Melbourne WAter warning with recent rains !!!

[nicholas76]

HI all,


just thought id give Melbournians a warning about our tap water.

with these recent rains our water companies will pump are systems full of chlorine, fluride to kill of those bugs and the rest!!!! They will also pump in all sorts to maintain its ph value.

the last rain storm we had i almost lost several fish due to fin burn caused by this.


check your water parameters prior to using tap water. pre filter your water with carbon , use R/O prefered or simply hold off as long as you can.

[Ben]

cheers Nick, thanks for the advise!
wow was that some storm we had last night !!!
i live in blackburn and the power went of for 4 hours.
i checked my tanks, all was good the temp only dropped by 3 1/2 .c

cheers,
ben

[ctvu]

Hi Nick

Thanks for that, Nick, Hey what would you do if you did not have RO unit?

I'm just worried about the power off for about 7-8 hours, it went off about 2-3 am because of storm and just back on 9:30 am I hope my fish are OK.

Thanks again

ctvu

[flukes]

Main thing is the temp. Id look into a small generator in case it happens again, just enough too run the heater and a air pump.

[Ben]

We have all heared of battery operated air pumps,
why not the same with a heater?


it would cost less than a generator, and be a lot quiter too?

maybe this is something for someone to invent!!!
it could be done, quite easily in my opinion!

[Ben]

ok, before anyone mentions it, yes if you had 20 tanks, that would mean 20 battery opperated heaters, so a generator would have to be used, but what about the smaller people with less tanks, say 4 tanks?

[Rgoganj]

Hello fellow Melbournians, 8-)

Don’t you just love living in Melbourne, last two days worried about cooking the fish and now worried about freezing them.

:roll:

[chris]

Hey guys, we had the same thing but not in that order.
We had a huge storm power went of for 5 hours.
My fish were gasping all day. Local LFS had some bad water after storms some bad water resulted in a parasite bacteria that went through the shop.
Then we had heat my tank went to 38degrees,
so I turned down heater,
now its cold, cranking up the heater now.
oh and guys pencil me in for one of those battery operated heaters, better make four :wink:

[Rgoganj]

Looks like it’s time to pull out the old kerosene heater

[nicholas76]

Hi guys,

For those who didnt know you can actually buy R/O water by the 25 litre barrel from most good LFS. Mentone and Coburg sell it.

In relation to temperature change / swing dont stress a 3 degree swing shoudnt effect them.

I had a 6 degree loss from a tank some years ago ( heater broke ) and the discus were fine.

i'd personally be more worried about airation and keeping that cannister working.

If anyone experiences issues with tap water due to these rains keep us all posted.

Cheers

ps Is BRACKS lifting water restrictions yet??id say our dams are back in black.

[chris]

Hey nick I once turned my heater off,I was doing a water change, I have a habit of turning it off during this, in my 2 foot breeding tank with a pair in it for two days.
Temp droped to about 14 degrees.
I only realized it was off when I was doing another change, the water was freezing, so I boiled the ketttle to take the edge of the new water.
The fish wernt to happy as one can expect. there lips went white, but they got better as the heat rised.
Still I would have been not happy with myself if anything had happened :twisted:

[lesley]

Hello Nick,

hope things are going well.

We had power off for about 14 hours. just starting to think about panicking!! I got up in the middle of the night (power been off for about 5 hours) and cleaned all the filters. I put hydrogen peroxide in the canister I have and hoped that that would provide enought oxygen for a few hours. We kept the room warm with wood heater to 20 degrees. Topped up temp with a little hot water and was going to do a complete change using the hot water heater for the aeration, and non filtering when the power came back on. My fish were quieter than usual and not begging for food but the lack of filtering and air had not bothered them up to that stage.

I am going to get a back up system for a computer that is big enough to run heaters and air pumps (any my computer) during these episodes which I feel will increase now that our electricity is privatised. If my fish are okay and I have my computer, I am happy! I was talking to a client yesterday (Friday) at 2 pm, his power had gone off at 9 o'clock wednesday night, was still not back on!

On the water and lots of rain, I use rainwater, the massive amount of rain we have been having (in the last two weeks 8" here, unheard of really) over the last few months, although wonderful to have, has been causing me to have massively unstable water. Been a nightmare trying to keep pH even remotely stable. You guys on tap water will certainly have to check everything each time you change water.

Hope everyone's fish are okay.

Lesley

[nicholas76]

HI Lesley,

I'm doing very well thank you for asking.

Unbelievable situatin you have there, I guess it proves how strong our fish can be though so well done in your efforts.

maybe its time for a generator? some solar panels?? lol

[lesley]

Hi Nick,

yes they are very tough, I think the key is having them healthy and they withstand short bad periods exceptionally well.

Yes, I am thinking solar or wind. Initial costs are the thing, we are in the middle of renovating so funds are short, but yes it is definitely the way to go. I reckon if I could run the fish tanks off alternative, then my power costs would halve!

[Ben]

Wow ! what a great ideea lesley! especially in gippsland, you guys get those good wind conditions!