Activated Carbon question
 

Zëbulon wrote in
:


"Michael" wrote in message
. net...
I am trying to remove some medication and lower the organics load. I
am preparing to do a water change, but the water temp here is low and
I don't want to shock the tank temperature wise.

You don't have heated water in your home? I take *warm water* right
from the tap, dechlorinate it (no chlorimines here) and put it
straight in the tank. :-)


Classic advice says that warm tap water for water changes is ill-advised,
if you have copper pipes. Copper transports into the hot water pipes/tank
at a level unnoticed by/harmless to people, but potentially troublesome for
long-term fish health. Most of that transfer happens at the significantly
higher temperatures in your HW tank, but also from laying hot in the copper
line (which is why the cold water line is preferred).
I hear that copper leaching may be lessened with newer HW "on-demand"
systems, because exposure time at elevated temperature is reduced.

Meh. If your tap water chemical treatment has a metal chelator in it, it
should take care of almost all the copper in there.

$0.02

DZ
AW

Activated Carbon question
 

"atomweaver" wrote in message
...
Zëbulon wrote in
You don't have heated water in your home? I take *warm water* right
from the tap, dechlorinate it (no chlorimines here) and put it
straight in the tank. :-)

Classic advice says that warm tap water for water changes is ill-advised,
if you have copper pipes. Copper transports into the hot water pipes/tank
at a level unnoticed by/harmless to people, but potentially troublesome
for
long-term fish health. Most of that transfer happens at the significantly
higher temperatures in your HW tank, but also from laying hot in the
copper
line (which is why the cold water line is preferred).
I hear that copper leaching may be lessened with newer HW "on-demand"
systems, because exposure time at elevated temperature is reduced.

I had heard about the "copper connection" some time back. But read that it
will also leech into cold water as well, perhaps not as much. I got around
that by letting a few gallons go before using the water - flushing the
pipes. I'd catch them in a bucket for my houseplants. Nothing goes to
waste in my house. :-) The pipes in *this* house are the plastic type.

Meh. If your tap water chemical treatment has a metal chelator in it, it
should take care of almost all the copper in there.

--
ZB....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö ~~~~ }((((({*

Activated Carbon question
 

Zëbulon wrote in
:

I had heard about the "copper connection" some time back. But read
that it will also leech into cold water as well, perhaps not as much.

Yeah, that part is real enough, i learnt the hard way (I've got copper
pipes, hot and cold). Warm tap water changes to my first tank would
invariably kill any snails I had in there. When I switched to cold tap
water plus a treatment with a metal chelator, the problem went away. I'm
too much of a coward to try cold tap water without chemical treatment...
;-)

I got around that by letting a few gallons go before using the water -
flushing the pipes. I'd catch them in a bucket for my houseplants.
Nothing goes to waste in my house. :-) The pipes in *this* house
are the plastic type.

Had I only known when I had my house built that I'd be so deep into the
aquarium hobby, I actually might've gotten something other than copper
installed. ;-)

DZ
AW