What to do with fish........................

[zippity]

when I move this coming May? I am not too worried about what to do with the handling of them but what I am more concerned about is the home I am moving to has well water. How do I get my fish accustomed to well water with what I am sure is gonna be a lot harder water. Do I just cross my fingers and hope they will adjust to a PH going from like 7.8 to 9ish or so in a matter of minutes?

Tell me guys if u have any experience of doing something like this.

Cheers,

Terry

[beowulf]

I would age the water for sure as much as you can and I would try and bring as much water from you old place as possible and slowly mix things together as you go.  Also some peat in the filter might not hurt.

[FishPassion]

Hiya,
I would take a water sample and test it to see what your parameters are first off. I live in the country and am on a well also, what I do and basically what you will be doing is float them for temp first, then I slowly acclimate them to "my" water by either adding some of my water gradually over intervals into a bucket or where ever your fish are kept over a slow period of time say a cpl hours if there is a drastic difference in parameters. Its no different from me buying fish in the city and acclimating them to my hard well water here.
well water can be very different just a few houses down or a mile or so down the road. Deep wells are quite often problematic with high sulpher counts and various other issues and you may have to let your water sit for a day or two before using it for fish. Inquire what type of well you have and take water tests first.
Good luck and hope all goes well...

[gonna_b_no_1]

When it's time to do the actual move...drip them into your tank.

IE-bucket, airline tubing....lots of time....(like salties do!)

[bitterman]

As mentioned definately test the water ASAP so you know what you have. Do all the the tests you have on agged water.

DO you smell sulfer inthe water? If so this could cause you problems.

I have my fish (Africans) in 9.1pH 225mg/L gH  180mg/L kH water and they love it. No dechlorinator needed Thank goodness... makes a drip water change system work out nicely   I have both Malawi and Tang's and all seam to do well.

Bruce.

[Mettle]

I agree with the method suggested by G. Use buckets and a drip in order to slowly acclimatize them.

Also. You probably will want to refrain from feeding the fish for at least 24 hours before transporting them. This way they're less likely to produce wastes during transport and this will maintain the water quality better. (Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here - but it's the practice I always exercised.)

[gonna_b_no_1]

I always drip in my fish.  Even if they're freshies.  Most ph at ottawa side is at least a 1 or 2 ph over my ph at home. 

My fish don't stress as much, they don't get sick or go into shock.  Temp adjusts slowly, no ph shock.

good thing overall

Francine

[zippity]

well either way i try things, i will need tons of 5 gal buckets to transport as much as old water with me.


So if any of you guys can lend me for a few days as many buckets as you can spare that would be awesome. I would rather not go out and buy $5 buckets to only have to use them for the move.

I would need at least 10, so please help. I can pick them up at next meeting/auction.

Thanks,

Terry

[zippity]

1st testing is done on the water from the sample I picked up there.

What I was happy to hear about, is that the company with the house and well will come by periodically and test the water for us and sometimes put water in the well.

But my 1st test was done PH=7.6+, so I took a high PH then, and it only read 7.8-8.0.
The KH was 12 dH and GH was 4 dH. Is this all ok with what I will be doing?

[FishPassion]

Question or concern, why would they be putting water into the well? It sounds like perhaps the well may not be furnishing enough and be running dry at times, so when they fill, the water will be coming from? and testing out at whatever parameters from wherever they may be picking it up at that time. I know of friends that have wells run dry during certain summers, no fun, they buy a truckload of water dump it in and they are good for a few days until the water slowly seeps into the dry ground and back to square one again. Let me tell you there is nothing worse than a screaming wife at 6am with shampoo in her hair and not enough to rinse telling you I m allready late for work!!!
Country hic here who has been there done that and will be putting in a new well this spring:)

[zippity]

They said if it ever was to run dry, they would fill it up with a truck. They said no matter what we will never run out of water, if so, call them and they fill up in a couple of hours. They did say this well has never run dry yet in their time of operating it for the NCC= national capital commission.

[zippity]

ok 2nd testing done now, and i got whacked out readings. It is now 1:30 day later. PLEASE tell me if this is normal for well water. I thought after sitting for awhile the PH would balance but now it went even higher.

PH=8.4-8.8 (big change here)
KH=14 dH (little change here)
GH=3-6 dH still

[KLKelly]

My well water:
ph out of tap 7.8, ph after bubbling 8.2/8.3
GH 10 (when the softener is bypassed).
KH 14

I have sulpher - which after aeration shows up as grey black particles at the top of the tank.  Massive amounts of sulphur I hear would show up as black in the back of the toilet.
I have Iron also in the water also.

I would also test for ammonia.... normally mine runs around .25 in the tap but this winter it hit .5.... making it almost toxic at water change time.  I have a lot of filtration (loaded with bioballs) and plants to help.  Some people even have nitrates in their water.

[bitterman]

IF you are using drop test, they are not very accurate and prone to errors. Also let the water sit over night in a glass to degas prior to taking reedings as the ph will shift as the water degas's.

If you have Africans the ph levels are fine in the mid to high 8's (Most Tangs like 8.6 to 9.5). Stability in the tank is more important then the actual number. Try to keep it in range, but fish will adapt to different pH's in time. I had cons in pH 9.1 water. I had cories live for almost 2 years in the 9.1 ph water (and they were already 3-4 years old when they moved to the ph 9.1).

I am very lucky as my water has 0 Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrates (Not detectable with drop kits) in it. Because I do large water changes I normally have almost 0 Nitrates in my tank also and the others always stay 0.

Bruce

[zippity]

I am going to do my best with the testing and water changes and hope everything all turns out fine. I will check again tomorrow what tests reveal, and yes it is drop test.

I am a little surprised I am getting no help on some buckets from people. I was hoping to not have to go out and buy a whack load of them but looks like I might have to.

I did not check for ammonia and nitrates for I didnt feel I needed to but I will now starting tomorrow. Thanks Karrie!!!!

[FishPassion]

I would lend you some buckets but Im an hour away Terry, I get mine at the loeb bakery counter they give them away at some stores.

[zippity]

FP:Well if you are going to the meeting this month or in April, I can pick them up from you then. I am moving the weekend of the 29th of April so I got some time. I want to try and get as many as I can.

With Loeb bakery, are these used buckets and if so what was in them before hand? Hard to clean out?

[Nerine]

I only have 2 small buckets... otherwise I'd loan you some!!

How many do you need? and by when? I might know someone who has some (know people in the restaurant business)

[zippity]

thanks Nerine, again the more the merrier. As for the buckets at the restaurant, as long as i can clean them and there wasn't anything like toxic in the buckets.

[FishPassion]

Loeb receives muffin mixes,icing,etc in them. The ones I get have been washed out allready but I always give them a light cleaning anyways to remove any other food particles that may be left behind.
I will let you know if I can get some and if I go to the meeting will bring some to you.
Klaus