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matthew

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something like Prime is a very good water conditioner/ager... you only need a little to treat heaps of water so it'll last AND take out all the nasties.

Rain water is definitely preferred over tap water. If rain water is unavailable the next best thing would be bottled spring water.

IME tap water is more trouble than it's worth but others might have differing opinions.

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As long as you're good with your water changes, rain water is OK - otherwise the lack of hardness will cause ph swings, which tend to be harmful to your fish - if we're talking unfiltered Betta, where you're doing water changes all the time, then it may be OK - but in community tanks, you need to add something to raise the KH or there'll be no buffering capability at all...

Seachem Prime is indeed one of the best water ager/conditioners... Aquarium Pharmaceuticals 'Stress Coat' is also good... remember that both of them include a skin irritant to boast the slime coat of the fish, and that can cause some fish to be extremely uncomfortable with water changes - if so, drop back to a more basic dechlorinator and see how that goes...

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Hi Matt,

BEST water for bettas.....in my opinion

Age tap water in the sun in a 20 litre bucket for a week(I don't like dechlorinators....Prime if you have too)

Collect rainwater

Use 50% aged tap water + 50% rainwater + kepatang extract (sold by someone) & do at least 30% water change /week.

= BEST water for bettas(in my opinion)

Regards....Rod

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I agree with Rod, a 50:50 mix would be my ideal water. The tap water gets around the issue of water softness (at least partially) and the rainwater dilutes the DOCs and nasties that seem to be in our tap water.

I tend to avoid the top shelf brand dechlorinators as they seem a bit... overcomplicated. Stress Coat has given me some bad reactions before, as has AquaPlus, I think it is the irritant like Stuart mentioned. I haven't used Prime, so no idea on that one. I go for something like ACE or one of the straight cheap $6-for-250ml types. Less things in it, less things that can potentially cause problems. :)

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Chloramine is where it all gets trickier, hence the 'over the top' products - Chlorine will dissipate... run the water hard into a bucket, leave it to stand, aerate it, leave it in the sun, etc, you can get rid of the Chlorine... I can leave Adelaide water in the fridge overnight and it's quite drinkable the next day... out of the tap you wonder if you're actually drinking water, or some chemical cocktail... anyway, Chloramine, when they use it, is another kettle of guppies altogether - if you leave it, it stays in the water, way, way longer than Chlorine... if you use a cheap dechlorinator, it may break the bond between the chlorine and the ammonia, leaving you with measurable ammonia, instead... hence the good water treatments having something to bind the ammonia released by 'treating' chloramine... if they're gonna have that, then something to bind the heavy metals as well isn't a big add on... and an irritant to generate slime coat... bingo, you have a top shelf dechlorinator that does it all...

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The following is an extract from "Brisbane Water" web site

Water for home aquariums

Brisbane Water uses chloramine to disinfect water for drinking purposes. This is toxic to aquatic life.

You need to remove all traces of chloramine when using tap water in your aquarium. You can do this by:

boiling the water for 10 minutes and letting it cool to room temperature, or

ageing and exposing water to sunlight for at least two days, or

buying de-chlorination agents from aquarium shops

I assume their information is correct? :Drunk_Buddies2:

Just another comment on their web site that may be of interest....

Another issue to be aware of is that bottled water isn’t required to meet the same health guidelines as tap water. Some bottled mineral waters have more salts and bacteria than are recommended for tap water.

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Hmmm, that could be more than just water. 4 in two weeks seems like a lot.

If you can, just run us through what their tanks/bowls are like, and how they seem to be dying. It could just be water, but with that number it'd be good to rule out other things too :Drunk_Buddies2:

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it might be water or it might not be if you had that many die... did they die within 2 weeks of purchase? perhaps they've all had some kind of infection already that didn't present itself until later (longer incubation period perhaps) I know I just lost a fair few recently to a mystery illness and there's nothing wrong with my water I've made sure of that lol.

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  • 4 weeks later...

hello all

sorry about the delay in getting back to you all had to go to hospital for a knee operation which got infected

and then found out i cant have antibiotics buts thats another story on its own.

anyway with all the time off ive had i got to know the lfs owner a lot better and picked his brain for ideas and trying to find out what he does with his water.

it seems our tap water up here comes standed with white spot and ick so this is the mix im useing

half tap water

half rain water

let water sit in sun for three days (but not on ground so dog cant use for drinking :balloons: )

then add dose of api melafix (not a full dose useing 1 teaspoon per 80 ltr of water)

then aq science water conditioner as per directions

this mix seems to be working a treat our fish have never looked better and much more active

thank you all for your help

cheers matt

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Adelaide hills..

Try contacting SA Water and see if they put chloramines in that water..they should be able to tell you..

I am a bit inclined to think that perhaps those fish were not well when you got them..

Jammed in a little plastic bag?

Your rain water there should be good tho..

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I doubt very much that your tap water would be infested with ich

Any infestation I've had have come in with New fish.....perhaps this is why your fish were sick

Perhaps there is a problem at their source.....might be worth isolating any New fish and giving them a salt bath(1 teaspoon per gallon)for the first 48 hours?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tap water can have copper in it if you use warm water from the tap. Something to do with the hot water pipes. For this reason, I use mostly water out the cold tap, then boil some water in my kettle (using filtered water which doesn't leave any residue/floaties in the kettle), and use a little water from the kettle to heat the water to the same temp as the Bettas are used to. Otherwise you can boil some tap water on the stove, and add a bit of that to get your water to the right temp. You could use this method to warm your rain water to. I guess that's what rainwater users do. Use ager as well of course.

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I think that running the hot water tap a bit can clear the copper, as the main pipes in areas where house pipes are copper are usually PVC, so once you clear the house pipes, you should be right. Maybe get your WC water straight after using the shower or something, so that you don't waste the water but you've flushed the house lines clean.

I'm not sure how fine the filter is for tap water, but ich is a pretty large parasite, I wouldn't think it would get through regularly, if at all. Might be a good one to find out, and how resistant it is to chlorine/chloramine.

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