The Dangers of Tap Water
 

Here is a interesting post for those of us who use tap water.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...-2003Jan21.html

Interesting read.........could be the reason for the death of some of your fish.

Josh, could you check that link?

well I cant get there anymore either. I found the post on reefcentral although now the link on their page is not working. Any way here in a link to the reefcentral post although there are no responses just the link that I had provided above. Keep an eye on it maybe the site is just down for the day.
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...hreadid=144511

Hmmm...I can't get in either although I assume the point is that chlorine doesn't just precipitate overnight.

Has anybody here ever actually experienced the negative effects of chlorine in tap water? I've been using tapwater all my life in freshwater without dechlorinaters or leaving it overnight, but I've never had a problem. Is it possible that our water systems here in BC aren't as chlorinated as in other parts?

I believe this is what you are looking for?? :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Jan21.html

Christy :)

There must be something wrong with my computer because I get nothing but a blank page after the survey...ah well. Thanks anyways Christy!

Well the acticle goes on to say that chlorine will not disapate overnight if at all. They did however recomend that water sit for at least 48 hours before adding it to your tank. They also talked about choramine (sorry not sure on the spelling) which is used in Calgary water. The auther went on to say that this can lead to kidney or liver failure in fish (dont quote me on which organ it was) He also mentioned that chloramine can not be removed from the water by letting it sit. In fact boiling it would only lead to 50% removal of the chemical. In short it was recomended that if you are going to use tap water you should be adding a conditioner to remove the chemicals.

I wasn't aware that Calgary used chloramine as well, but I have heard rumors. Where did you find that info - they mention chlorine on the site I looked at, but no mention of chloramine ?

Anyway, just wanted to mention, never use a water conditioner that has aloe vera or other such crap in it unless you want to farm green algae, among other things... I use Tetra AquaSafe for conditioning tapwater for the FW tank, but there are similar products out there.

Em, that was a good point. I never thought the water conditioning would give you algae. But we use the Tap Water Purifier for our tank water.

sorry,
Im not sure if Calgary uses chloramine. We live just outside the city and are on a seperate water system, which has chloramine. Not sure about Calgary