# What if I forgot to treat my water?



## simplykayla76 (Mar 10, 2012)

I have been doing daily water changes of about 20% in my fry tank. Well today I filled my container with tap water as usual and then proceeded to do my water change. A couple hours later I was emailing API with a question about a product and they wanted to know what water conditioner I used. Well I knew it was Tetra Aqua but couldn't remember the full name so I went to get the bottle and then it hit me...

I didn't remember treating the water for my pwc in my fry tank :O i totally freaked! There is a small chance i treated and forgot ...but i am pretty sure i didn't because i don't remember doing it.

So i quickly treated the entire 10 gallons...was that what i was suppose to do? Did that save my fish? OR will they still die? Right now all of them except 1 is acting normal. There are 2 fry that are a month and a half old and 13 that are a week and a half old.


----------



## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

forgetting once probably won't kill your fish. It may whack you water parameters a little. Does your conditioner affect ph , or just remove(neutralize) chlorine and stuff like that. Doing wc daily you will dilute yesterdays , today. Do your usuall thing today.You should be fine.


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

They should be okay....it was only 20% that changed.


----------



## simplykayla76 (Mar 10, 2012)

coralbandit said:


> forgetting once probably won't kill your fish. It may whack you water parameters a little. Does your conditioner affect ph , or just remove(neutralize) chlorine and stuff like that. Doing wc daily you will dilute yesterdays , today. Do your usuall thing today.You should be fine.



I use Tetra AquaSafe water conditioner. I have been meaning to switch to Prime which I use for my goldfish tank but haven't because i wanted to finish the bottle of Aqua Safe which dechlorinates and conditions while replenishes protective slime coat. It doesn't affect my pH that i know of.


----------



## Nereus7 (Jun 13, 2012)

On another forum I've seen a few cases where people have lost fish due to forgetting the conditioner. Usually it's within minutes things start going south. But in more than one case, certain species were effected while others in the same tank weren't. Might I suggest Ro/Di? I need to become a spokesman for Ro/Di units. It's been a good 16 hours or so right? How are your fish behaving? - N


----------



## simplykayla76 (Mar 10, 2012)

Just did another pwc and all were accounted for and doing well. There is one that is not as active as the others but its still alive. And it could have acted that way before all this happened. 

How much does the Ro/Di system cost? And could i use it on all 3 tanks?


----------



## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

I got mine at Bulk Reef Supply. About $300. Great piece of equipment, great prices on replacement filters and resins. Also instructional videos on everything they sell.Took like 15 minutes to set up. I got the 6 stage chloramine deluxe dual deionizer. It came with digital meter(tells you state{how many gallons/ months} of filters on filters.Digital TDS ( total dissolved solids{meter reads in and out}) on dual deionizer. The deionizer resin changes color as it exhaust so you can know when to change the first onr out(thesecond then moves to position 1 you put new back in 2)The unit also has presure gauge built in. My kit came with everything needed to hook up(everything{3 hook up options, float switch for resevoir ,all tubing EVERYTHING).I don't have high pressure(about37lbs according to there pressure gauge, and water goes down to around 62 degrees if I drain my 32 gallon resevoir) but the system works great. It makes 75 g a day(3 g an hour). Check em out. Hope this helps.


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Don't waste the money. RODI is an extreme measure and not needed in most cases. I use one, but the average tank it is not needed. If your water is too hard, ammonia in your water, nitrates maybe....these are cases where you might need a RODI. Or, operating a reef tank.


----------



## Nereus7 (Jun 13, 2012)

^what coral said. I got mine from a local spot. It's an aquafx barracuda with a few upgrades, it's done well for me. I have low pressure like coral said but it still runs alright. - N


----------



## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Sorry I can't help.

with 20% daily water changes you might want to test for total and free ammonia using the seachem multitest ammonia kit.

Prime and other water conditioners will lock up ammonia but most test kits still test ammonia because they only meaure all ammonia and do not differentiate between safe and locked. Most treatments do exactly what they say. But they don't say that they also are toxic to fish and lock up oxygen. So the concentration can be critical and overdosing can be a big problem.

I would just use a lot of anacharis in the fry tanks and skip the chemicals. But that my only work with just topping off as well. Obviously after a 100% water change you also have 100% of the water you need the chemical for. but a 3% top off the tank IME can handle nicely.


my .02


----------



## Unearthed (May 7, 2012)

beaslbob said:


> Sorry I can't help.
> 
> with 20% daily water changes you might want to test for total and free ammonia using the seachem multitest ammonia kit.
> 
> ...


Why would 20% water changes throw up a red flag for ammonia?


RO/DI really shouldn't be the water solely used for FW tanks. It really does remove EVERYTHING from the water, including trace minerals that nobody tests for but are most certainly there. SW is a different animal because your salt mix will typically provide what's needed as they are usually meant to be used with RO/DI. If you do get one, you shouldn't need to spend anywhere near $300 for a good one. Most can be had for ~$150...try spectrapure or purelyh2o.


----------



## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Unearthed said:


> *Why would 20% water changes throw up a red flag for ammonia?*
> RO/DI really shouldn't be the water solely used for FW tanks. It really does remove EVERYTHING from the water, including trace minerals that nobody tests for but are most certainly there. SW is a different animal because your salt mix will typically provide what's needed as they are usually meant to be used with RO/DI. If you do get one, you shouldn't need to spend anywhere near $300 for a good one. Most can be had for ~$150...try spectrapure or purelyh2o.


The idea is to test for both locked and free ammonia. If all the ammonia is locked then no prime is needed. Constant adding of prime blindly (or using normal test kits that measure free and locked ammonia combined) when not needed can degrade the environment. *old dude

my .02


----------



## Unearthed (May 7, 2012)

beaslbob said:


> The idea is to test for both locked and free ammonia. If all the ammonia is locked then no prime is needed. Constant adding of prime blindly (or using normal test kits that measure free and locked ammonia combined) when not needed can degrade the environment. *old dude
> 
> my .02



Gotcha. I use Prime for chlorine during every PWC as it's very inexpensive. I figure it's other properties are a bonus.


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Unearthed said:


> Gotcha. I use Prime for chlorine during every PWC as it's very inexpensive. I figure it's other properties are a bonus.


You're doing exactly right in your methods. I know you weren't using Prime to treat ammonia, but instead the new water. Although your 20% water changes may be a tad overkill unless it is Angels, Discus, or some other difficult species, doing it is not wrong. At worst, excessive, but nothing else.

I wouldn't worry about getting a test kit that test for free or locked Ammonia unless you just want to know. For the most part, useless. If you get ammonia, do a water change. Don't use a chemical to treat it.


----------



## simplykayla76 (Mar 10, 2012)

jrman83 said:


> You're doing exactly right in your methods. I know you weren't using Prime to treat ammonia, but instead the new water. Although your 20% water changes may be a tad overkill unless it is Angels, Discus, or some other difficult species, doing it is not wrong. At worst, excessive, but nothing else.
> 
> I wouldn't worry about getting a test kit that test for free or locked Ammonia unless you just want to know. For the most part, useless. If you get ammonia, do a water change. Don't use a chemical to treat it.


My readings are 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites, 0-5 nitrates and pH is 8 with a temp of 78. So changing 20 % is to much...what would you suggest?


----------



## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

changing water and proper nutrition is how fry grow as close to in nature as we're going to get. Your ok with what you are doing with you're fry tank.


----------

