YAFT - fish guru's come in....

[Semidevil]

so my dad has a big giant fish tank w/ some expensive fish, and he wants to keep the water clean for it.

He has stuff to control the PH
he has stuff to control the chlorine

what else does he need to keep the water so the fish will like it?

Just tonight, a guy told him about something that *all* tap water contains that is bad for fish......my dad didn't hear it clearly, so he tried his best to tell me what the guy said. From what I could make out, he said "aluminum."

Now is there really aluminum in water??

What do you guys think?

what else is there to control in water to keep the water clean and good for fish?

 

[flot]

Yeah, you'll need to provide a little more detail than that. Are we talking about a freshwater tank or a saltwater tank? Salt tanks are VERY complicated to maintain.

For freshwater you can get a couple bottles of magic chemicals that will pretty much immediately neutralize anything "bad" in the water, before adding it to the tank.

The #1 bad thing for fish that's in your tap water is chlorine.

The bigger the tank, usually the less regular maintenance you have to do on it... IE a 100 gallon tank is "easier" to maintain than a 10 gallon tank... because it's more of an ecosystem at work. Something like a 1-5 gallon tank takes pretty frequent water changes etc.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Maybe he said chloramine? As far as I know not all localities use chloramine yet though. It's a combination of chlorine and ammonia. It's more stable in water than chlorine alone, which is why more and more cities are using it. You need to treat tap water with special chemicals specifically for chloramine if that's what your water plant uses. Both chlorine and ammonia are extremely toxic to fish.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Here's a pretty comprehensive link about chlorine and chloramine.

 

[Semidevil]

ok, it is going to be a 60 gallon tank, for fresh water fishes. one of my dad's friend said that he should change 1/4 of the water everymonth..........does that sound about right to you guys?

ok, ammonia sounds a lot better then aluminum......I think that is right.

so there are solutions that treat chlorine AND ammonia at the same time?? any brand names come on the top of your head??

 

[flot]

Yes, any fish/pet store can sell you the chemicals.

Typically you get one container of some liquid that is supposed to remove chlorine, ammonia, and some other crap.
Then you get a second container of mystery liquid that is supposed to help keep fish healthy one way or another.

Seriously, ANY store that sells fish (and probably even wal-mart/k-mart) will sell these things.

My two mystery liquids are labeled "amquel" and "novaqua". Here's a petsmart Link to amquel. And here's a random link to NovAqua

Note that the gallon jug they show in the picture is probably enough to treat a swimming pool. A 12oz bottle of the stuff has literally lasted me for years.

Changing 1/4 of the water every month sounds reasonable for a 60 gal tank.

Edit: More reasonable price/size of Amquel