pastry
10-04-2015, 10:31 AM
Hey, anyone else this past year (who does WC's straight from tap) experience freak variation in normal tap water chemistry?
Most here know I don't have the cleanest tank in the world but twice this year I've changed the water (and remembered to add prime...) and wiped out my lemon tetras within 15 mins of adding new water. My tap has been consistently just over neutral PH (7.2) but after the last incident I tested the tap and it was well above 8. No ammonia reading but I can't recall anything with nitrites/nitrates (not sure if I even took those readings). I was pretty shocked by the ph reading because it was in the high 8's. Didn't check TDS then but normal TDS is 095.
I asked the nearest aquarium shop (the only one worth a damn... I still don't buy discus from LFS though) if they've experienced that and they said they've had some problems as well. Lastly, my wife's not the best with her school aquariums but right around the same time as my first experience, she did a WC and all fish but a pearl gourami bit the dust.
That said, anyone else ever have that problem? Should water companies have to warn people????? Not just worried about fish but what the heck else can that water do? Also, my house is separated by 15 miles from my wife's school and 20 miles (opposite direction) of the LFS; so I'd have to think the root of the cause is by the water company. I've heard that after big rains (speaking of, most of my neighborhood is flooded right now) then to weary of WC's but the first occasion took place after several weeks of hardly any rain.
Alright, just wondering. Nothing I can really do about it. I'd be lying if I said I'd check the tap water before each WC; HOWEVER, I love having lemon tetras (any tetras) because they're like the canaries of WWI... if that canary is dead then dawn your gas mask
Most here know I don't have the cleanest tank in the world but twice this year I've changed the water (and remembered to add prime...) and wiped out my lemon tetras within 15 mins of adding new water. My tap has been consistently just over neutral PH (7.2) but after the last incident I tested the tap and it was well above 8. No ammonia reading but I can't recall anything with nitrites/nitrates (not sure if I even took those readings). I was pretty shocked by the ph reading because it was in the high 8's. Didn't check TDS then but normal TDS is 095.
I asked the nearest aquarium shop (the only one worth a damn... I still don't buy discus from LFS though) if they've experienced that and they said they've had some problems as well. Lastly, my wife's not the best with her school aquariums but right around the same time as my first experience, she did a WC and all fish but a pearl gourami bit the dust.
That said, anyone else ever have that problem? Should water companies have to warn people????? Not just worried about fish but what the heck else can that water do? Also, my house is separated by 15 miles from my wife's school and 20 miles (opposite direction) of the LFS; so I'd have to think the root of the cause is by the water company. I've heard that after big rains (speaking of, most of my neighborhood is flooded right now) then to weary of WC's but the first occasion took place after several weeks of hardly any rain.
Alright, just wondering. Nothing I can really do about it. I'd be lying if I said I'd check the tap water before each WC; HOWEVER, I love having lemon tetras (any tetras) because they're like the canaries of WWI... if that canary is dead then dawn your gas mask