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After using our water tank for water changes the past few months, I finally ran some tests on the water after we ended up with a dead BN and angel post water change.
ph 6
ammonia 1.0ppm

ouch !


With all the rain we've been having I figured giving them rain water would be better than dechlorinated tap water, but not with that much ammonia

^_^

Babel

I honestly did not think you would fall for that one.

Depending where you are the rain water will be slightly different, reason airborne impurities.

It could be several things causing that problem
1 roof coatings
2 dirty guttering/downpipes
3 even the water tank its self.
4 bird poop etc on the roof.
5 seeing you are getting plenty of rain clean every thing out completely.

Keith


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Well this time last year we were on only tank water and the fish did fine, it wasn't till we moved to this house that we started losing everyone. Of the four houses we've had the fish in that were on town water (only one house was on tank water) this has been the only house that we've lost this many fish in. I know some of them were due to a poor quality LFS which we won't be going to ever again.

Since we'd had a week solid of rain, an the tank is quite small (it's a slimline for the pool) I assumed that the roof and the tank had been pretty well flushed. Makes me wonder what exactly was in the water I was drinking at the house we had on tank water .


^_^

In the water you were drinking at the old house? Bugs, bird poop, spiders, slugs, a few cockroaches and the odd snail all filtered through a generous helping of rotting leaves and unidentifiable sludge.

Don't know why you're getting an ammonia reading though, mine never did when I've tested it and the PH was always dead on 7.

I'd be checking my nitrates of the tank water too. The pH would be low because the water is soft as f%$# and there are weak acids leaching into the water from leaves in your gutters, down pipes and most likely in the tank itself.

If you still wanted to use the tank water for waterchanges you could set up a waterchange barrel and run a large sponge filter or cheap budget internal power filter in there? Or maybe try resting the water for a week and the ammonia might go away? I don't know just chucking ideas out there.

I'm lucky where I live, the only problem I have with my tap water is its very soft general and carbonate wise. But I dose ferts which jack up the GH and treat all my waterchange water with baking soda to a KG of 3 - 4º.

What are the parameters of your town water like?

You know, I've never bothered to test town water right out of the tap? Granted before the post wc issues I'd never bothered the with the tank water either (yep it had nitrAtes but sadly lower than what was in the tank working on it so don't go ripping my head off!).

We don't really have many trees around since they chopped them all down to cram all the houses together, and it's a new tank so I wouldn't imagine that's whats dropping the ph so low. Since one of the tanks is a SA I thought they might enjoy the lower ph. Of the two larger upstairs tanks one is more heavily planted than the other, and my be the reason why it didn't have the same stress involved even though it got a much larger water change.

Ira, thanks for reminding me . Bro in law got treated recently for parasites? worms? something he picked up as a kid drinking tank water *shudder*.

^_^

Something he picked up as a kid but only diagnosed now? Weird...All I've really heard of as a risk is parasites like giardia. But you KNOW you have that within a few days.

ya I dunno, he brought it up at a family dinner one time, not exactly table talk, but then again we get all sorts of stuff brought up at family dinners when the two of them are lab tecs .


^_^