Ageing water

[Maria Ashton]

Can anyone explain the benefits of ageing water for wc's please, aside from removal of chlorine.
Thanks

[Skip]

Can anyone explain the benefits of ageing water for wc's please, aside from removal of chlorine.
Thanks

41 threads on Aged Water :) pick one ;)
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/search.php?searchid=632927

[Sean Buehrle]

Especially this time of year.

To de gas it. Ever noticed your water looking cloudy? It has billions of small bubbles in it and it ain't oxygen.

If you let it sit 24 hours the ph may depending on its makeup change its ph, if it does it's better off doin it in a barrel with no fish than in your tank with the fish.
Ph drops can kill discus. At the very least it can bother them, they need stable ph.

I spoke to the owner of the filter guys and he told me that tap water right out of the faucet has very little oxygen, you could actually suffocate your fish with it.
Water is his business and I believe him. So by aging water you are allowing it to be in contact with the air and adding oxygen to it.

This next one is only my opinion and I can't prove it but, I don't care how fast prime or safe works, fish are being hit with chlorine and chloramines when you fill a tank straight fom the faucet, how long and is it damaging? I have no idea but I've seen fish drop dead from very little chlorine, the stuff is not good for them.
That's all I can think of.

[Skip]

sean.. i have encountered Microbubbles this winter.. wth!!!!! :(

[DonMD]

One of the main reasons I age water is to warm it up to aquarium temperature. I change about a total of 80 gallons a day, so after using water from the aging barrel, I flip a switch and it fills automatically, dropping the temp with the remaining water at least 10 degrees F. Overnight the heaters warm it up and it's good to go the next day. I have a 200 gallon storage barrel.

[Skip]

i live in apartment.. it would be kind of hard to have a 200g barrel.. LOL

[DLock3d]

sean.. i have encountered Microbubbles this winter.. wth!!!!! :(

I have too skip, I never had problems until this winter. I recently purchased a Brute trash drum and have it next to my only Discus tank right now. Funny enough, the first water changed they had with aged water the female laid eggs. They were eaten by what I think is a male but none the less it was interesting.

[Skip]

what size did you get!? with wheels or not?!

[DLock3d]

what size did you get!? with wheels or not?!

50 I think. No wheels. It just sits next to my tank. Instead of filling straight from tap to the tank I fill the barrel after I've filled the tank. It makes it a lot easier, you don't have to worry about the temperature of the tap water going into the tank because it just goes into the barrel.

[Skip]

what pump are you using to fill?

i have 3 tanks running now.. :( i would have to water change every other day for the 75g and the 60 cube.. don't want more then 1 barrel.. LOL

[DLock3d]

submersible pump in the can and a python from the tap. I got the pump at home depot, not sure of the specs.

[ericatdallas]

Skip, it's time to move. Your apartment is not big enough for you, your brother, ... and your fish. Your fish need room to play and clean aged water to breathe.

[DLock3d]

Not to mention the new fiancé.

[Chicago Discus]

I had one 55 gallon barrel for aging just bought another 55 monday both have wheels for better use.............Josie now I have one for the breeders and one for the others

[Sean Buehrle]

sean.. i have encountered Microbubbles this winter.. wth!!!!! :(

I have no idea why it does it, I guess we can google it and find out :)

[Chicago Discus]

I have no idea why it does it, I guess we can google it and find out :)

while your looking that up will you find out how often I should be cleaning my aging barrels

[warblad79]

its better to age ( heated F84 & aerate) the water because its to hard get a exact temp from the faucet and unstable. I also notice that my fish are not stress out after WC's its like nothing happen.

[Sean Buehrle]

while your looking that up will you find out how often I should be cleaning my aging barrels

Aging barrels do get nasty, they get a slime in them and I believe that is what causes cloudy water in the summer, some sort of bacteria starts to grow. That's just my opinion, not fact.
I wash my barrels out weekly at least, they get nasty, run your finger across it and feel the slime.

I just googled why water this winter is cloudy .

It says that the water is cold going into the system( pipes) and is holding a lot of oxygen because cold water can hold more oxygen than warm water. Then in the system it is under pressure and warms up.
Once it comes out of the tap it's no longer under pressure and the bubbles form , just like a bottle of pop.

[Chicago Discus]

That's good to know thanks sean

[Skip]

Will it freaks out my fish and makes them lose thier slime layer

[Chicago Discus]

Will it freaks out my fish and makes them lose thier slime layer

what are you saying silly boy.....LOL......Josie

[ZX10R]

while your looking that up will you find out how often I should be cleaning my aging barrels

I clean mine once a year. I take it outside pull the pump and heater and use a pressure washer to spray out the inside. Cuts the slime right off let it dry and bring it back in. I also have a hot water heater blanket wrapped around it to help hold the heat in.

[Bud]

Huh I took a 55 gal drum cut it alittle bigger than half,plastic welded it to another 55 gal drum,holds about 90 gal.Never have slime,but it smells like a pool when it fills and I have to vacuum this type of red silt from the bottom(ahhh!!iron????)Then I made a 2" foam box for it to sit in...Really didn't help water quality either!!Ro here we go.

[Cevoe]

There is something that I have been thinking about regarding water storage and this thread would be a good place to bring it up.
I work for a mechanical contractor and the last few jobs I have been on were large hospitals that include water treatment on a large scale for the HVAC systems and also RO & DI systems throughout.
A few weeks ago the field tech for the pure water system was here to run through start-ups and I talked to him about water quality and told him about discus and the basics of the hobby.
When we talked about storage he was quick to say that storing water for even a day or so would grow undesirables.
Even if running air or a filter or pure water that would be sitting.
His suggestion was a UV sterilizer or using RO as it was made.
The time I did store water I used a clean fish tank with air and also tried air plus a filter with no media just to keep it moving.
It was easy to see growth in an empty tank and there was growth in either case.
I am getting ready to do something storage wise because the colder weather here is adding stress to some of my fish during water changes and I would like to get back to changing water with a more stable ph and temperature.
Any opinions on UV sterilizers (for the stored water only) and any opinions on possible health issues due to what might be in stored water?

[ericatdallas]

I'm curious what "undesireables" he is thinking of. There are standards for human drinking water that are probably excessive for fish and the standards for hospitals are probably outrageous for fish water as well.

[jimg]

most likely mold and fungus

[Cevoe]

I'm bouncing between this thread and the UV sterilizer thread posted after this.
I should not have mentioned hospitals as an example. I only meant that we are building a hosiptal and there is water treatment and RO/DI involved that we buy, install and then have started-up and serviced by the manufacturer.
Water treatment would be for the HVAC system that circulates water for heating and cooling throughout the building and equipment and it is mainly to prevent scale and minerals building-up that would damage the systems.
RO/DI is usually piped in specific areas as point of use for sterilizers and washers of some of the equipment.
I am not talking about potable/domestic water systems.
The undesirables would be pathogens/bacteria growing in stored water.

[ericatdallas]

I guess it's still the standard you are going by... b/c the same pathogens/bacteria that grow in an aging barrel are probably the same that grow in an aquarium...

[Maria Ashton]

Having read replies I am not convinced about ageing water, here in Holland water is almost perfect out of the tap - they give it to newborns without boiling it.

Need to read some more on it I guess.