Sydney water quality is getting worse = TRUE

[DR.V]

Yeah, i think Sydney water quality is really getting worse.

I have 12 discus in my community tank and 6 died in two days.

No sign of any disease, i just found then on the bottom of the tank or sucked by the overflow in the morning.

I do w/c every 2 days.

Grrr....

Does anyone have the same problem ?

[Proteus]

I know of several people who after doing a water change have lost a lot of fish, with no signs of illness being present.

My only recommendation (if possible) age the water for minimum 48hrs, aerate the hack out of it, and double dose with a good quality dechlor agent.

Sorry to hear that you lost some fish

[DR.V]

I would suggest the same for other members.

[dreamer]

when was this happened? now im too scare to do wc as i dont normally aged water. how long do you think i can get away without doing wc? i may have to do wc as little and less often as possible

[R3dm4n]

Looks like it might be a trip to the super market for you sydney siders, i heard spring waters not that expensive lol :lol:
P.S sorry to hear about the news Dr V. :cry:

[dreamer]

im a risk taker 8-) did 50% wc last nite and ... so far so good :wink:

[goldenpigeon]

lol i bet ur fish arent happy for u to gamble their life thoagh ;) :lol:

[Ben]

Dr V,

Sorry to hear about the big loss mate.
I would say it is the quality of water in Sydney and not any diseases.

Just an idea for yourself and other Sydney siders a water filtration unit would help and solve this problem.

They are inexpensive and easy to set up and run.
A very good brand can be bought for under $100-

When it comes to bad water i think it is a much better idea to take the baddies out than to add other chemicals such as water agers and de-chlorinators.
(My opinion)

If i can help any further let me know.

Ben

[DR.V]

when was this happened? now im too scare to do wc as i dont normally aged water. how long do you think i can get away without doing wc? i may have to do wc as little and less often as possible

This happened last week. Now I only got 5 discus left in the community tank.

[DR.V]

Thanks very much for the advice Ben,

I will do that next week after Im free from uni.

[dreamer]

what kind of filter do you mean ben? is it ro/di?

[Ben]

dreamer, just a simple filter housing that has a fine sediment filter and human drinking grade carbon.

like what i am using for my flow through tank.

cheers
Ben

[piranha-discus]

how about moving to melbourne?? wont have any water trouble again. and that way we have more discus friends near by..........

[dreamer]

did another large wc 50%+ last night .... havent noticed any changes

thanks for that ben

[DR.V]

Yeah I wanted to buy that kind of filter that you installed on your tap.

Dreamer, I think some area have worse water conditions than others.

Like some area in kingsford, the water that comes from the tap is a bit smells.

[goldfish]

i live on the inner-west area in sydney, near the castle hill area and the water here is fine, for my discus tank i age my water in a barrel for atleast 5 days, i do water change every weekend, the moment i refill the barrel with new tap water i put in the super strength ager to get rid of chloramine and i run a powerhead to circulate the water for a day(with the pipes connected to the powerhead air outlet to produce the bubbles to disperse the chlorine). i turn the heater on to heat the water in the barrel the nite b4 i do the water change on sunday or saturday!
as for my other tank that consist of tinfoil barbs and saratoga etc, i just put the hose into the tank directly from the tap, i change about 20% water of the 6ft tank, so about 80lts of the 360lt tank. i've been doing so for about 3 months and the fish are fine.

[DR.V]

for my discus tank i age my water in a barrel for atleast 5 days

That is more than enough !! Hehe

Good job !

[dreamer]

i use water straight from tap and i dont see any ill effect.

maybe in high rise apartment they have big holding water tank which eliminate the need of aging water??

[nicholas76]

Ive had issues with Melbourne water in the past as well.

On one occasion several days after non seasonal heavy rains I nearly lost 6 adults fish. All came down with find burn. We ended up putting it down to a chlorine issue.

A simple human grade carbon filter is the best way to go about it like ben says.

Unless money isnt an option and you go for a super fine filtration package that also filters out various bacterial baddies too.

[Ben]

Would it be possible that different areas in Sydney have water from different water sources?
Because there is a lot of variation with water quality in Sydney, as posted by forum members.

I highly recommend using some sort of filtration unit if the water is some what suspect...

Water is ok here in Melbourne but since i have added a filtration unit i have noticed healthier happier discus!

Ben