manky water

[Carlos & Siran]

OK, so looks like we're headed for another fairly serious drought here again. The new house uses rain water and yippee we ran out a few days ago, I seriously doubt we're gonna see any substantial rainfall any time soon. We were able to hook up to another temporary water supply but it's rather yuck, I think it comes from a pond or something, it certainly smells like it and it has a faint wee colour. We can't drink it and Siran says it's making the white washing wee coloured also.

Today is my first day off and I wanted to start setting up the tanks, but am unsure how safe it'd be to use the water to rinse the gravel and fill the tanks with, my guess is it'd be safe for the fish but it could contain diseases. Do you think that's a serious consideration? Getting a sample tested isn't really a option as I don't think there's a place to take it to up here.

We are hoping to hook up to a clean supply soon but it'll most likely be after my time off and as I do 13hr days I won't get a chance to do the tanks till next days off which is chrissy day.

So, to take the risk or not take the risk, that is the question........

[the-obstacle]

boil it first to be sure? No chance of a water delivery truck bringing you a tank load of water? We used to get that once every few weeks in summer but we lived a little closer to civilisation I suspect.

[Stella]

most fish diseases are either in the water anyway, or brought in on fish.

any fish in the pond?

I would just strain it if worried. To be honest it is probably just fine for the fish, just try to to make too big a change too soon (unless you have no choice). Any invertebrates that come in with it will probably be good for the overall aquarium 'ecosystem'