Can you do a water change when under a boil advisory?

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koop171

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Feb 1, 2008
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Just like it says I am under a boil advisory until tuesday but I would like to get my tank cleaned and a WC done before then since I added a new fish and it needs a good cleaning anyways. but yesterday my town had 5 water mains break and I didn't have water until late last night.

Would that water be safe or should I wait it out until tuesday when the advisory is up?
 
koop171;3717093; said:
Just like it says I am under a boil advisory until tuesday but I would like to get my tank cleaned and a WC done before then since I added a new fish and it needs a good cleaning anyways. but yesterday my town had 5 water mains break and I didn't have water until late last night.

Would that water be safe or should I wait it out until tuesday when the advisory is up?
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I would personally wait, however, I think it should be perfectly fine for the fish even if dirty ground water, etc got into the water lines. I would be interested in other opinions though
 
you can't test for E. Coli contamination without doing a microbiological test, which requires membrane filters etc.

thats what a boil water advisory is generally concerned with - loss of pressure from a main break means that contaminated water can leak into cracks in the pipeline as the water gets to your house. water mains are under positive pressure to ensure this does not happen, but with loss of pressure, this can be an issue.

having said that, its probably no issue, although you would be better to wait because if bacteria are present they could infect your body if you had any cuts/ open sores while doing the water change.

the fish will be fine -no issues with the odd E. coli in their water, but you need to protect yourself.
 
Listen to Ron, he is wise in the ways of municipal water.
 
SimonL;3717589; said:
Listen to Ron, he is wise in the ways of municipal water.
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Yeah it sounds that way.That information was almost scary to read.
 
I think I'm going to hold off till tuesday then. I'll be moving a nother FX5 to this tank tomorrow or late tonight so the added filtration with seeded bio should help keep the water in check till then. but That's going on 10 days without WC so I'm not real happy.
 
12 Volt Man;3717781; said:
if you are concerned about the length of time in between changes, cut your feeding back a bit to compensate. thats what I sometimes do If I get really busy and miss my normal water change day...
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that's hard to do with my stock they will get overly aggressive with each other. I'll just keep testing the water and see if it goes south.
 
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