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Hi there,
as some of you may know, recently (few weeks ago)
I had a mysterious
rash of deaths in my tanks, some cories, both my
angelfish, and some others.
I found out today, that our well water is considered
unsafe for drinking, and that all water should be boiled for at least 2 minutes, even if just brushing teeth with it. It has a "higher than average" choliform count.
Could this be responsible for my fish deaths?
All fish seemed healthy and just "dropped dead" spontaneously, mysteriously after water changes,
and of course all my tests come out a-ok.

They are going to bleach the well heavily and the lines
tonight, so for 12 hours we will be without water.
Now, today is the scheduled day for my water changes, but now Im thinking I shouldnt do so, until this problem is corrected - however, the bleaching of the lines may not fully help, they wont know till after its done if it did or not.
Well, any thoughts? I could boil water to change water on my 10g and 25g tanks, but its simply not feasible to do so for my 75g.

So, does Choliform count affect fish and w/c's?
Any thoughts welcomed on this subject!

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I ran a Google search and it appears that Coliform is a type of bacteria. Some types of Coliform are often found in waste matter. If these bacteria are abundant in your water, I bet it's a sign of some pollution which would certainly be capable of killing off fish. Other bacteria and pathogens are supposedly associated with high fecal Coliform levels, so that definitely sounds unsafe.

---

And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Hi,
I think you might be right, the water could be so poluted
that it caused the deaths of the fish. Some are more
sensitive than others.
Here is a site on that bacteria:
http://tellus.ssec.wisc.edu/outreach/teach/ideas/kotoski/Minifact_Sheets/Minifact1_Coliform.pdf

I hope that you are taking steps to find out the source
of the contamination and remedy it. Otherwise that can
spell the "death" of the worth of the property.
Or, you may have to shut that well down, and drill another
further away, and perhaps into another aquafer.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Hi there,
we live in a Mobile Home park,
and the source is an Artisian well on the property.
The health authority believes it is because of recent
clear cut logging in the area that has prevented
local farm runoffs from being uptaken from the soil by the trees and resulted in this.
Commonly this happens where local rivers/lakes are water sources due to geeses in residence on the waterways, and usually in city waters they just add chlorine, but its hard to chlorinate an artisian well.


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Hi,
My well is 752ft deep and not an artisan (darn it).
Each year we test the water to be sure it is potable and
so far the readings have always been zero.

We all had a scare when a city over 100 miles away bought
up some of the water rights from foolish absentee owners
and then decided that they would drill 23 wells and pipe
the water over the front range and down to them.
The scary part was that they said they would pump the
surface water, during "wet years" directly into the
aquafer holding it in "storage" and then pump out of
it when they needed it. This is farming area, with
lots of farms and it is also open range with herds of
cattle. Talk about a recipe for disaster!
The county got together and took them to court, and we won
our case. The water rights reverted back, and the wells
were never drilled, and, they had to pay our court costs.
Such is life in the wild west!

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Hi Frank,
sounds like quite the mess!
Im glad to hear it all ended up alright though.
There is quite a few farms in the area that could be contributing to this for sure....espescially since they clear cut about 12 acres of dense forest only blocks from here for a proposed natural gas storage facility, that was actually voted down by the community, due to the area being high density rural community (mobile parks, rural/residential, etc).

Tonight he came by again and said that if the bleaching of the lines and well doesnt work to clear it up, he will install a water treatment system to combat this problem, hopefully out of the maintenance fees that are including in our lot rental fees.

After the lines and well has been bleached, it should be safe to do a water change right? Im guessing it would probably take at least a couple weeks for the levels to get high enough to be dangerous again, so perhaps after the bleaching is done I will store some treated water in 5gallon jugs in my shed in case this happens again!



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Hi,
When they bleach a well and lines, they dump a huge amount
(relatively speaking) of chlorine in there and let it sit
and then let it mix. You will have to run the water to
flush the chemicals out. I would hold off on the water
changes until they say it is safe to drink the water, and
then be sure to use a water conditioner that removes both
chlorine and chloramine when changing your tank.

Unless your tanks are way over stocked, you should not have
any urgency in getting right to a water change.

For well information, check out this site:
http://www.wellowner.org/sitemap.shtml

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

If you find yourself in a jam, you can always buy some RO, DI, or distilled water to do small water changes with. You could even purchase an RO or DI unit. They'll put you back at least a hundred dollars, but are valuable for people who use pure water but have a lot of tanks. It's better than shuttling back and forth to the store for water in five gallon jugs.

---

And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."