Can I use the regular tap or warm water from the kitchen faucet for Aquarium?
I have recently buy a new aquarium and I use regular water from my kitchen faucet. I have clean the aquarium and follow the instruction sheet for the Aquarium but still doesn’t know why fish die. Is there anythings wrong with the water or do I have to add anythings else in the Aquarium? I do change water bi-weekly. Any suggestion why fish die?
It could be a couple of things.
Tap water is usually okay, especially if it is treated with conditioner. Sometimes you can have a fish sensitive to pH or something and water that is to acidic or basic, but that’s fairly rare among those fish a beginner would get and most water is fine.
Temperature should be pretty close to aquarium temp or you can shock the fish.
Possible it’s chlorine but that’s unlikely, that would kill them right at the start if it was going to. Partial water changes will seldom kill a fish from chlorine even if no dechlorinator is added. Letting the water sit for a day pretty well fixes any chance.
More deadly is chloramine, which many municipalities are now using. If your water has that, which can be found out by checking with your municipal water department, then the use of the proper water conditioner is important.
More likely the source of your problem is that your aquarium is not cycling yet. This often takes a month to even 6 weeks. What happens is that first ammonia builds up from fish waste and decomposition of food. Ammonia is very dangerous to fish.
After this build up, bacteria that turn the ammonia into nitrite build up given some time. Problem is, nitrite is also quite toxic. So you again get dead fish.
And then bacteria build up that convert the nitrite to nitrate and that’s not very dangerous though different species are more or less sensitive.
So when you get the fish tank, you want to only get a couple of fish at first, and they should be fairly tough fish.
And then you should be very careful to not overfeed, much better to be a bit short than too much.
This is so the ammonia and nitrite don’t build up too fast, but give the bacteria time to establish before the fish get injured.
After a month and a half, then is a safe time to add some more fish, but you can get a bit of a spike if it’s too much of a change at once, but chances are you are pretty safe.
Things are working well when you look at your filter and you go oh ich that is gross! Filters should be gross, if you keep them clean, they can’t do their job.
You can get a test kit and see for sure, or many pet stores will run a test for you if you bring in a water sample. Anything other than zero ammonia and zero nitrite means your tank isn’t cycling properly yet.
Hope that helps. Stores should tell people more when they buy a fish tank, but if you’ve been in business what happens is it scares people off and you seem to lose sales. So many stores sell way too many fish at first, then those die off after a couple of weeks so you can’t say the fish were sick. And then when you buy some more, usually by then the tank is cycling and you are okay.
Marv
Read up on the nitrogen cycle. I will include a good link for that. You can use tap water, but be sure to add the conditioner to remove chlorine and chloramine. Be sure that you have not used any soap or chemicals to clean your tank or anything that you may have used to clean your tank. Any kind of soap or chemical traces will kill your fish.
Personally, I have had no luck with the fish-less cycle, but some will do nothing but, so it’s totally up to you.
Hope this helps, Good Luck=
You must put a dechlorinator in the bucket of tap water BEFORE adding it to your tank. Water conditioners are usually instant, no need to wait. Otherwise you are poisoning your fish with the baddies in tap water. You should be doing a water change of 20% once a week with a gravel vaccuuming. Amquel + is a great water conditioner and dechlorinator. Change more water depending on the readings form your weekly dropper-style test kit.
Your tank is probably also cycling.
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php
http://www.firsttankguide.net/dechlorinator.php
http://www.firsttankguide.net/waterchange.php
Absolutely not. You have to let tap water sit for atleast twenty four hours before adding it to the aquarium, and then the aquarium (seeing as it’s new) has to be cycled for no less than several days.
You need to add a tap water conditioner to the water. Otherwise tap water is harmful to tropical fish. You can get it at any petstore or walmart.
Tap water is chlorinated if your water is supplied to the town. If you have well water there still can be minerals or other contaminants that are ok for people but not for fish. The temperature and pH also need to match what the fish need and depends what kind they are … fresh water fish, tropical fish , salt water fish. That’s all I know – please be careful.
I have the same problem.
The only thing I can really think of is just be careful where you buy the fish, and make sure you treat the water with AquaSafe or a similar product 24 hours before you put the fish in.
Okay do not keep changing your water you might have to go to the pet store and take a sample of the water in a container so they can test the Ph levels in the water. There are some checmicals you can buy to regulate the Ph levels in the water . When i had a tropical fish tank the pet store owner told me she wasnt gonna let me buy fish unless i bring her a sample of my water and she told me to buy some stuff and put a few drops to make the Ph level balanced or something so I did. Ask your pet store! They will be able to tell you all about it! I cant remember the name of that stuff sorry! Good Luck with your tank though!!
~M~
Yes you can use your tap water for fish. You will also need a dechlor/water conditioner which makes water safe for fish by neutralizing the heavy metals and chloramates in the water. Secondly, your tank cannot just be filled with water and a bunch of fish dumped in. Although one fish is fine however there are benefits to cycling your tank without them. Water is just water. Fish also need beneficial bacteria that needs time to grow in your aquarium. What this beneficial bacteria does is converts the fish waste (ammonia and nitrites) to a safer less toxic form called nitrites. When first introducing your fish, these bacteria don’t exist and need time to grow. Some tanks take a week while others take much longer.
Also, water changes and cleanings should be ONCE per week not bi-weekly and only remove 25% of your water.no more. Removing all of the water or most of the water destroys the beneficial bactera. What is clean for you and me, in most cases is TOO clean for our fish.
A test kit would also prove helpful. One that tests for Ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. These are the three you need to keep an eye on. The PH is going to be what the PH is so don’t mess with it.
Here is a great site that explains in detail what is going on with the water and the fish in a new and existing tank.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm
I have 16 gallons of water from the tap, it is treated and let to stand so the chlorine is no longer present. I also add a dechlorinator