nervous about my new water ageing tank

Hi All

I've had my new discus for 5 days now and they couldnt look happier or more active. I'm stoked!!!!!!! picture to come soon.

However tomorrow I'm planning to do my first water change. I have bought a 60l barrel (food grade) from a beer brewing shop. I cleaned it out using only a tiny drop of straight bleach, washed it out and left it in the sun for a day. I then washed it out again, added discus buffer and stress coat and have left it to age for two days.

And here is my question. I have just tested the water in the barrel and I'm reading 6.6ph, thats ok, but I'm worried as my test show that there is a slight amount of ammonia, .25 or maybe a little less. I then tested the tap water and it had the same reading. I have always read that ammonia is bad....is my water bad or is this normal ?

Also when I take the lid off the barrel there is a noticeable chemical smell. Is this normal, some sort of evaporation or is the barrel dodgy ?

Thanks for any help.

rupes
:wink:

The smell you had most likely was from chlorine.
Use AmQuel to treat the water because it may have chlorine and chloramines, chloramines can not be removed by aging the water and it is deadly to your fish. Amquel also remove ammonia.

If you don't have access to Amquel, use some other product that will do the same (removing chlorine and chloramines). Aging water is not enough in some areas.

If I could have your kind of water, I would be really happy. My ph is about 8.2 :-(

i do not belive you have any problem with your water down there,

double dose on your prime in the aging drum to make sure

you will be fine, discus are hardy, and they love water changes, so get going and as nike say "just do it" :wink:

BINGO - thanks for quelling my fears.........I'm off to do a water change !!

:D