I just changed my water, and realized I only had about 1/4 the tap water conditioner id need to remove chlorine and such. It is 11pm where I live so no place is open. Will they be ok until tmrw morning?
how long can my SA/CA cichlids last in tap water?
- Thread starter BassetsForBrown
- Start date
Hard to say without knowing 1) how much water you changed, 2) what type fish you have, 3) the concentration of chlorine in the tap water, 4) how much agitation there was as you added water, and 5) whether the water included chloramine.
At the lowest normal concentration, the hardiest fish, no chloramine and a 10% water change, you might get by on some irritation. You still may be losing a lot of BB however.
Chlorine in taps is around .5 - 2.0 ppm, and can kill fish at .25 ppm. At 2 ppm, a 25% change could create a .5ppm chlorine level in the tank which is certainly high enough to kill.
If you can, add lots of agitation or aeration to the tank. This will dissipate the chlorine a little faster and any fish that have issues will certainly appreciate a higher oxygen level in the tank.
Also, boiling the water can remove a lot of the gas. That isn't necessarily good if you can't wait for it to cool down of course, but that will remove it. Again, however, if you have chloramine, that doesn't help.
At the lowest normal concentration, the hardiest fish, no chloramine and a 10% water change, you might get by on some irritation. You still may be losing a lot of BB however.
Chlorine in taps is around .5 - 2.0 ppm, and can kill fish at .25 ppm. At 2 ppm, a 25% change could create a .5ppm chlorine level in the tank which is certainly high enough to kill.
If you can, add lots of agitation or aeration to the tank. This will dissipate the chlorine a little faster and any fish that have issues will certainly appreciate a higher oxygen level in the tank.
Also, boiling the water can remove a lot of the gas. That isn't necessarily good if you can't wait for it to cool down of course, but that will remove it. Again, however, if you have chloramine, that doesn't help.
The level of chorine in tap water is not exactly like "nuclear waste" to the fish....where a very very small amount will almost instantly kill the fish. If the fish were thrown into a chlorinated swimming pool...that would be a MUCH different story (chlorine level much higher).
In your case...you did a partial water change...and it turned out you didn't have enough water treatment to treat the whole water change. So it's not like you did a 100% water change..then threw the fish in.
As "Drstrangelove" mentioned...probably the bigger issue is loosing some BB...rather than the fish being at a super big risk.
I'm going to bet things will be fine.
And since it is around 11:30pm where you are (no stores open)...there's not really whole lot you can do about it at this point anyway!
In your case...you did a partial water change...and it turned out you didn't have enough water treatment to treat the whole water change. So it's not like you did a 100% water change..then threw the fish in.
As "Drstrangelove" mentioned...probably the bigger issue is loosing some BB...rather than the fish being at a super big risk.
I'm going to bet things will be fine.
And since it is around 11:30pm where you are (no stores open)...there's not really whole lot you can do about it at this point anyway!
Until we started using chloramine here, I didn't bother with water treatment until I did over 25% water changes. I still don't use anything when I do my mid-week vacuum, which is usually 10-15%. And that is with chloramines. I know several successful people that do the same as me. Funny, all of us have been doing this for over 40 years.
I do 30-40% changes per week, never used a conditioner and never lost a fish.
I'm not recommending you to do the same, but I wouldn't worry too much
I'm not recommending you to do the same, but I wouldn't worry too much
The only way that one can truly know how much Prime (or whatever) to add to their tank is by knowing what quantity of chlorine or chloramine is being added by their local water treatment facility, or more importantly, what the rate is as it leaves the facility for end use.
Without that data, treating your water becomes purely hit or miss.
The following is a repost from a comment I made several months back.
Someone whose residual chlorine levels are less than 1 ppm may have no need to use any water conditioner, especially if doing smaller water changes, yet someone a few cities over and on 3 ppm could wipe out their entire tank by taking that kind of cavalier advice, especially if their local water supply was treated with chloramine.
People really need to STOP and THINK, before believing everything that they read on a fish forum chat board.
As far as how harmful chlorine &/or chloramine are to aquatic organisms ...........
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 someones fish haven't died when exposed to low doses is possible, but that in no way means that the exposure hasn't caused damage to their fish.
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).
To the OP, I responded to this same topic over on the CA/SA folder.
Hopefully you added enough dechlor to split the chlorine/ammonia bond, and your filtration can handle the resulting spike in ammonia.
Good luck.
Without that data, treating your water becomes purely hit or miss.
The following is a repost from a comment I made several months back.
Someone whose residual chlorine levels are less than 1 ppm may have no need to use any water conditioner, especially if doing smaller water changes, yet someone a few cities over and on 3 ppm could wipe out their entire tank by taking that kind of cavalier advice, especially if their local water supply was treated with chloramine.
People really need to STOP and THINK, before believing everything that they read on a fish forum chat board.
As far as how harmful chlorine &/or chloramine are to aquatic organisms ...........
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 someones fish haven't died when exposed to low doses is possible, but that in no way means that the exposure hasn't caused damage to their fish.
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).
To the OP, I responded to this same topic over on the CA/SA folder.
Hopefully you added enough dechlor to split the chlorine/ammonia bond, and your filtration can handle the resulting spike in ammonia.
Good luck.