unclenedsfishfactory.com

It's been a bit of a struggle for me here in hyde park the last few months - once upon a time a water change was a cause for celebration - fresh bubbly water - bright active fish - spawning - excitement. Now it has become more of a death march. If I'm at all careless (I.e. If I perform a water change the way I have for the past 15 years) I am bound to loose fish. Within an hour of a change, stressed fish turn into dead fish. Only by barreling water, treating with excessive dechlor and buffers, and letting the water sit and turn for a few hours can I perform my usual large water changes without risking my fish. Even then, the change is something to be endured by my fish, rather than celebrated. I mean, I feel as if I'm in Medway!

So, I put it to all you MWRA users out there... An similar issues? I suspect a local problem - neigborhood pipes or hot water tank leaching something nasty into my water - but I'd like to rule out a more region wide issue with the water.

Cheers,
-Sam

softwater fish or hardwater fish ?
I'm just outside the mwra -- but I deal with alot of MWRA people every Saturday at work and we haven't seen any big issues lately - but I almost always recommend that people use a good hearty dose of Prime and either aerate well or premix for a few hours before making water changes.
For a moderate pH I usually recommend use of a small amount of Seachem Alkaline buffer (even though the water starts with a high pH it has so little gH, and the pH drops once its aerated well) - for a lower pH (cardinals, apistos, etc) like 6.5ish I usually just recommend the aerating.

For CA cichlids, Rift Lake cichlids, or most rainbowfishes I tend to recommend a larger dose of Alk buffer (or, in unplanted tanks, Seachem Malawi buffer - its phospate based but its wicked easy)

did you move, or is this just a recent thing in an established location ?

I suggest you put a high grade carbon filter on your holding barrel

probably your house water

Thanks guys... yeah, I'm suspecting a very local issue. One thing I will try is running the water for longer before using it in changes... i.e. clear out the pipes.

My tanks are all soft water and I don't mind the low ph at all. I learned long ago that I had to give mwra water a little time to breath before adding it to the tanks, it really doesn't take much to see the ph plummet from 9.0 plus, down to 6. It is just that over the last few months, water changes have become an obvious stressor on the fish, rather than a breath of fresh "air". Possibly it is time to go to a more heavy duty water conditioner brand - I have been using sera aquatan.

Ned - might prefiltering with carbon have the same deleterious effects on my eartheaters as having carbon in my tank filters? I haven't used carbon on my tanks for over 6 years now and I am hesitant to start up again.

- Sam

I figured I was preaching to the choir but I also thought some customers may find the above useful at some point...

Have you tested your tap water lately to see if anything is out of whack ? Do you get a water quality analysis in the mail each year ? I know I get one from the Randolph/Braintree/Holbrook water dept every year (doesn't really say much, but still...)

a city public works dept. test data can be helpful
ask for one from your town

Ned - might prefiltering with carbon have the same deleterious effects on my eartheaters as having carbon in my tank filters?
no
it's the best use of carbon...
removing known (or unknown) contaminants from the water

...if the carbon can do anything bad
its not in the tank

if it can do anything good
it's doing it in the barrel of prep water

Jeff at the MWRA gave me a call back today - pretty good discussion.

First - nothing has changed in their overall handling of MWRA water recently - so something broad scale is out.

He thinks that the extensive roadwork and water pipe replacement done in my immediate area last fall would have led to an increase in overall chloramine levels. Apparently, new pipe types don't act to remove the chloramines as well as older pipes, and neighborhoods where new pipes get put in can jump in chloramine levels, and remain at higher than average levels for years to come. So... time to go more heavy duty on my dechlor!

We also discussed the waters affect on fish keeping in general - and I was able to introduce him to the problems associated with the huge PH discrepancies we see between tap and tank and also tell him about the benefits of having super soft water out of the tap for breeding the blackwater fish I'm obsessed with.

- Sam

i was going to suggest chloramine issues. chloramine is chlorine and ammonia. i dont think that any dechlor will solve your problem. no matter which one you use it will just break the bond between the chlorine and ammonia, remove the chlorine, and leave ammonia in your water. my suggestion is if you have the means to do so, treat the water with dechlor in a barrel and run a regular ole filter with some bio filtration to nitrify the ammonia.

thoughts?