NewGupBreeder may be blessed with a water source like that. He lives (if I vaguely recall) not too far from where I used to run that well water to the tanks. (I never grew up, but did grow larger in Glen Ellyn, IL. down a couple roads from NGB).

NewGupBreeder do you have well water? Or did they switch you guys over to Lake (Michigan) water? Have you any idea what your municipal water department puts in the water? (As a citizen, you have a right to ask - nicely - for a copy or summary of the latest statement sent to the EPA.)

Do you have a couple of containers to store your water short term? Last count, you had four tanks? Are you able to do changes like that on all of them?

Maggie, some of those heavy hitters set vats on a platform - gravity flow is a beautiful thing. I know of at least one guy with at least one plastic cattle watering trough and a portable sump pump rigged with a hose and extended cord with a switch in it.

My discus buddy had a 100 gallon circular tank like a water softener, but that was mostly for holding R.O. water he mixed in with a sump pump/hose. His tap water was slowly run through an industrial sized household carbon filter.

When German author Steffin Hellner (Killifish: A Complete Owner's Guide on Barron's Press) mentioned that he did 90% daily changes with soft water, he was asked, "How in the world can you get away with that?" He responded that he couldn't if he didn't do that most every day, because the chemistry in the tanks would begin to drift too significantly from the water supply.

Those aren't things you and I are likely to be able to do.

I have a couple of FOOD QUALITY 50 gallon drums bleached, washed out and let sit all last summer, fall and winter. Now where in the world can I put them?

Now more specifically to Maggie's excellent question on the bacteria: Most of the good guy bacteria in a tank are on the tank sides, bottom, gravel, plants, and whatever else is in there. Only a couple of percent of that bacteria is in the water. That much could be naturally replenished overnight or in the afternoon following the water change. That surface area thing is why filters are so important. Charcoal (in the week after it is used up as a chemical filter), sponges, filter floss (or polyester quilt bunting) or small lava rocks in a box or trickle filter have an incredible amount of surface area. Those places are where a lot of the biological shaking and baking goes on.

In nature streams are obviously changing the water all the time. Stephen Meyers (sp?), pond maven of AFM (Aquarium Fish Magazine), noted that "wild ponds" such as those found in a woods are full to the level of the water table. This meant that there was a daily water exchange of about 90% ! All of the surrounding soil, the leaves, plants and sticks in the pond were surface areas for good bacteria.

Storage of something as boring as water is tough. (Our house was built about 50 years ago. Looking at the storage given us, I can only guess that the builders assumed that everyone would have two pairs of shoes and three changes of clothing! Families would need only one car and two electrical outlets per room.)

For your consideration, and maybe a couple of ideas, may I refer you to the following GL Log?

 What do you use to season water?  
posted by unclescott on 10/29/2003 11:40:10 PST

Also - and I know this sounds goofy - but the stores are probably stocking water carboys for campers in the outdoor sections. If you shop around you can find three gallon ones (I use them sometimes to take tank water to fish shows) or five gallon ones, which are more space efficient, but harder to tote and use. Farm supply stores have all sorts of BIG containers.

I also have some of those 5 gallon containers that drinking water services use. I take water from my seasoned 32 gallon trash cans (set on old styro pieces for insulation and each equipped with an underwater heater) and siphon it into the five gallon water jugs or a 3 gallon bucket either for additional storage or to directly siphon from to lower tanks. I free up the old wooden stool and spot the water container on top to siphon into lower tanks.

I mentioned the 50 gallon barrels from a food processing company. Bakeries will sell pie filling buckets fairly cheaply. Other food places may have other cheap containers available. Some plastics leach "plasticizers" which are not good for living things. Food quality stuff is almost always safe.

One of my old computer boxes (which the family thinks is fill of computer stuff) is full of extra gallon milk and fruit jugs. [The monitor box is full of filter stuff ;) ]

Those milk jugs were soaked in hot water and the tops were cut off with a sharp paring knife. I did bleach them to get rid of the milk. Because "God only knows" the exotic chemistry of some of my elderly tanks (one going for over 30 years and I'm still 23) I use a piece of hard tubing attached to some of that silicon flexible tubing to g-r-a-d-u-ally siphon new water into a tank.

In the meantime I can feed the fish or check the computer. (Ten of those siphons at once and I can also stop by the little boy's room.)

I'll bet other GL people have yet other suggestions for holding and seasoning water.