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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Water changes using the hot tap

  • Didihno (Didihno)
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09 Mar 2007 06:13 #1 by Didihno (Didihno)
Water changes using the hot tap was created by Didihno (Didihno)
I read in someone elses thread someone say not to use the hot tap when filling the tank. Copper and heavy metals? Woot?

I always use the hot tap.
afetr melting a few 5l bottles with kettle boiled water it was my safest choice.
Also, boiling my water causes the calcium to fall out of it, clouding the water.

What to do?

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  • ChrisM (ChrisM)
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09 Mar 2007 06:40 #2 by ChrisM (ChrisM)
Replied by ChrisM (ChrisM) on topic Re: Water changes using the hot tap
Whatever works for you go with it?If you believe everything you read you would go mad.Some fish can build up small tolerance levels to material found in untreated hot water,some absolutely can not.I find with African Cichlids that this can be done every now and again.I fill 100 litre bins with water and let them stand,just before I pump them into the tanks I add hot tap water (about 10 litres into 90 litres of cold water) to match temperatures.Otherwise I just use heaters and heat the standing water that way,which takes alot longer!!!.

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09 Mar 2007 07:17 #3 by arabesque (Mick Veale)
i use 20 litre drums.

1)put in dechlorinator, and other additives (epsom salts, sodium bicarb and marine salt.. for my africans)

2)boil two kettles and pour on top
so everything disolves.

then top it up with coldwater... which gets it up to about 23 degrees.

then syphon it in from a height.

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09 Mar 2007 12:14 #4 by Sean (Fr. Jack)
I think it depends on the flow rate/time same water sitting in a 50L metal tanks, if for example you just had a bath and used up all the hot water then waited one hour for the tank to heat up again...well I guess you could get away with it, but say the water has been setting in the hot water tank a long time and its the middle of the winder so a large portion of the water will be from the hot tap, well you could be tempting fate.

The bottom line is I have seen my wife boil a kettle to make tea from the hot tap so it 50C before the kettle heats it and the tea has a metal taste, I really effect me as I have that after taste on my tongue for a long time, now if I had a cup of I have only added 0.5% of the water in my body from a contaminated source, you fish will swim and drink this 20% by volume stuff every day and night till your carbon filter it out of solution.

The bottom line if if you do not agree, I respect that, but just for the laugh tap water left in the freedge for one day is colder and more refeshing without the chlorine, do next time you put some still water in the ferige, pull/draw it from the hot tap, and use it to drink the next day it will be nice and cold by then with no chlorine taste, and I let you be the judge, if you can taste the difference, naturally to be scienfitic do a control with another container with still water draw from the cold tap. :wink:

That would be a ecumenical matter!!!

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09 Mar 2007 12:58 #5 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
I use a 80 litre plastic dust bin (about half full). I fill it with water the morning of the water change so by evening it's close to room temperature. It then only needs 2 or 3 kettles to bring it up to temperature. I then add dechlorinator.

I fixed a hose to a pond pump and then pump the water up into my tank.

I also attached a lenght of hose to my siphon which allows me to siphon the water straight to the drain outside the back door.

I had to eliminate buckets as my back is dodgy.

Regards,

Ken.

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  • apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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09 Mar 2007 14:53 #6 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re: Water changes using the hot tap
Ken,
save yourself the money and stop using dechlorinator. If your water stands in a drum for the day the chlorine will have dissipated and you won't find any in the water boiled in the kettle.

Holger

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09 Mar 2007 15:16 #7 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
Holger,

What about chloramines? They don't evaporate in the same way as chlorine and can only be removed with dechnorinator. I wouldn't take the chance to be honest.

Regards,

Ken.

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09 Mar 2007 15:16 #8 by Acara (Dave Walters)
I've seen inside a few hot water tanks when they have been removed from a house. :shock: As a result,i will never drink water from a hot tap,so would not use it in a tank either.It aint pretty inside them!

always on the lookout for interesting corys.pm me if you know off any!

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  • Didihno (Didihno)
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09 Mar 2007 16:22 #9 by Didihno (Didihno)
Replied by Didihno (Didihno) on topic Re: Water changes using the hot tap
I use a dechlorinator on the water every time.
I put in the squirt of stuff and fill the 5l bottle to touch temperature.
I then pour this water off the 'bridge' in the jewel tank.

The fish seem to be healthy.

Don't get me wrong I respect the fact that everyones knowledge is far superior to mine, but I just don't see that the hot tap water is having any effect on the fish. And I've got two Dwarf Gourami in there, supposedly drop like flies.

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  • Anthony (Anthony)
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09 Mar 2007 16:28 #10 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: Water changes using the hot tap
I just use cold dechlorinated water with my Africans. But I have used 10% from the hot tap but would not use it again.

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09 Mar 2007 17:32 #11 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re: Water changes using the hot tap
Ken,
chloramines aren't used in Ireland
Holger

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  • Anthony (Anthony)
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09 Mar 2007 17:55 #12 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: Water changes using the hot tap

Ken,
chloramines aren't used in Ireland
Holger


How positive are you. I taught they used Chloramines after carrying out
repairs.

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09 Mar 2007 17:58 #13 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
That's what I thought as well Anto. The Country Councils are a law on to themselves. Just because they don't use them in one county, doesn't mean they're all the same.

Not sure I'd take the chance.

Regards,

Ken.

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  • Anthony (Anthony)
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09 Mar 2007 18:03 #14 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: Water changes using the hot tap
I got it from a reliable source that they lash the system after major works and every now and again. I remember my tank almost white for 2 days after a water change.

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09 Mar 2007 18:14 #15 by tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
There is also the heating elements that you have to take into account when talking about using water from the hot tap. At present the hot water in my house is only heated when needed i.e. we use gas.

Thus I am of the opinion that if you are using gas to heat your water and not (an electric system where the water in heated in a big copper drum) your water should be alright. If you are worried about any metal residues in the water just run the tap for a minute and that should completely refresh/replace the water in the gas boiler. Therefore it will have the same concentration of metals as the water coming from the cold tap, i.e a very minimal amount.

Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!

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10 Mar 2007 03:31 #16 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re: Water changes using the hot tap
As far as I am aware the pipes are flushed not chloramine. Friend of mine's working for the council here. I'll be seeing him for the match today. Will let you know. Even if they used small amounts of chloramine (relatively speaking) after repairs (they do repairs?) it wouldn't make much of a difference. Even chloramine will eventually dissipate. Water rested for a day should have lost most of it. Don't always believe what the dechlorinator producers and the henchmen (aka fishing mags) are telling you. Chloramine is just more stable an safer to work with than chlorine gas.

Holger

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