Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am well aware of the issues of using treated tap water directly, from my aquarium days. Back then I had a open 20gal drum with an airstone. A little patience and the water was suitable for use. But in an AP system where the volumes are so much larger, what techniques are used when the first water charge might be municipal sources?

JohnMc,

I use a 4" x 10' PVC pipe filled with about 20Lb (1/2bag) of Activated Charcoal, that i got from

Dickson Brothers
204 N. Galloway
Mesquite, Texas
972-288-7537

a good local source for all things water related...! pools/pumps/filters/koi/plants/etc...........

the guy there said that if you let the water trickle through the filter pipe slow enough while filling the tank up or topping it off, that would get rid of most of the chlorine and chloramides, and the Activated Charcoal filter would last a long time that way,

if you run it full blast through the filter, you will still have a 0.1 + chlorine reading, and the filter will not last long

took my tank 14hr or so to fill up, and only a trace chlorine reading after it was full.

and then added 1 teaspoon full of Pond Primer, and 1 min later, no trace chlorine reading at all.......

First you will need to know if your water has chlorine or chloramine in it
The simplest way is pond mate primer whatever-you can get in your area
Now my system is 3 years old i just run the hose straight in now

Just don't make the same mistake I did if you intend to grow out fishes you are going to eat in the system... check that whatever pond primer or chlorine neutraliser you add to the system is safe for "fishes meant for human consumption"... Most neutralisers I found out later are not...

Most of the local pond shops are usually great resources when it comes to advice for pond and pond fishes... but when it comes to AP, they usually provide the wrong recommendations...

So in short, if you are going to use chlorine neutralisers, do some checking yourself on whether it is safe chemical to add for fishes meant for human consumption. I would rather poison the fishes with chlorine than to add chemicals that could poison me and my family...

I do the same as F&F now... I add water straight from the tap, as we have got chlorine in the tap system instead of chloramines. The chlorine neutraliser is on a shelf in the shed...

One of the big points about Aquaponics is that you will hopefully not be needing to do regular water changes.

So, find out what your tap water is treated with. If it is just Chlorine, then you can fill a new system with that water and let it pump around the system for several days with as much extra aeration as you can provide and the chlorine will outgas (do not add any ammonia till the chlorine has outgassed.)

If your water has chloramine, then for your initial fill up of a new system, you will probably need to filter it or neutralize it some how.

Once your system is well cycled, then you can probably safely do small top ups with the tap water as is. Large water changes should probably be treated/outgassed as needed.

Yep, in general I'd steer clear of ANY aquaria shop, products... and certainly recommendations...

I would happily listen to any advice that F&F or TCL gave though...

Thanks to everyone for the advise.

I'm lucky as my source water is well water. And it is good well water.

I've never had to deal with city water and fish before. Bubbles work fine for chlorine. However I hear that chloramine is a real pain. (People who have too much Chlroamine in their water have to filter the water just to bake bread or the chloramine kills the yeast.)