Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Real easy one for ya's today !

I am located in Victor Harbor SA & the tap water down here is pretty funky. I am currently cycling my first system (posted in members systems if your interested), & would like to add more water to the system to hopefully dilute the ammonia which is currently at 1.0 ppm.

My question is can I just add tap water with no treatment (have used prime in the past)?

If so, is there a safe percentage to add - example 1000ltr in system, remove 250 ltr (25%) and replace with straight tap water.

Will the diluted chlorine in the water harm the fish or slow the cycling process?

I suppose it comes down to, what is the simplest way to top up your system with tap water ??

Sorry, I am sure it is posted somewhere else but couldn't find it...... Please feel free to just add a link to a similar thread.

Cheers
SD2

I dont know what the concesus is on this, but i find it depends on the type of fish.

I collect rain water as much as possible but in the summer months we dont get enough rain and i will just top off the tanks with the hose every week. Weekly evaporation, transpiration usually takes up 10-20% of my water. I try to fill a barrel first and treat it with vitamin C for a day but that is not always possible. I;ve never had a 10-20% fill from the tap hurt the fish as far as i can tell.

One time, i forgot to turn my water off. When i turned the TV off to go to bed i heard some thumping on the porch. I went outside to my system overflowing to the yard and the water in the system was crystal clear. (300 gallon system, hose had been on for ~5 hours) The thumping i had heard was tilapia jumping out of the system onto the cement. In a panic i turned off the water and added crushed up vitamin C tablets to start breaking up the chlorine.

At the time i had a couple dozen bluegill a couple dozen channel catfish and about 3 dozen tilapia.

I picked about 10 tilpaia off the cement and threw them back into the water. For one of them it was already too late. In the tank some of the catfish showed visual signs of stress and some were semi floating around, not dead but obviously going to die.

Over the next few days i lost about 18 of 22 channel catfish. I lost no bluegill and the only tilapia that died was the one that jumped out of the tank and reverse drowned.

So based on my experience. I feel channel catfish are very sensitive to chlorine/chloramines in tap water and i would be very careful introducing untreated tap water to a system with channel catfish. ( i still do it in small amounts and not directly into the same holding tank) With tilapia and bluegill i dont stress about topping off the tank anytimes it needs it.

brian

I have on most cases added straight tap eater to my AP 1500L system in about 300L at a time when top ups are required. Sometimes about 500L.

I am not going to be of any help I am afraid as I retain enough rain water to top up over summer. I would not like to use tap water unless I really had no other choice.

Sorry for thread highjacking, but it's related:

I'm in London UK and our tap water seems to be very high in nitrates (40ppm+, I'm still getting used to matching the colours on the test kit, sorry).

Is that level of nitrates going to cause the fish any problems? Would it be harmfull or helpful to the plants?

No...


Helpful...

Thanks for your replies

Will turn off pump & allow sump water to mix with tapwater (approx 200ltr of tapwater to 400ltr of sump= sump total 600ltr) then turn the pump back on, to mix with the 800 ltrs in the FT. Should disperse the tap water fairly evenly....I hope !