Sydney water quality is getting worse

I spoke to Allan Clarke this evening (person responsible for the 2 articles in the new forum, and a Disease/Aquatic all round guru)...

Activated carbon to remove the Copper (used to prevent Algae - remember our water is getting VERY low) and double/triple does with normal aging/dechlor agents.

As for phosphates, activated carbon, and regular water changes.

I am looking into getting some phosphate sponges imported from the U.S. (have sent a request to the manufacturer already)... we can get the product I am looking at getting here already, but it is priced between $16 & $20...

I should be able to get these for less than $4-$5 each...

I am going to try and get a bulk quantity in, also some carbon pads as well... (I have used them before, and they are great)

so how often should you change your carbon, and how much should you use in a 200lt storage container?

I dont think it would be very effective just sitting in a storage tank.

Activated carbon, to capture most of the baddies needs the water flowing through it, such as in a HOB filter, etc...

I always have a few spare AquaClears floating around just for this purpose, dont like messing with the canisters and sumps, just throw on an AC, add some Carbon, maybe a sponge, and leave it for a few days.

Carbon only remains active for 3-7 days (even up to 14 days if it is top notch stuff) after that it acts like any bio hosting material, although inert... good thing is, it doesnt leech the baddies back into the tank like Ammonia removing media does)

HTH

so techincally i could put some in a spare powerhead in the water storage container and treat pre-tank?

and what is the rate of use? i cup full or 10?

Absolute shocker at the moment .... nice white water north and south

yeah good poimt ryan.....

can you just drop a mesh bag of carbon in your water storage and add a powerhead to circulate the water???


or is a hang on filter better?

i have one of those cheaper powerhead (still 1500lts) that you can attach extra sections on it

what is the rate of carbon per litre?

I have heard about this geo liquid?

what is it?
what does it do?
do I need to add it?
when do I add it?
can U overdose on it? or the Fish I guess....

and if I use it do I not use other chemicals....

GAH, that is horrible you guys! Im in the US Alabama (Oxford) and our water is excellent, they just installed another water treatment plant now to lower some kind of pollutant from in the earth.. I duno, but our water readout is good...!

our pH around here runs high.. about 7.2 to 7.4 or so...

In Austrailia you guys dont have Phosphate sponge? I can get the stuff from my LFS for like 12$US a bottle full..

its from Seachem I think.. good stuff... dont have to use it, but good stuff!

What are the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning?

with water that bad, I would buy the BEST RO/DI unit that I could afford, better yet... I would go get a loan to buy the best one made!.. or I would just stock up on Distilled water... or buy my own distiller!

*bump*

Just a word of warning (from personal experience)

Sydney Water are once again bombarding our water with lovely chemicals to make the water safe for us, sadly, this cocktail mix is deadly to fish (additional Chlorine, Chloromine, Copper, etc).

Just last week my other half did some water changes on the Giant Gourami & Sth East Asian biotope tank, after doing so, the 200 litre ageing barrel was filled, and ager added (only the dosage needed to treat 200L - I usually double or triple dose).

Now, aside from the basic quantity of water ager, the barrel is highly aerated and is left for at least 48-72 hours before use.

3 days later I did my usual weekly 200L water chage on my main Discus display tank. Within hours the fish were cramping there fins, very dark and not behaving normally (shaking, huddling in a tight group, swimming at a slight angle). Yes, you could say I freaked out a little and was totally scratching my head as to what was the issue.

I added some Broad spectrum medication and aquarium salt as I could not work out what the exact issue was until I could speak to some other people about what was going on.

One thing that I do have hooked up to the tank is an AquaMedic MV Computer, which constantly reads the redox potential level in the water, it normally sits on around 270 to 330, it was reading 435 to 460 after the water change.

After consulting with some friends in the know, it was quickly discovered that my tank had an abnormally high percentage of Chlorine in the water??? (very strange given my usual practices of treating the water). Once armed with this extra info I proceeded to add some highly concentrated water ager into the sump. Within 25 minutes the redox level dropped from 340+ to 196, and in less than an hour the fish were all behaving as normal as though nothing was ever wrong.

I have since learned that in regards to redox levels, Freshwater should be at a reading of between 200 & 350, Saltwater 300 & 400 and a chlorinated swimming pool at 700 (to put things into perspective).

All I can say is the MV computer has paid for itself many times over already (based on the computer being approx $700 and the Discus value being in excess of $5,000 in the same tank).

Now I realise not everyone can go out and purchase a unit such as the MV computer, however I hope this shows how important it is to not only use products such as water conditioners, but to treat accordingly, and in Sydney at the moment, I would personally suggest a minimum of double dosing.

(FYI, I use AquaStar water ager (the newer more concentrated version of water ager ACN) 5ml treats 350L as well as Hagen AquaPlus (mainly due to the Aloe content))

http://www.aqua-medic.com/products/i...mvcomputer.jpg

Quote:

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MV Computer

Microprocessor controlled redox-potential (ORP) monitor and controller

The Aqua Medic mV Computer uses the same microprocessor technique as the pH Computer. Waterproof touch keys are used to set the required values and calibrate the electrode. The mV Computer is ideal for controlling anerobic biological filters such as the Aqua Medic Nitratereductor which have negative redox potential or can control the supply of ozone to the aquarium water’s redox - potential. All these functions are possible due to the computers broad measurement and control range of -500 to + 1000 mV. The direction of control can be set upwards or downwards. The status of the direction of control and the output are shown on LED’s.

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