City water/Drip system

i would run it through a HMA filter, basically an RO unit with the RO membrane
bypassed so no waste water

Interesting question.

My take on drip systems using processed water is that you want a suitably sized carbon block since it will handle both chlorine and chloramine. You never know when they might switch and if you don't catch it, the fish are going to suffer. I haven't used one, but they seem reasonably priced, and I've been told should handle both chemicals.

My water looks pretty similar to yours. Unless I am doing over 50% water change I don't bother with treating my water and have never suffered ill effects from it. I am cutting PVC now for putting a drip system in and have no plans to pre-filter it in any way. I am mixing hot and cold from the water source so I don't overwork my heaters from straight cold for the winter. I am lucky that two of the guys from our fairly small water dept run aquariums and are able to influence what goes on with our water. We pull water from 5 different wells and they mix it to make it fairly consistent year round.

With chlorine at 1.07 ppm, how much if any neutralizing agents one would require will depend a lot on how far away from the source you are. It doesn't matter what works for anyone else, YOU need to check your chlorine residual at YOUR tap, and check it on a regular basis to ensure that you don't get caught with your pants down. Most municipalities using chlorine won't use a constant amount year round, it can sometimes fluctuate with the seasons, which is why most online reports state a range, such as 1.0-1.8, type of thing. Carbon blocks work, until they don't work, so you have to monitor them as well. Chlorine is toxic to fish, very toxic, and even in small doses can cause long term residual damage. You just might not see it right away.


From a past comment that I posted on this subject ..............


Both chlorine &/or chloramine can cause long term damage & even death to fish, in some cases even at low levels, especially young fish which are typically the most sensitive to these substances. Free chlorine can cause acute necrosis of gill tissue in fish, the younger the fish the worse it can be. Chlorine also has the potential to wipe out most/all of the bio bacteria in your system. In short chlorine is an oxidizer, that can burn a fishes gills & kill cell tissue, sometimes even at low levels.

The amount of chlorine and or chloramine can vary greatly from one municipality to another, as well as from one tap to another, and can also vary greatly throughout the season. There is no way that anyone on a public forum can possibly attempt to tell you what a "safe" amount is in your case unless they have the specs on your local tap water at your user end. Water temp, pH values, etc can also determine how 'safe' certain levels of known toxic substances can be on fish.

According to Edward Noga, a professor at NC State that is considered an expert in the disease & health of fish, chlorine levels as low as 0.10 mg/l (which is common in many tap water levels) can be accutely fatal in aquaria that has low levels of organics. (as in a new set up) Others have found residual chlorine levels as low as 0.05 mg/l to be toxic to certain species of fish.

There has been a TON of work done in this area over the past few decades, by a number of researchers, such as Tompkins & Tsai (1976) for anyone that is interested in understanding just how toxic both chlorine & chloramine can be in a closed system that contains fish.

The fact that your fish haven't died is positive, but that in no way means that the exposure hasn't caused damage to your fish. Again, this will be dependant on numerous factors, and can vary greatly from one hobbyists situation to another. What may be safe for some people, could prove to be a disaster for the next person a few cities or towns over.



Unfortunately the LC50 (survival time) of most tropical species of fish placed under various levels of chlorine/chloramine has yet to be established, but the bottom line is both substances are highly toxic to most aquatic organisms.

From the EPA ....

http://www.epa.gov/chemfact/s_chlori.txt



V. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

A. Toxicity to Aquatic Organisms

Chlorine has high acute toxicity to aquatic organisms; many toxicity
values are less than or equal to 1 mg/L. Twenty-four-hour LC50
values range from 0.076 to 0.16 mg/L for Daphnia magna (water flea)
and from 0.005 to 0.1 mg/L for Daphnia pulex (cladocern)
(AQUIRE 1994); 48-hour LC50 values range from 5.3 to 12.8 mg/L for
Nitocra spinipes (snail); and 96-hour LC50 values range from 0.13
to 0.29 mg/L for Oncorhynchus mykiss (rainbow trout), from 0.1 to
0.18 mg/L for Salvelinus fontinalis (brook trout), and from
0.71-0.82 mg/L for Lepomis cyanellus (green sunfish) (AQUIRE 1994).
Papillomas of the oral cavity in fish have been associated
with exposure to chlorinated water supplies (NTP 1992).

Low level chlorination (0.05 to 0.15 mg/L) results in significant
shifts in the species composition of marine phytoplankton
communities (HSDB 1994).

Drstrangelove said:

Interesting question.

My take on drip systems using processed water is that you want a suitably sized carbon block since it will handle both chlorine and chloramine. You never know when they might switch and if you don't catch it, the fish are going to suffer. I haven't used one, but they seem reasonably priced, and I've been told should handle both chemicals.

Click to expand...

Hello; I talked to the engineer running my local water system a while back about the posibility of unexpected changes of the treatment chemicals used. Based on his response it seems there is a fairly long process with lots of public notice. At least for my system he indicate not much chance of any change for the foreseeable future.

I still pick up a water quality report from time to time to check. My water company also mails a report each year. Perhaps someone who has had the experience of a sudden or unexpected change in chemical treatment, without notice, will tell us about it?

I have been using treated water company water for several decades in my aquariums. I store it for a few days in containers. I read in posts that running a bubbler in the stored water speeds up the neutralization of the chlorine. I have been usig a bubbler for a while and it does not hurt. The stored water becomes my emergency supply in an emergency.

good luck

There are parts of the US/Canada that receive water from different sources, treated in different manners with different disinfectants. As an example, in some areas you can be getting treated water with chlorine during certain months, and chloramine during other months.

Shelli wrote the following article over a decade ago, if I recall correctly at the time she lived somewhere in the Northwest US.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/water_treatment.php

If you live in the United States, you are fortunate to have fairly easy access to detailed information about your tap water. I tested this theory by calling my local utility to speak directly to a “water quality person” or “water chemist.” This man not only returned my call promptly, he spent a good 20 minutes answering questions and educating me. I learned that my tap water comes from two different sources, depending on supply and time of year. One source adds ammonia; the other does not. The moral of the story being that had I simply tested my tap water once and assumed to know what I was dealing with, I would have been wrong. Luckily, I have always taken the “better safe than sorry” approach and used products to remove chlorine, ammonia and chloramines. Do not be fooled by any product that simply claims to make tap water “safe”. Find out what harmful chemicals may be in your water and use products that specifically guarantee to remove or neutralize them.

Click to expand...

An interesting vid on carbon blocks, and chloramine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHHaR1PHYoA