Just Bought A 250l Barrel For Aging Tap Water Options

[goldberg]

Hi everyone,

Decided to age my tap water, just bought a big size barrel ( abt 250 litres )..should I add activated carbon in it to remove chemicals/odours?

Appreciate your kind answers.

[HappyBuddha]

Hi everyone,

Decided to age my tap water, just bought a big size barrel ( abt 250 litres )..should I add activated carbon in it to remove chemicals/odours?

Appreciate your kind answers.

People in Singapore used to age their water so that chlorine can dissipate into thin air overnight. This way there's no need to add anti-chlorine, but I'm not sure if the effort to age the water is worthwhile vs $4 for a bottle of Genesis.

However, now that the garman added Chloramine, it's pointless and a complete waste of time and effort to age water.

You see, Chloramine was added to our tap water because it can't readily dissipate into thin air thereby making our drinking water even safer. Test shows it stays in the water exposed to air up to 2 weeks.

If chloramine cannot dissipitate into thin air, why do you want to age your water? The only advantage I could think of is equalizing the water temp (if your barrel is in the same room as your tank) but goldfish is hardy enough to withstand increase in water temperature of a few degrees.

Can you exchange the barrel for a 250 litres tub?

[goldberg]

HB,

Oh , yes, I have heard that Chloramine are now added in our tap water from some hobbyists.

In fact, everytime I change water for my goldfishes ( daily, abt 10 - 20 %) , I add Nutrafin anti-chlorine to neutralise them ( chlorine and chloramine ).

But I'm quite obssessed to achieve the best water for them...and not knowing what else is in the newater ( proportion being mixed in )...that's why I'm wondering whether to add a bag of activated carbon ... anybody tried it ?

Didn't get what u mean abt exchanging it for a 250L tub....I bought the barrel from a hardware shop.

[Amos]

But I'm quite obssessed to achieve the best water for them...and not knowing what else is in the newater ( proportion being mixed in )...that's why I'm wondering whether to add a bag of activated carbon ... anybody tried it ?

NEWater is even suitable for wafer fabrication plants and other industrial uses, which require very pure water! One could almost say that the reclaimed water is too pure. In fact, NEWater has such a low mineral content that it is tasteless. For domestic use, NEWater is mixed with normal reservoir water to "put" some minerals back in. So I'm not too worried about NEWater. The thoughts of adding trace elements pop up but I know none in the market really works.

[Jos Nana]

HB,

Oh , yes,  I have heard that Chloramine are now added in our tap water from some hobbyists.

In fact, everytime I change water for my goldfishes ( daily, abt 10 - 20 %) , I add Nutrafin anti-chlorine to neutralise them ( chlorine and chloramine ).

But I'm quite obssessed to achieve the best water for them...and not knowing what else is in the newater ( proportion being mixed in )...that's why I'm wondering whether to add a bag of activated carbon ... anybody tried it ?

Didn't get what u mean abt exchanging it for a 250L tub....I bought the barrel from a hardware shop.

If you are obsessed to give your fishes the best water to live in, your current practice of 10 to 20% change daily is not advisable. Nitrates will be very high and will lead to long term terminal diseases.

Would suggest you change 60% and above twice weekly or 90 % every week. Most bros in this forum practice it.

[leogon]

If you are obsessed to give your fishes the best water to live in, your current practice of 10 to 20% change daily is not advisable. Nitrates will be very high and will lead to long term terminal diseases.

Would suggest you change 60% and above twice weekly or 90 % every week. Most bros in this forum practice it.

Would you happen to have the water parameter difference between changing 10-20% DAILY VS 60% 2X/WEEK OR 90%/WEEK? Am sure you would have done some measurements...am keen to learn to re optimal water change regime.

[mrchoco]

age water??
eh that's really aged times...

[Jos Nana]

Yes, I have done extensive readings/measurements on this matter. I am afraid I am not able to reproduce it cos it was done about 7 years ago.

In order to achieve a relative meaningful measure of nitrate changes over a period of time, all other variables such as ph, kh, lighting intensity (daily reduction) , BB maturity & activity (everchanging), fish load & health (everchanging) incoming water etc etc.... have to be keep constant. It was not really possible. What I have gathered from the experiment is that 50 % water replacement will give you a reduction of approx 47 % nitrate. Our incoming water have a minute amount of nitrate, that accounts for the slight inequation.

For the purpose of this hypothentical illustration, let take away the issue of nitrate in our incoming water, thus 50% water replacement will result in 50% reduction in nitrate

Now assuming there are 10 units measure of nitrate (10x) in a tank, a daily water change of 10% will reduce nitrate to (9x). On the assumption that your BB colonies will produce 1x converted nitrate per day, the next day tank nitrate measure will still be 10x. i. e your fish is constantly living in 9x -> 10x nitrate presence.

Let's now have a 90% water replacement, nitrate will be reduced to 1x, it will take 9 days to rasie nitrate values to 10x at the same rate of BB activity. During this time, your fish is living in 2x nitrate in day 2, 5x nitrate in day 5 so on and so fore. Now this is the difference.

The above illustration does takes in certain assumption, off course it has more other issues to it. However, I hope it provide a logical explanation.

[Amos]

Large water change also aids in replenishing trace elements, stabalizing pH and getting rid of unwanted stuffs that home-use test kits could not detect.

Changing small quantity (20-50%) is an act that merely dilutes the old water! What's in the old water that is so precious that you need to keep anyway?

[leogon]

Thank you all for the invaluable advice.
Makes a lot of sense.

[goldberg]

Hi all,

Glad to read the many diverse advice given on the pros and cons of aging water. I personally didn't think aging water was necessary, what with the many brands of water conditioners availabe.

Perhaps I should rephrase it...not water aging but water pre-treatment . Yes, basically, I am going for the clean water system for goldfish keeping ( and I welcome members here who are doing it to advise )...ie I will be pre-treating my tap water in the container with activated carbon...water replacement will be 50% to 100%, depending on the bio-load, on a daily basis. Reason being that my water filtration now is very simple, after having encountered much bacteria problems with using canister filters, I changed completely to a simple sponge filtration last month, and you know what, my fishes has never fallen sick so far..no more ulcers, fungus, etc.

I realised too this means a very heavy workload , and I'm really thinking of designing a system to automate this....iewith preset timer controlled auto pumping and draining of the tanks. Any members who has the expertise, pls also share with us...Thks!!

[Allan]

Perhaps I should rephrase it...not water aging but water pre-treatment . Yes, basically, I am going for the clean water system for goldfish keeping ( and I welcome members here who are doing it to advise )...ie I will be pre-treating my tap water in the container  with activated carbon...

I don't know if it's really true but it's said that prolong use of activated charcoal will cause hole-in-the-head disease. What's for certain is activated charcoal can absorb essential trace elements from the tap water, of which the quantities is already very small. Many bros here only soak a bag of AC for 15 minutes during water change, in order to pick up some unwanted chemicals and remove some chloramine. Prolong use is never advised.

So as long as you practice frequent water change everything will be fine. Just remove the chlorine additive will do.

But I also have the habit of dosing baking soda to up and stabalize the pH around 8, for both my filtered and green water.

Cheers.

[DIYGOLD]

Hi everyone,

Decided to age my tap water, just bought a big size barrel ( abt 250 litres )..should I add activated carbon in it to remove chemicals/odours?

Appreciate your kind answers.

hi Goldberg. Can you let me know where, size and cost of the 250L barrel is bought? Thanks in advance!

[goldberg]

hi Goldberg. Can you let me know where, size and cost of the 250L barrel is bought? Thanks in advance!

Hello,

I bought the barrel ( blue colored, industrial type ) at a hardware shop around Rochor canal, right next to the Sungei Rd flea mkt. You can see them displayed outside their shop quite prominently.

Different sizes are available there...the boss wants $28. Got a little discount after some bargaining...