How Do You Prepare Your Tap Water For Aquariums?

[rayfong]

I use Seachem Prime exclusively. One bottle goes a long way. 1 capful for 50 gallons vs. 1 capful for 10 gallons. Do the math and you see that Prime is by far more cost effective.

[DaveDude77]

So when doing a WC on a LARGE tank, how do you treat the water? Remove dirty water, add Prime, then add new water from tap, or some other method? I mean a WC in a large tank can be around 30G, where could you put all that water to let it airate? That's what I do for my 32G but I only change 15L (one bucket)at a time, & that's easy.

[rayfong]

So when doing a WC on a LARGE tank, how do you treat the water? Remove dirty water, add Prime, then add new water from tap, or some other method? I mean a WC in a large tank can be around 30G, where could you put all that water to let it airate? That's what I do for my 32G but I only change 15L (one bucket)at a time, & that's easy.

That's pretty much about it, I remove dirty water, then refill. When refilling I try to let the water splash into the tank to somewhat aerate the water. I then add in the prime. When I do water changes I do all the tanks the same day, takes me about half hour from start to finish and I have about 10 tanks ranging from 125 gallons to 10 gallons.

[DaveDude77]

So you add your new water first, then the prime? I would have thought you'd add the prime first then the water so that the chlorine gets neutralized as soon as it enters the tank.

[Vallisneria]

I use my python to clean my tanks. I suck out the old water and use the python to put the water back directly into the tank. I start up the python and then I add enough prime to treat the entire tank's volume.

I've never had a problem doing it this way. I dont' aerate the water(aerating doesn't do anything for chloramines anyways, and i've never had a problem with CO2 gases in the tap water) before putting it in.

[DaveDude77]

So you add the Prime while you're adding the water? Not before or after. ACtually, does it matter when you add the Prime?

Oops, am I hi-jacking this thread? Sorry.

Edited November 4, 2008 by DaveDude77

[Vallisneria]

I add it right after I start returning the water to the tank.

[rocker85675]

I dont' add anything else to the water. Just tap + prime

ditto, besides a half recomended dose of prime i dont use ANY chemicals, EVER! i fill a blue rain barrel and add prime and let it sit overnight with a heater and big airstone

[shmeg]

I am glad I read this thread. My last water change took one of my GBR's

[Ishkabod]

I think the reason everyone yuses the same thing is that no one has found anything better and or cheeper. I've seen the cost of buffers and from what i've seen i'd have been out of my mind to even consider Africans if I had to buffer anything. All i do for buffering is some dead rock and or some crushed coral and that lasts forever in our water. Prime is cheep and very easy to use. If you compare prices ml to ml its more expensive BUT it's the opposite when you compare how many gallons 1 ml will treat.

500ml treats 5 000 gallons of water and in case of a spike of any kind then it's safe to dose five times the recommended amount.

Personally I haven't found something i like more and i've looked and looked before i settled on prine but i'll continue to look for something that might be better but i haven't found it yet.

Hope this helps

Lisa

[rocker85675]

prime IS the best bar none. i used to use aqua plus but after reading a thread on mfk, it dosent even de-clorinate like they clam, it did'nt do ALOT of things they claimed. that stuff was'nt fit to flush down my toilet!

[digital-monk]

Sorry I hope this is not "off topic", but I noticed that no - one adds salt to their water...I've been adding salt, epsom salt and baking soda as per this link:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php

Am I wasting my time?

[Dmaan.]

PRIME + TAP WATER = Dmaan.'s water.

[rED O]

SeaChem Prime :thumbs: I think most people use prime

[Vallisneria]

Sorry I hope this is not "off topic", but I noticed that no - one adds salt to their water...I've been adding salt, epsom salt and baking soda as per this link:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php

Am I wasting my time?

Our water is already well suited for africans(hard water with a higher ph). So there isn't really a need to buffer our water with baking soda and salts.

IF you are on a well, or for some reason using RO or bottled water, then you might have to add buffers and salt.

I keep africans and have never added anything extra to our water.