×
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

Ammonia in water butt, any advice?

More
21 Jul 2013 11:11 #1 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
Hi all

So I started using a water butt which is getting filled from a downpipe on the house for water change water, I put this in a bin with airstone and Corbin filter for 24 hours before using it.

Rather foolishly the only test I did was for PH and I have now tested for ammonia and getting .25 PH about 7.2 and temp no idea.

Do I have options other than going back to tap water? I don't have another filter at the moment but if I got one and filled with zeolite would 24 hours be long enough to remove the ammonia. Or would something like prime do the trick?

If the ammonia is coming off the roof, is there some other way to fill the butt?

Thx
Dec

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
21 Jul 2013 11:28 #2 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
It would be a pity to waste a good source of water.

I'd first find the exact source of the ammonia......is it due to mulm in the bottom of the butt? or is it from decay within the butt? or is it from nitrogen debris running down off the roof?

Although Prime may rid the free ammonia in the water, it will still give high ammonia readings when tested. Although Prime may be useful as an emergency aid for ridding ammonia from an established tank, and as good water conditioner, I would not use it to "remove" that level of ammonia from the source water.

Zeolites that remove ammonia are excellent and work very rapidly (the speed will change depending on concentration of ammonia, the ammount of zeolite and the flow over the zeolite).

I would normally recommend filtering over activated carbon anyway to help stabilise the water.

Maybe worth testing water just to see how fast the zeolites work.

After that, then treat with your normal water conditioner.

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
21 Jul 2013 11:33 #3 by Homer (Kevin)
Bird faeces in the Gutter are probably the culprit.

H.

The Glass is always greener on the other side.


It's NOT "Chee lick", NOT "Chee Chee Licks"!!! Cichlids is pronounced as "Sick Lids"!!!!!

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
21 Jul 2013 17:20 - 21 Jul 2013 17:26 #4 by anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
You could prefilter you rain water going in to your water butt.



The real thing works great!

Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,


And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
Attachments:
Last edit: 21 Jul 2013 17:26 by anglecichlid (ciaran hogan).

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
21 Jul 2013 21:35 #5 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
Thx all for the replies sorry for late response been having a low tech day.

I'm going to use tap water this change while we figure out how to deal with the ammonia.
I'm also now a bit worried about what else is in the water.

@Ian I have an internal filter with activated carbon I'll have to get another for zeolite and see how long it takes to work

@Homer yeah that makes sense may have to get up there and clean out the gutters.

@anglecichlid. The aldi water butt hush has a 1 inch pipe from the downpipe so nowhere for a filter like you have unfortunately

Is anyone collecting rain water not off a roof and if so how?

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
21 Jul 2013 23:35 #6 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
i got a large square of pond sponge cut it to slightly larger than the diameter of the downpipe snd shoved it into the pipe then put a small bag of activated carbon on top of that with another section of sponge above that works well for me, plus i have pond weed growing in the water put to naturally take out more impurities

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
21 Jul 2013 23:44 #7 by CrustyCrab (Peter Biddulph)
Clever thinking with the pondweed.

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
01 Aug 2013 10:14 #8 by paulv (paul vickers)
earlier this year i was setting up a sump filter and the guys in seahorse showed me a filter sponge with ultra fine holes, im talking micron size that will filter out every thing possible, mayb it will work for you, its expensive and im sure slow to let water flow. ive used prime in an emergency and it does work but again its an expensive way to treat your water every week.

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
01 Aug 2013 11:34 #9 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
I just got a small filter and I'm gonna run it in the 50 L bin I use for water changes and see how long it takes to remove the ammonia. I will probably stick some kind of media in the down pipe also. I run carbon in the bin so will probably not put that in the down pipe

Thx for the advice
Dec

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
01 Aug 2013 11:36 #10 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
Sorry gonna run zeolite in the small filter

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
05 Aug 2013 14:43 #11 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
Hi

Does zeolite reduce total ammonia or un-ionised ammonia?

I have had aquaone zeolite pad in a small filter in a 15L bucket of water butt water for 48 hours and I am still getting .25 reading.

Please Log in to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.070 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum