WATER STORAGE

[engineguy129]

Hello all,
I do hope everyone had a safe and happy new years. I have read in several posts that people use rubbermaids (trashcan) to store their water for future w/c 's. Does anyone add a powerhead to aggitate the water or use of a heater??? Yes it may be a little on the side of common sence to use a heater. Just wondering what everyone else is doing. I think the bathtub theory is out of the question..............wife would kill me.

Thank you
Rob

[Discusgeo]

I have three former coke suryp connected togethere using bulkhead fittings and use a submersable pump to circulate the water thru them. I also have 2-250 watt Ebo's to heat the water. I use nothing else.

[Carol_Roberts]

IF you have moderately hard water an airstone alone will not raise your pH in a timely manner.

My 50 gallon barrels (purchased from the local farm co-op $29.95) originally contained greek olives. I have a pond pump and a heater in each one. One end of the hose is connected to the pond pump. The other end is draped back in the barrel creating a water fall effect. I run it for three hour to raise my pH from 6.8 to 7.8.

If you have soft water an airstone alone may work just fine. What is the pH of the water in your discus tank after 24 hours? Test the pH of the water when storage container first filled. Then test several hours later to see how much it has changed.

Carol

Carol, Why do you wish to raise your ph from 6.8 ( I think ideal ) to 7.8 ? ( at times troublesome with higher toxicity and proponent of parasitic invasion) Maybe I misinterpretted? I also believe the fish' coloration and general immune system to be better in lower ph. Higher hatch rates as well! Hope you had a wonderful Holiday, ;D Joe

[redlines]

Joe,

I use 2 - 55 gal barrels with 1 heater & 2 airstones in each. I use a mounted external Sears Craftsman pump to pull the water out of the barrels & into my tanks. My water is well water & comes through the city chemically buffered to keep the ph at 7 but it rises to 8 when allowed to sit for 24 hrs. The airation caused the CO2 to be displaced faster and brings the PH up to 8. I mix My well water in the barrels with 1/2 RO in one and 1/4 RO in the other to be used for my breeding pair & grow outs.

Andy

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Joe:

The true pH of my water is 7.8 after it has time to adjust.

I have a well. The water comes out of my tap at 6.8 pH cold, under pressure and full of CO2. When the water circulates in a fish tank or storage barrel the CO2 is offgassed and pH rises naturally.

I age (read agitate and heat) my water in a storage barrel so it matches the parameters of the water in my discus tanks. This way I can do 50% or larger water changes and not stress my discus.

Of course you all ready know this Joe and just read my post wrong, but I thought I'd explain it for the new discus keepers. ;D

Carol

[engineguy129]

Thank you for the info everyone! I know I have talked to you before Carol my "aged" water sits about 7.8 as well. I think I will work on one thing at a time to lower the "possible" mistakes to be made, but when the time comes around I know RO is the way to go for spawning to drop the ph back down to 6.0 to 6.8. What about the use of sulfuric acid or placing peat into the water barrels to lower it natually (I just finished success with discus-Jim Quarles sorry). Again thank you everyone

Rob

[Carol_Roberts]

With my moderately hard water (GH 11) it is too hard to consistantly maintain a lower pH in my change barrels. I raise all my juveniles in the 7.8 pH.

When I lower the hardness of my water to breed the pH naturally remains around 7.6 and this works fine at my house.

Carol

[engineguy129]

Great thank you! That last bit of info is very helpful.


Rob ;D

Carol, Thanks for the clarification. It's becoming clear now.

Andy, Good set up! I have 600 gallons worth of storage tanks and use little giant pond pumps to circulate the water and an eighteen hundred gph pump to fill the tanks with a one inch id. polyethylene hose.

Rob, More important than ph for breeding purposes is the conductivity. The addition of any acid will lower the ph but will raise conductivity. I would not recommend sulfuric acid. It is unstable and dangerous at best. R/O is the most efficient means of adjusting the parameters for breeding purposes as peat is very slow and colors the water a tea color. Joe ;D

[limige]

well, i've been using 3 garbage cans but i'm planning a change soon when my first rack is done and plumbed and i can afford a pond pump to move the water.

here is my plan.
build a collasable storage unit like you would build a house. 5 walls framed 2x4 with a 1/2 plywood inside. then reinforce with another frame once assembled. use a small pool liner inside to make it water tight. but insulate between the plywood and liner with some thick pink styro.

buy one of those heater controlers from jehmco and a block heater from the local autozone. (runs like 3,000+ watts for less than $30) add a pond pump for circulation and wire both to the heater controller.

this is my proposed plan, not sure on engineering yet, need to make sure i use the correct dimensions for the support i have. worst comes to worst i may reinforce with steel. either way, it's the cheapest way i can see to storing 300+ gallons of water.

mike

[Rick_May]

Mike,
A angle fish breeder I know has some indoor ponds for grow out constructed the same way. his are 4'X4'X3' and he can grow out about 700 angle fish in no time.
using that for water aging is a great Idea, i've been planing on doing the same thing. My setup is going to sort of follow J.Q. plywood tank plans. I'm planning on making it 24 wide 36 high and 48 long. my design is to be able to keep it out side year round so my plan is to do a inside plywood tank tank surrounded by 3" styro. then a out side layer of plywood then fiberglass the heck out of the whole thing. this should give me about 150 gallons of storage.

I was planning on heating it with just fish tank heaters or plumb in a small water heater like for a trailer then use the pump to push water through the heater. so let me know how the block heaters work out.

when I get the time and it warms up enough to do it, I'll take lots of pictures and post it in the DYI section