Aged Water

[smitty24]

I have a 45 gal barrel that i have a submersible pump that is moving 210 GPH and heated to 85. I have a hose that goes up to the top above the water line and goes into PVC that circulates/agitates the water and a T valve that i can turn to let the water out. My questions is do i need a air pump and air stone?

[LizStreithorst]

no

[Filip]

You already got a lot more of surface aggitation and outgassing than a regular airstone can achieve .

[FishFanMan]

I know this has been discussed over and over but what is the need for aging if I'm using tap water and adding Prime. I've never aged my water and have never had problems. Even micro bubbles have never killed any of my discus. I ask because I like to minimize the effort to do WCs. I have a 75 gallon tank. For WC I use a 60 gallon rain barrel that I fill up at 84 degrees from my faucet. I use a pump to circulate the water and I add Prime to it as it is filling up. When the barrel is full, I pull out the pump, attach a hose to it, put the pump in the tank and pump the tank water out into my bathroom sink. Then I pump the new water into the tank using the same pump. Basically, the new water sits there for about half an hour before going into the tank. I've been doing this for years without any problems. I'm just thinking aging is recommended for certain situations and I'd like to know how to determine what those situations are.

[bluelagoon]

Aging water brings it to an equilibrium. Exchanges gases and airs off chlorine; this will not happen in a few hours but is better than straight tap water. The main reason is that with discus we use greater amounts/volumes of new water. Years ago when we only changed about 25% every week; that amount of new water shouldn't upset any tank and was usually safe. Today we use greater amounts of chlorine. Today we can use greater amounts of water with the dechlors but we should air off the gasses. Now there is chloramine for some of us to contend with and can't be aired off.

[bluelagoon]

There is very little breathable oxygen in tap water.

[Filip]

I know this has been discussed over and over but what is the need for aging if I'm using tap water and adding Prime. I've never aged my water and have never had problems. Even micro bubbles have never killed any of my discus. I ask because I like to minimize the effort to do WCs. I have a 75 gallon tank. For WC I use a 60 gallon rain barrel that I fill up at 84 degrees from my faucet. I use a pump to circulate the water and I add Prime to it as it is filling up. When the barrel is full, I pull out the pump, attach a hose to it, put the pump in the tank and pump the tank water out into my bathroom sink. Then I pump the new water into the tank using the same pump. Basically, the new water sits there for about half an hour before going into the tank. I've been doing this for years without any problems. I'm just thinking aging is recommended for certain situations and I'd like to know how to determine what those situations are.

Sudden PH drop and microbubbles during massive WCs can hurt discus more or less , depending on tap PH and presence of dissolved gasses in it.
My grown discus look very shocked , peel their slime coat and have trouble breathing if I do 80-90% straight tap.I would propably kill smaller baby discus right on spot if I try unaged 90% WC .

[Megalodon]

There is very little breathable oxygen in tap water.

You sure about that?

[FishFanMan]

My tank pH trends down slightly than new water so I guess that's saving my discus. Also when I fill up my barrel, I use a hose nozzle above the water line. It's my "alarm". When I stop hearing water splashing, I know it's almost full. Perhaps this is adding enough oxygen into the new water. I do 60 gallon out of 75 gallon WC and none of my discus she'd the slime coat.

[Megalodon]

As far as I'm concerned, once water is heated to the same temperature as the tank and dechlorinated, it is as aged as it's ever going to get.

[Megalodon]

Sudden PH drop and microbubbles during massive WCs can hurt discus more or less , depending on tap PH and presence of dissolved gasses in it.
My grown discus look very shocked , peel their slime coat and have trouble breathing if I do 80-90% straight tap.I would propably kill smaller baby discus right on spot if I try unaged 90% WC .

Were you using Prime or Safe?

[Filip]

Were you using Prime or Safe?

Safe . Always put a whole tank volume dose in the main tank prior refilling .

[Megalodon]

Safe . Always put a whole tank volume dose in the main tank prior refilling .

Safe only removes 0.6 mg/L chlorine at the recommended dosage while Prime removes 3.8 mg/L. If you have chlorine in your water and do a big enough water change, the recommended dosage of Safe might not be enough.

[pitdogg2]

As far as I'm concerned, once water is heated to the same temperature as the tank and dechlorinated, it is as aged as it's ever going to get.

Do you take any ph shift in account? My tap water comes out at 8.8 and it settles down to 7.7 in about 12-18 hours. I run my tap water in my holding tank through a Rena xp3 350gph, a fluidized bed filter with 1 kilo of Purigen and a huge dual sponge filter with a 400gph powerhead. That's after i fill it with a high pressure garden hose agitating the whole time.
Just for the sake of arguement the water is at temp going in the aging tank 82°

[JamesW]

Some municipalities add strong base to prevent corrosion of pipes. That strong base needs to react with CO2 in the air to equilibrate and that leads to a pH drop upon aging.

Other water sources might have excess dissolved CO2 that needs to off-gas and that leads to a pH increase upon aging.

Still others don't have either of these issues.