You are here: Home / 18.1.3. Water Change Water
Newcomers to the hobby are bombarded in the fish store with all sorts of water treatments: conditioners, stress coat, pH adjusters, ammonia detoxifier, bacteria in a bottle, buffers, aquarium salt, ad. infinitum. Only a cheap conditioner is necessary. All the other products are simply scams. When it comes to water this is the “Rule”
If you can drink the water fish can thrive in it
Simple, easy.
Chloramine and Chlorine
If your water comes from a municipal source, it is probably chlorinated with chlorine or chloramine. Treating this water is vital for the health of the fish. Chlorinated water will kill all aquarium fish rapidly. We cover this topic extensively in this link:
5.5. Chlorine and Chloramine
If one’s tap water has not been treated with chlorine or chloramines (well water), then it can simply be added to the aquarium in most cases. Note some well water is very deficient in oxygen and needs to be preconditioned by exposing it to air for at least 24 hours prior to a water change.
Temperature
One does NOT need to closely match the temperature of the incoming water to the temperature of the water in the aquarium. All tropical fish will take temperature changes of ten degrees F (6 degrees C.) in stride, with only flashing being observed. This is keeping in mind that the change water needs to be above 65 degrees for most tropical fish. For a more in depth analysis go to these links:
4.2. Aquarium Temperatures
4.8. Stability is Not Important
Startpage Aquariumscience
Source: Aquariumscience.org – David Bogert
