lost any fish from chlorine or chlormine, we use a shower head type thingy though for filling up the tanks.

Also i read a post from Warren in another thread that tap water contains about 1ppm chlorine and if your doing a 20% water change it takes it down to 0.2ppm which isn't enough to damage gills.

I never add anything to my tanks if I can help it. We don't have chlorine in our water supply either which helps.

I use water straight from the garden hose, and fish are fine, and breed happily. I sterted keeping fish before i found out about these products, and they where fine then, so why change.....

Used to use a product called "Start Right", couldn't get for awhile so started using one called "AquaSafe". I was going to go back to using the Start Right but I think AquaSafe is a little cheaper, must check that again