mistakes r crucial
Sat Dec 11, 2010, 10:24 PM
Hi all,
Over the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of spending quite a bit of time with an Australian manufacturer of water quality products. Over the last 32 years he has developed them for some of the largest Aquarium wholesale companies around both here and overseas and his depth of knowledge is just incredible.
A few interesting subjects came up and one especialy that I'd like to share with you as I have never seen it mentioned anywhere else at all.
Town Water and the problems associated with treating water at the plant was the subject. It's common knowledge that we sometimes get Ammonia in tap water if it's treated with Chloramine and always Chlorine which most good conditioners get rid of, either that or we age the water and burn it off, easy!
What I had never heard of before was the significance of Hydrated Lime. I'm sure we're all more than aware of the fluctuations in Town Water at different times of the year but I had no idea that Lime could be so destructive.
According to this gentleman one of the primary problems associated with town water is hydrated lime. Lime is used to buffer the pH of town water world wide and is one of the least understood toxins in the Aquarium.
Most of the below I have copied and pasted from information he gave me.
"At the plant water is treated with Hydrated Lime or Caustic Soda to raise the pH which we found to be just as toxic to Aquarium fish as treating the water with Chlorine or Chloramine, however, it would seem that this is totally unrecognized by aquarium product manufacturers around the world.
Lime can be linked to a whole range of diseases, primarily fungal infections, the most common ailment to affect ornamental fish. This toxin is removed by chelation of the Calcium molecule which allows the hydroxide ion to become water by being attracted to hydrogen in water (Lime =Calcium Hydroxide converts to Sodium)
This conversion is done with a bound phosphate, which is then left over to be used as plant fertilizer, this phosphate will not adversely affect aquarium water and is a great benefit to plants and fish.
EDTA is the most commonly used remover of toxic metals in most Aquarium Water Conditioners but unfortunately it's exhausted because it is only moderately effective with Lime.
By using a Calcium specific chelatant the EDTA is more capable of removing the metals and is more efficient at countering, Zinc, Copper
(often present in rainwater) Ferric Oxide, Aluminium, Fluoride and Iron (present in town water and bore water)."
Now I do know that the lime in town water if given to reptile and other pets exclusively will eventually kill them of kidney disease. I therefore wonder what it has been doing to our fish for the last goodness knows how many years or how many ailments our fish have had that just leave us scratching our heads?
It also begs the question why top end water conditioner companies have not recognized this since Tetra invented them many years ago. I've been given a very good answer to that question but it's not one I'm about to mention in public.
Talking to this guy made me very curious so since then I've had a real good look at many of these products and their fine print. It was a real eye opener! Claims that I had taken for granted for years are now vague at best and some of them quite misleading. Oh for the power of marketing!
Cheers
MAC
Over the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of spending quite a bit of time with an Australian manufacturer of water quality products. Over the last 32 years he has developed them for some of the largest Aquarium wholesale companies around both here and overseas and his depth of knowledge is just incredible.
A few interesting subjects came up and one especialy that I'd like to share with you as I have never seen it mentioned anywhere else at all.
Town Water and the problems associated with treating water at the plant was the subject. It's common knowledge that we sometimes get Ammonia in tap water if it's treated with Chloramine and always Chlorine which most good conditioners get rid of, either that or we age the water and burn it off, easy!
What I had never heard of before was the significance of Hydrated Lime. I'm sure we're all more than aware of the fluctuations in Town Water at different times of the year but I had no idea that Lime could be so destructive.
According to this gentleman one of the primary problems associated with town water is hydrated lime. Lime is used to buffer the pH of town water world wide and is one of the least understood toxins in the Aquarium.
Most of the below I have copied and pasted from information he gave me.
"At the plant water is treated with Hydrated Lime or Caustic Soda to raise the pH which we found to be just as toxic to Aquarium fish as treating the water with Chlorine or Chloramine, however, it would seem that this is totally unrecognized by aquarium product manufacturers around the world.
Lime can be linked to a whole range of diseases, primarily fungal infections, the most common ailment to affect ornamental fish. This toxin is removed by chelation of the Calcium molecule which allows the hydroxide ion to become water by being attracted to hydrogen in water (Lime =Calcium Hydroxide converts to Sodium)
This conversion is done with a bound phosphate, which is then left over to be used as plant fertilizer, this phosphate will not adversely affect aquarium water and is a great benefit to plants and fish.
EDTA is the most commonly used remover of toxic metals in most Aquarium Water Conditioners but unfortunately it's exhausted because it is only moderately effective with Lime.
By using a Calcium specific chelatant the EDTA is more capable of removing the metals and is more efficient at countering, Zinc, Copper
(often present in rainwater) Ferric Oxide, Aluminium, Fluoride and Iron (present in town water and bore water)."
Now I do know that the lime in town water if given to reptile and other pets exclusively will eventually kill them of kidney disease. I therefore wonder what it has been doing to our fish for the last goodness knows how many years or how many ailments our fish have had that just leave us scratching our heads?
It also begs the question why top end water conditioner companies have not recognized this since Tetra invented them many years ago. I've been given a very good answer to that question but it's not one I'm about to mention in public.
Talking to this guy made me very curious so since then I've had a real good look at many of these products and their fine print. It was a real eye opener! Claims that I had taken for granted for years are now vague at best and some of them quite misleading. Oh for the power of marketing!
Cheers
MAC