Might be a silly question but here goes am new be gentle Just curious how long can I store hma water if I keep the temp up and air rate it in a 200-litre barrel ie for water changes
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Might be a silly question but here goes am new be gentle Just curious how long can I store hma water if I keep the temp up and air rate it in a 200-litre barrel ie for water changes
G'day Gaz. I would say indefinitely, though most here age their water in the way you asked about for 24hrs to achieve a stable pH. The aerating allows gases (often CO2) from being pressurized in the process of delivering city water to you home to be released, causing some measure of pH swing to occur from when it first comes out of the faucet. Once the water is aged, it becomes stable and you can store & use it at your leisure.
In my experiences with the water where I live, it is very soft, zero Kh and around 4 defrees GH, long term storage is not viable. The water from my rain tank has a ph of 5. It comes from the sky and the tap around 7.2, many days later it falls in a heap.
I was taught on the BIKA forum around 15 years ago that dehclorinated water picks up bacteria easily. Best to use it within 24 hrs if possible.
But Brian, when the air has been bubbling in the container over night the chlorine gets gassed of as well as CO2.
Maybe I was too generalized. My water has chloramines that are not off gassed.
Got it.
I did to before I was told that I was doing wrong. Could be they were mistaken.
I suppose id depends on what you are doing with the water. In a hatchery setting, best to use it up before it becomes alive but for larger fish I can see no harm in long term ageing, so long as there's no access for aquatic beasts.
Eg. if a diseased frog made it's home in your barrel it might cause grief.
Tap water isn't remotely close to being sterile. There's even Mycobacterium living in there.
Still, the amount of bacteria that can grow in tap water pales in comparison to that living in aquarium water, in the filter, substrate, and the fish. Tap water contains relatively little food for bacteria but most people keep a huge amount of organic waste in their filters and substrate.