Ran out of water!!!! Help

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Nikkijas

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 4, 2018
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Hi everyone,
I was just doing a 50% water change on my 210 gallon aquarium and my well went dry! I can get water from the fire station but it is freezing cold. I don’t know what to do. My sump is in my basement and it’s a wet dry system so no flow, no oxygen. I have two large sponge filters in the aquarium and the circulation fans going so the fish have oxygen just no filtration:(

Question can I pour the cold water treated with prime into the tank? I only have about 30-50 gallons left to fill the tank.

Thank you for your help.
 
Sorry to hear that Nicole!

Your tank should be fine temporarily with the sponge filters and the circulators.

I would let the water from the fire station heat up some before adding to your tank. You can use a clean trash can or similar item to store the water and add a heater to bring up the temperature enough.

Is your well completely dry or will it just take time to refill?
 
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To be honest I really don’t know if or when it will fill up. We have had problems in the past but only in November. Usually we would have to be careful for a week if we run out but I am very concerned because it is so much earlier than before. I would think we will have water tomorrow. I am so scared that this will be a problem and I won’t be able to have my tanks anymore:( I have 7 tanks. Thank god I just did my water changes on all my other tanks yesterday. I just want to cry right now.
 
Using a heater or 2 to heat 100 gallons takes a real long time. I would suggest boiling some of the new water and mixing it with the cold water to get the desired temperature. It takes roughly 20 minutes to get 1 gallon of water to a rapid boil; use a tea kettle if you have it. 1 gallon of boiling water to 5 gallons of 60F water will raise the coldwater roughly by 10 degrees.

Get the water from the fire station and store in a large container. Boil some of the water (rapid boil) and mix in the large container. Use a thermometer to find the temperature difference between the water in the container and the tank.
 
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Ok I am trying my best to get the temps around the same. I just put another heater in the main tank because I don’t want that to drop while waiting to get the fire station water heated. My main 800watt heater is down in the sump so my husband filled that up so it can heat up while he goes to get more water while I am working with the water we got the first time around.
 
I'm terribly sorry I couldn't get on when you needed help but I did think of something. This could be a real problem. Maybe you should try to get the water out of the well before doing a water change to make sure this doesn't happen again? I'd get a couple Rubbermaid tubs and use them to hold the water. I believe they make 55 gallon ones that have wheels.
 
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Around my area, I can get used food grade 55 gal barrels for $10 each. I can also get large 330 gal totes for about $70.

If you can find those in your area, you might be able to set them up so that you can have them filled up by the fire department and then heat them with some extra aquarium heaters. It would be an easy way to store several hundred gallons to be used for water changes.
 
Wouldn't the fire department mind that? I feel like that might have a problem with that but can't exactly see why... Maybe in case of a fire and needed the water?
 
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