do we really need to treat our water ?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I just set mine up. I bought chloramine carbon block assembly from filterguys.com, ran a line from my sink to the input line, and drip into the sump. I have chloramine in my tap water, figured I'd do it right. I have fish in the tank that I've been patiently waiting to grow for a year now. If they all died, I'd be starting over with 2 inch fry and growing them out. I drip 40 gallons per day into a 540 gallon tank with a 125 gallon sump.
 
So using other aquariums as a guide is fraught with danger and perhaps not meeting the criterion you have for raising and caring for your fish.

Bingo!


The effect these toxins may have on your fish will be largely dependent on how much chlorine/chloramine is coming out of your taps, how large of a water change you perform, organic levels in your water, your tap water pH, water temp, etc. - as well as the species of fish. (and their stage of growth)

Not so simplistic as some may think.


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. 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.

Again, all of 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).
 
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