water change , nitrates spike

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frasertheking

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Feb 17, 2007
1,142
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scotland
we where always told not to wash bio media in tap water because of chlorine killing the bb . so way if we use tap water for water changes do we not get a small die off and a spike .
ive been using water straight from the tap for about 3 y and never had a problem . should the chlorine not cause a death of bb even when diluted .
 
It will, but not as severe. It's always a good idea to use a dechlorinator.
 
Depends how much chlorine is left in your water when it comes out of the tap. If in doubt, use a dechlorinator treatment.

Even if you dont, when you add it to your tank it will be diluted, so may be below the threshold to harm your fish / filter.

Some of us have pretty good tap water, fish can live in it quite happily out of the tap. Other have pretty dodgy tap water that has been heavily chlorinated to at least make it 'safe' to drink. Residual chlorine and chloramines may be harmfull to fish and bacteria.

I just rinse my filter sponges in old tank water when I do water changes. That way there is little risk of killing the bacteria.

Cheers

Ian
 
i have read a study (can't find it to reference it though) that our beneficial bacteria can withstand up to a 30 second exposure to chlorinated water without damage. i will try to look for it and find out the ppm of chlorine used in the test. the dilution of the chlorine is a factor, as well as the fact that once it is in the tank and running through the filters, the water movement will cause the chlorine to gas off, further lowering the amount in the water. chloramines are a different thing altogether, as they do not gas off, afaik.
 
Chlorine is very unstable and burns off very quickly thats why councils need to use a lot of it, thats why they are changing over to chloramine to disinfect the water. Are you not using any dechlorinator at all?
 
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