hello all
i have been having soom trouble with one of my tanks in the last week with some losses.water changes didnt seem to be helping so yesterday i put a poly filter in [in the past i have said i didnt think these were any good so i have to hold my hands up and admit differently]and after an hour it went orange for alluminium .i put a fresh one in last night and this morning the second one is also orange.ive no idea where this alluminuim has come from so im going to get some r-o water and add some pre-discus mineral,just wondering what would be a safe % water change and has anyone got any experience with alluminuim posioning and will the last of the fish recover.i also set up a fry tank yesterday and ran the tap water trough a polyfilter and theres no trace of anything.
thanks in advance for any help
john
ps.the losses where 3 l066 and 3 loach

new plan thanks to dave in av
ive removed all fish to a bucket with tank water,rocks and bogwood and taken all the water from the thank giving the substrate a good cleaning while i was doing so .refilled thank with system water from aq.village [again thanks dave you wouldnt get service like that from an online shop]and am now slowly acclimatising fish back
i just hope this helps
john

Sorry to hear you have lost some fish John. Orange on polyfilter is Iron. Red for aluminium.
My be the colours were close and it was aluminium. Acid rain can cause aluminium to dissolve in the ground and end up in our water. We have had plenty of rain so i wouldn't rule it out. As far as i know aluminium effects the liver in fish.
From past experience of what i think was aluminium poisoning the bottom dwellers went first 24-48 hours along with some sensitive butterfly barbs.
Keep an eye on the rest of the fish. Fair pay to AV for sorting you out.
There is a product called liquid filter media by easy-life. I find this works much faster than polyfilter. I will give you some for those little emergence's.

hi darren
the leaflet that came with the first filter said the opposite to this ,now after checking leaflet on second one it said orange is iron,doesnt matter both are bad as far as i can see .regarding the fish there is still 1 l066,2 talking stripped cats ,1 bristlenose and 1 of them suckers that i broughrt to the meeting that seem okay its the cichlids that are lying onthere side
thanks john

really sorry to hear this and fair play to Dave and Av.


Contact the council and bring this to their attention.

""Health and medical applications include it as a material in hip replacements,[3] in water filters (derived water treatment chemicals such as aluminium sulfate, aluminium chlorohydrate and sodium aluminate, are one of the few methods available to filter water-soluble fluorides out of water), and even in toothpaste formulations.""

""Iron(III) chloride (FeCl3) is used: in water purification and sewage treatment, in the dyeing of cloth, as a coloring agent in paints, as an additive in animal feed, and as an etching material for engravement, photography and printed circuits.""

better to be safe than sorry to much can be dangerous