phoenix44 Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 that peace lilly thing is a fantastic idea. its a pity they are so expensive here... have never seen them sell for $2 or any thing near that in palmy, but if i ever do see them im going to do exactly what you have - awesome idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 They are often for sale in the pet shops but do not do well submersed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzchick Posted January 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 You seem to be doing every thing right, water changes etc, but maybe your new water you are using contains high levels of nitrate/phosphate. Yeah i thought the same, thought the levels could have been high before even getting in my tank so i tested my tap water and it was fine, nothing in it. I did another water change last night, changed just under 50% and retested after about an hour and couldnt believe what i saw, it had skyrocketed to 80ppm or more. I just tested it again and its back down to 20ppm again. Will do another water change in 3 days and see what happens. How long after changing the water should i test the nitrates? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smash Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Is the water aged, or straight from the tap. If straight from the tap the chlorine could be killing the bacteria, spiking the no3 level, but this would take a couple of days to elevate, not hours. The problem sounds like your new water, to spike so high just after a change of water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzchick Posted January 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 the water is straight from the tap, maybe that is the problem. The water here stinks of chlorine too. How long should i let it sit before adding it to the tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smash Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Good few hours in an open bucket with an air stone, or pass it through a carbon filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzchick Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Thanks for that, will do that from now on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 the water is straight from the tap, maybe that is the problem. The water here stinks of chlorine too. How long should i let it sit before adding it to the tank? You have chlorine in your water? How far north from CHCH are you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzchick Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 I am in Rangiora,(30 mins Nth of CHCH) Its bloody disgusting........you run the tap and all you can smell is chlorine, like a swimming pool!! Its about the only thing i hate about living here :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Oh thats strange, CHCH water is completely free of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzchick Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Yep i know!! I was born and raised in CHCH and my parents still live there. Gimme out of town living any day!! i can deal with the water issue over living in CHCH again,havent lived there for 17yrs now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 What you are smelling is monochloramine which is what makes your eyes sore in a swimming pool and cannot be removed by aeration (and in fact can be created by aeration in chlorinated water) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 alan is spot on with that one. if it is making your eyes burn it is indeed monochloro amine. aqua plus and stress coat both remove the chloramines in water, so you could use that. if your tanks are huge - prime is a more cost effective method - but is extremely expensive to buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzchick Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 No......it dosent make my eyes burn, it just stinks like a bucket of bleach that you would mix up to soak whites in. I shower in it all the time and its never affected my eyes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 When you put chlorine in water it combines with compounds in there to form monochloramine, adding more chlorine forms dichloramine, then even more chlorine forms trichloramine. What makes your eyes sore in a swimming pool is lack of chlorine and this causes the chloramines to move back to monochloramine. This is used in the USA to sanitise drinking water and is a disinfectant like chlorine itself. Aeration removes the chlorine and converts all the chloramines to monochloramine. It is removed by adding chemicals, not by aeration. If it burns your eyes in a swimming pool it can't make your fish feel particularly obejoyfull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 They may have got a better source of water now but many years ago the water in Rangiora had a high iron content and this creates a lot of chlorine demand. The chlorine is used up converting the ferrous iron to ferric which is then precipitated out. They therefore have to add a lot of chlorine to get free available chlorine. Makes the water taste better as well as the iron imparts a bad taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzchick Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 yeah i read an article yesterday, dated 2005, which described the 2 options to get better quality. One was pumping it from the kaiapoi aquifier all the way along lineside rd......this water wouldnt have needed treating but would require employing people to monitor it and higher power usage and the other was to get water from shallow groundwater from the Ashley Aquifer in the Rangiora area treat it using UV Disinfection which would mean new treatment plants etc. Looks like they still havent made their minds up what they will do!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 They make monochloramine in the USA by reacting chlorine and ammonia. When thiosulphate is added to chlorinated water it gets rid of the chlorine and chloramine but one of the bi products is ammonia. This can be got rid of with aeration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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