Brian,

City water is treated with chloramine which is a compound made up of ammonia and chlorine. Prime will neutralize the chlorine and convert the toxic ammonia to a non-toxic ammonium. Prime will not do anything about nitrate, though.

I don't know enough about water softening systems to offer firm advice, but I don't think I would use the water you are describing in my tank. An RO or RO/DI system with this type of water will probably have you going through membranes like crazy. Any chance you will buy a house in Edmonton at some point where you know what's in the water?

Here is Epcor's SUMMARY OF MAJOR CHEMICAL, MICROBIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF EDMONTON DRINKING WATER for July 2004 (in an Adobe PDF file):

https://www.epcor.ca/NR/rdonlyres/72...072004_211.pdf

Hi Beverly,

We are only renting there temporarily so yes there is every possibility of buying a house with a decent water supply :lol: This really is a temporary measure for a couple of months I hope. We also can't get cable or broadband but we have a moose in the garden....which is nice! :eek:
On another point, the tank I bought does have some live rock and some horrible red tufa rock? Though the tank has been running for over a year, there are no pods whatsoever in the tank - What is the best way to kick start the pod population?

Thanks again and remember don't drink the water!

Brian

Brian,

Cool :cool: A moose in the garden :cool: We should all be so lucky :mrgreen:

If this were my tank, I'd get rid of the tufa, but that's just me.

How to get pods? Hmmm..... Find someone with a lot of pods and get some macroalgae or something wih a few pods on it from their tank. Also, make sure you don't have pod eaters in your tank, which will only eat the new pods before they get a foothold.

Yeah - the tufas going to sleep with the fishes somewhere else he he!
I have inherited 2 humbug damsels, 1 larger grey damsel, 2 clowns, 1 skunk clown and a pyjama cardinal.

I think the damsels may all have to go - it is only a small tank and they are getting arsey with each other...

Would a live sand transplant have pods etc do you think - I could ask for some reef rubble from a shop?

Brian

As far as I know, none of the fish you mention eat pods. If you get rubble from the lfs (local fish store), they will charge you for it. You would probably have luck getting pods by starting a thread in the Buy/Sell/Trade section of this board. Folks here are often more than happy to part with a few pods for a fellow reefer :smile: I'd offer, but I don't have pods with wrasses in my tanks :confused:

I'll give that a go Beverly.... BTW do you ever sleep?

:biggrin:

I usually wake up at about 6-7 am and often check my email and this board for interesting posts shortly after I am mobile. I just looked at the time of posting on my posts, and they are out by two hours. No, I don't post at 4 am :eek: Don't know the proper setting for out time zone, I guess :confused: Anyone know how to fix that?

Yeah - you might say that but then again you could be one og the 'undead' with a serious interst in reefs..... :evil:

:rofl: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

But, serriously, if I were one of the undead, I'd have already caught whatever it is that has been killing my snails at night :shocked!: :2gunfire:

You can set the time zone in your profile (GMT -7 of course).

I expect if you were undead you would have not only caught the critter, but reported to us how it tasted. :eek: