Flooding and water quality

[tbird22771]

Our municipal water turned brownish and developed a iron like smell over the weekend. Spoke to the water authority this morning, due to the rivers flooding they are flushing the system daily, they are monitoring the water daily and it is "currently still safe for human consupmtion, but we can boil it if that would make us more comfortable." My concern is will it harm my fish, I do daily water changes of at least 50% and have some fry that I do at least 100% on. Should I put some carbon in my hobs? I am wondering if carbon will even help. I could also run a filter on my aging barrel but wondering what would be best to use as media.

[Len]

How long will this last? If it's only going to take a couple days before it clears up you might consider skipping water changes for that time period and ensure you don't overfeed as long as you have stable biofiltration and your tank isn't overcrowded. If the water authority is monitoring it and can tell you it is safe for consumption, ask them for the analysis report so you can see what is in the water and compare it to a normal report. They will probably gladly give you the information if you ask.

[DiscusDrew]

Good advice, a lot of water companies will up the amounts of chlorine and chloramine potentially used in the water. My advice if you do water changes would be to monitor heavily your water conditions. If you age it would potentially be beneficial and regardless I would double your dose of prime or safe in the event extra chlorine compounds are there that weren't before. The fry would be my biggest concern. I would not add carbon to the filters but if your worried and the conditions may last a while you may consider using at least a basic water filtration system before adding the water to your tanks or holding barrels. As in a three stage filter.

[Orange Crush]

I had this happen earlier this year. The water was nasty for a day, the second day it looked clear but I still waited until the 3rd day (made me nervous to go that long without a water change since I always do daily ones- lol). Anyways it still had a negative effect on my fish, they got dark and were acting funny. People on the forum recommended buying water from the grocery store to do water changes with. Still have to treat it with water conditioner but it is a lot better than taking the risk....

[tbird22771]

Thanks for the replies, no one is really sure how long this will last the rivers are still above flood levels. I am looking into a three stage filter and holding off on water changes on my 90 and 55 (which are both under stocked) and I did a partial change on the fry yesterday afternoon and even though the water looks rough they seemed to be just fine. The bottled water is a good idea but as of yesterday there wasn't one bottle to be found at the supermarket or dollar stores and the self serve machines were all in need of maintenance lol.

[Elliots]

Now I don't really know the answer. Maybe try some type of paper filter to clean the water? Or another type of filter like a Brita filter I use to make my tap water more drinkable. I realize either type will take a while to filter water for a water change but they are much cheaper than bottled water.

[Elliots]

you could use the Brita container without the resevoir part the holds the filtered water and run tap water slowly thru the Brita and then into your waterchange storage.

[DiscusDrew]

... Three stage water filter....

[tbird22771]

I called public works again and apparently its tannin in the water, and they aren't flushing everyday - contrary to what the last person told me, they are just checking it everyday - but it hasn't gotten any darker in the past few days so they believe it will start to dissipate soon.... so not stressing about the fish anymore, just not happy about having to use it for everything else.

[Lenin]

You could also just try a cull or runt, or maybe another type of fish, do a 10g with this water and a see what happens

[tbird22771]

Lol Lenin you made me laugh because that is exactly what I did. I have a few angels in a different tank so threw them under the bus and did a good size water change on them before I did any of my discus or oscars.

[DiscusDrew]

Your careful with your Oscars? That fish will live on this earth longer than man I'm convinced haha. They are damn near impossible to kill. Anywho... If its just tannins in the water then I wouldn't care one bit. In fact as a general theory discus do great in water with tannins. That's why I don't mind my driftwood leaching into the water at all, they seem to love it.

[tbird22771]

Yes Drew I am careful with my Oscars, they are impossible to kill but if you baby them they really thrive and no HiTH. I have one at our shop (Gwendolyn) that has so much personality people will just come in to see her. btw her personality is nasty and she has regulars that come in on Friday afternoons to cheer her on during water changes as she lunges at my arm and the siphon.

[Orange Crush]

I have one at our shop (Gwendolyn) that has so much personality people will just come in to see her. btw her personality is nasty and she has regulars that come in on Friday afternoons to cheer her on during water changes as she lunges at my arm and the siphon.
lol I wish I could see that! :D

[DiscusDrew]

haha thats funny, Ive got one daddy discus that does the same when he has fry. Hes my buddy.... until he becomes a dad again, then its ON.

[Brent1972]

Yes Drew I am careful with my Oscars, they are impossible to kill but if you baby them they really thrive and no HiTH. I have one at our shop (Gwendolyn) that has so much personality people will just come in to see her. btw her personality is nasty and she has regulars that come in on Friday afternoons to cheer her on during water changes as she lunges at my arm and the siphon.

A friends breeding pair while cleaning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4BSrHXBfjA

[tbird22771]

An entertaining update on our water, which is still brown to tan at best lol. My husband stopped into city hall today to pay the water bill actually, and asked them if they had any clue when it would clear (he told them that we aren't drinking it but I have fish and the amount of crap that I am having to clean out of tanks and filters everyday is really ridiculous) so the lady tells him that they aren't really sure but yesterday they did empty the water tower and clean it so maybe that will help..... which btw the water is still as murky as ever but I did throw some carbon in my filters after wc's today since it's anybody's guess what exactly they cleaned with or may have stirred up cleaning out the tower.

Anyhow the fish seem to be doing okay, the amount of crud I am wiping out of the tanks daily really makes me glad I am not drinking it or using it for anything other then the fish and showering - although I wouldn't be surprised if I start sluffing off mulm randomly if this keeps up.

[BobDaniel]

Do your water changes on a tank of test fish. It's best to lose a tank of culls (assuming you have some). If the water proves to be bad, run activated carbon on your water storage tank overnight before doing a water change. Use fresh carbon every day. Just my $0.02. I had a similar problem years ago. The cleaning chemicals they use can be deadly to fish.

[tbird22771]

Thanks Bob, and I did end up running activated carbon on my water storage and tanks. The new issue is now there are high nitrates almost 20ppm (I am really bad with colors my hubby says its more like 10) on my test kit coming out of the tap. I noticed that both my adult and sub adult tanks appetites seemed to be a little bit off and my nitrates in my tank were over 20 and I do daily 60% changes (only have 5 sub adults in a 90 with no one else and have 5 adults in a 55g with two zebra loaches) so checked the tap. The tap had previously tested <5 before all this started. So now I am at a loss for what to do. From reading older post here on SD I see that some people do not have any ill effects with nitrates around the 20 mark, but I am concerned because my tanks have always been <5 and I may be being a bit paranoid because they are all eating and not dark or anything but just seem a bit off. My 3" juvies are doing just fine but I do 100 - 150% change on them daily. So I am thinking I am going to have to start doing 2 wc a day on the bigger tanks - which is really rather ironic - the water quality the city is providing me has gone down but it is forcing me to buy more of it....... Another option I have is to start hauling large amounts of water from my business which is in the next city over and fortunately the water there is fine, but with the amount of water I use there already I will probably be paying a premium amount for the water due to "demand" charges. Arg, I do know that I will be back at city hall tomorrow morning.

[BobDaniel]

It might make sense to get a RO and then run the product water through a ion bed filter. Westford vleaned out a water tank and I found out during a water change. The discus turned dark and seemed to not like the water. I called the city and found out what they were up to. I had to use carbon on the tap water but it soon was easier to run the RO and Kati and Ani and reconstiuting the water.

Perhaps rooting some Philodendron in the aquariums will help lower the nitrogen.