# How to prepare water for the aquarium



## almog60 (May 28, 2008)

How do you prepare water so it is good for the fish?
Also, how do I get rid of the chlorine in my water?


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## ka NUK (Dec 19, 2008)

The answer to this question will vary a lot with the type of fish you are keeping. If you are keeping fish from the Amazon, for example, you may want to add blackwater extract or filter through peat to lower the Ph and increase acidity. My Malawi cichlids need the opposite (high Ph, hard water).

Having said that: The vast majority of aquarium fish do fine at neutral Ph, so no "adjusting" needs to happen (depending on your tap water).

Chlorine or Chloramine is toxic to fish and must be removed. Chlorine will outgas (evaporate) from the water in a few hours. You may be able to just age the water overnight in buckets. If this is not possible, you can add a Chlorine neutralizer. I like Seachem Prime, its pricy but you don't need much. You can treat the water in buckets before adding it to the tank. Or you can use a hose straight from the tap ...in which case you add the neutralizer into the tank. In any case, make sure the temperature of the new water is fairly close to that of the tank.

Cheers
ka NUK


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

you can leave water out for 24 hours to-off gas or you can add dechlorinator to the water which you can purchase at a pet store.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Use a charcoal based tap water filter, or if you're in a hurry to degass chlorine, add an airstone to a bucket of water.

IMO, a bottle of prime is like $14, and does 5000 gallons or something. Useful to have around just in case too.

Also, if you have chloramine in the water, simply degassing it will take a long time and be very ineffective. In these cases, it's best to use a conditioner like Prime.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Not sure where you live, but just a note. Toronto switch from chlorine to chloramine at will. So it's better to always treat your water as if it's chloramine. Depending on where you live, your proximity from the nearest hydro station is also a factor as well.
The difference with chlorine and chloramine is that chloramine does not simply dissipate into the air. It binds the chlorine in the water for a much longer period of time.

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## PPulcher (Nov 17, 2006)

Zebrapl3co said:


> Not sure where you live, but just a note. Toronto switch from chlorine to chloramine at will. So it's better to always treat your water as if it's chloramine.


This is an excellent suggestion. Prime is the good stuff.

Since Kat posted about chloramine spikes, I've been measuring ammonia in my tap water before I do my changes. Since December 6, 2008, levels have been between 0.25 and 0.5 ppm in my tapwater, indicating chloramine. AFAIK, my water in Richmond Hill is from Toronto treatment plants.

Here's my handy dandy little graph


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

twoheadedfish said:


> you can leave water out for 24 hours to-off gas or you can add dechlorinator to the water which you can purchase at a pet store.


given that this has become a serious discussion, i apologize for the dickheadedness of my truncated post. lots of good stuff here.

what's with that huge drop in ammonia levels in that richmond graph over december 28th?


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## PPulcher (Nov 17, 2006)

Could be test kit error, or just the dosage of chlorine and ammonia they added was different. It's my goal to try and keep track over the course of a year to see what seasonal fluctuations there are. There's anecdotal evidence that the time of year when the lake turns over is bad for changing water, as well as over the Christmas holidays.


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## newbiefishfanatic (Dec 11, 2008)

if you need advice or help on cycling the tank (which is what will come next after preparing the water) then i have some good tips! i had my tank cycled in 2 weeks with NO nitrite spike, and my ammonia only rose to 1ppm.  yes i am very proud of that.


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## Cory_Dad (Apr 18, 2008)

PPulcher said:


> Could be test kit error, or just the dosage of chlorine and ammonia they added was different. It's my goal to try and keep track over the course of a year to see what seasonal fluctuations there are. There's anecdotal evidence that the time of year when the lake turns over is bad for changing water, as well as over the Christmas holidays.


I can attest to that. Last year at this time I had a disaster while filling up my tank directly from the tap via a python hose after doing a 50% water change. I lost a number of fish. Although I used dechlor while adding the water, I suspect it either wasn't enough or else there was so much chloramine in the water that it burned their gills.

btw, chloramine is simply the combination of chlorine and ammonia. The water utilities add the ammonia to help stabilize the chlorine SO IT DOESN'T GAS OFF. This is why I always pre treat the water with dechlor and let stand at least 12 hours before adding it to the tank.

As for the ka NUK comment about the water being neutral, I envy him living in Thunder Bay. Here in the GTA the water alkaline with the pH around 7.9. Depending on your fish that may be too high or too low. Do some research.

newbiefishfanatic just touched on the topic of tank cycling, which is the process of establishing nitrifying bacteria colonies in your tank in order to convert the ammonia to nitrite and the nitrite to nitrate. Typically this can take from 3 to 4 weeks (or less) depending on how you go about it.

Good luck and cheers.


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