Brown tap water aquarium cleaning

[eligri]

Hi!

We've had issues with our local water this week. Apparently old rusted pipes, and rust is loosening in the water lines. Far above recommended consumption levels.
While bottled water works fine and dandy for us humans, changing 70 gallons of aquarium water that way is hardly doable. Is there any way to remove quite high levels of iron/rust (and possibly dirt) from the water while doing a water change?
Never had to treat for chlorine or anything, just straight tap water into the tank. Guess this method will have to change for a little while, unless the pipes get switched out quickly.

Thanks!

 

[Journeyman]

Maybe an rodi would clean that water.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I would not use that water and especially NOT run it thru your RO unit. Even bottled water or water in bottles from friend or work would be best

 

[Auquanut]

Agree completely with @vetteguy53081. Even after the water clears, I would not use straight from the tap. Investing in a quality RO/DI unit will pay huge dividends down the road.

Welcome to R2R by the way!

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[eligri]

Thanks!

No, I certainly won't put it straight into the tank until things are solved. Been running fine even with crappy pipes for the last 2 years, but know they knocked the rust off and it's in the water...

Wouldn't a RO filter work, or won't that clear enough?
I live on a small island without car access, so carrying enough water for all 3 tanks is not really an option :S

 

[eligri]

I would not use that water and especially NOT run it thru your RO unit. Even bottled water or water in bottles from friend or work would be best

Why not run through an RO unit?
I don't have one, but could buy one. I have (had...) extremely clean water, so never used before.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Why not run through an RO unit?
I don't have one, but could buy one. I have (had...) extremely clean water, so never used before.

Its a great way to clog up all the filters and have rust particles lodged in sediment cartridge with a high TDS delivery .

 

[eligri]

Its a great way to clog up all the filters and have rust particles lodged in sediment cartridge with a high TDS delivery .

This one has flushing, would that work?

Osmose Professional 190 - Dennerle (EN)

Complete device to produce soft, highly pure water Removes up to 98% of all water contents Removes bacteria, viruses, heavy metals ( copper, lead, zinc, etc. ), phosphate, nitrate and silicate Modern TFC dry membrane made of polyamide/polysulfone. High resistance against bacterial...

dennerle.com

Just needs to carry me for a month or two. I can flush it every dang time, just for waterchanges once per week until the city cleans the pipes up.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This one has flushing, would that work?

Osmose Professional 190 - Dennerle (EN)

Complete device to produce soft, highly pure water Removes up to 98% of all water contents Removes bacteria, viruses, heavy metals ( copper, lead, zinc, etc. ), phosphate, nitrate and silicate Modern TFC dry membrane made of polyamide/polysulfone. High resistance against bacterial...

dennerle.com

Just needs to carry me for a month or two. I can flush it every dang time, just for waterchanges once per week until the city cleans the pipes up.

It will help

 

[Mmcghee102485]

Not sure of your situation, but is it localized to just your place Only? Or could you hook up to a neighbors hose spigot who has better water?? Running a RODI might work but you’re probably gonna burn through filter and cartridges.

 

[robbyg]

You need to invest in a proper whole house filter system, like this one.
For one thing at least you wont be bathing in mucky water when you install this.
Once installed just hook up a regular RoDi filter and it will be fine.

 

[eligri]

Aqua Medic Easy Line 300

www.aquaristikshop.com

DENNERLE Osmose Professional 190

www.aquaristikshop.com

Can get both of those for the exact same price locally. The Dennerle is more expensive, but on paper the Aqua Medic looks better. Which looks like the more solid option? (Once again, not buying from that site, locally they are pretty much same price).

 

[eligri]

You need to invest in a proper whole house filter system, like this one.
For one thing at least you wont be bathing in mucky water when you install this.
Once installed just hook up your RoDI filter as normal and it will be fine.

Not an option. Whole house system sounds super expensive, and this is a temporary problem.

 

[eligri]

Not sure of your situation, but is it localized to just your place Only? Or could you hook up to a neighbors hose spigot who has better water?? Running a RODI might work but you’re probably gonna burn through filter and cartridges.

Whole area. Live on a small island with no car access, so buying water and carrying home is quite a bad solution.

 

[robbyg]

Not an option. Whole house system sounds super expensive, and this is a temporary problem.

Well the cheap solution is to just lug the clean water from a store. There is no solution that does not involve you either lugging store bought water or buying expensive filters! You can buy an RoDI unit alone but back flushing it is not going to help! The Di membrane is not the thing that is going to clog fast, it's all your sediment prefilters and carbon blocks that will get used up after a couple of days. So be prepared to buy them in 5 packs and be replacing them often. You can do that or buy a whole house filter which will be cheaper than tons of small filters if this problem lasts for a couple of months versus weeks.

 

[eligri]

Well the cheap solution is to just lug the clean water from a store. There is no solution that does not involve you either lugging store bought water or buying expensive filters! You can buy an RoDI unit alone but back flushing it is not going to help! The Di membrane is not the thing that is going to clog fast, it's all your sediment prefilters and carbon blocks that will get used up after a couple of days. So be prepared to buy them in 5 packs and be replacing them often. You can do that or buy a whole house filter which will be cheaper than tons of small filters if this problem lasts for a couple of months versus weeks.

Water is no longer brown after long flushing, think that was initial debris from the pipes getting shaken. Would they clog upp if water appears clean, but has high iron amount in it?

 

[Bethany Yates]

Hi!

We've had issues with our local water this week. Apparently old rusted pipes, and rust is loosening in the water lines. Far above recommended consumption levels.
While bottled water works fine and dandy for us humans, changing 70 gallons of aquarium water that way is hardly doable. Is there any way to remove quite high levels of iron/rust (and possibly dirt) from the water while doing a water change?
Never had to treat for chlorine or anything, just straight tap water into the tank. Guess this method will have to change for a little while, unless the pipes get switched out quickly.

Thanks!

Hey!! Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in Los Angeles has this same problem with their normal groundwater supply and they told me that granular ferric oxide will help precipitates out the heavy metals.

 

[Mmcghee102485]

Whole area. Live on a small island with no car access, so buying water and carrying home is quite a bad solution.

I got ya, yes I could see that being tricky... good luck hope you get it worked out

 

[eligri]

Water now looks 100% clean. Still waiting for tests from city, but they have flushed the h*ll out of the pipes. I have a master-kit at home, is there anything specific I should test for before doing a WC?

Going to do a waterchange on my main tank next week, figure it can handle 2 weeks without a WC. However the smaller community tank will get one after doing some tests on the tap water, hopefully it survives without any issues. I've got some active carbon in there, would that help?
Should I throw a bag or two of active carbon into my main tanks filter before a WC as well? Any down-sides to doing carbon? Got 2 biological filters atm.

The issue started when they cleaned the streets on the mainland. The pipes are old iron-pipes, and the brown color that appeared 2 days ago was due to, from what I understood, the street cleaning. So either rust/other buildups on the pipes that got shaken loose and/or dirt and dust from the streets that got mixed into the water. They disconnected the pipes going to the island and pumped all the water into the ocean nearby, so now after running the water in the house for a bit it is crystal clear again.

Thanks