Hi Guys,

With the recent Silver dollar (2) into my 90 litre tank. I am experiencing fluctuation in ammonia/nitrite level. With One of my SD is injured (skin peeled of because of rubbing on the decoration in full speed this adds to the water stress as the bioload increases. I took some bits of peeled skins coming off from the SD and they smell really awful.

I just checked the nitrite level, and it is very alarming, the test tube has gone really pink and the ammonia tube is going really green. I have an alarming level of ammonia and nitrite.

My question is: Can I change 50% of the water in this tank without adding water ager? The reason being is that I have run out of water ager. Can I change the water now and then I can go out tomorrow to get a new supply of water ager? All shops are closed by now. And I can pour some tomorrow. Would

I have 3 guppies and 2 tetras plus 3 bristlenose catfish in the tank (small), I don't know where should I move them as I don't have a spare tank.

i don't use any conditioner at all, thus i believe it will be okey
unless you are not sure with your tap supply...

NO. reason being your water contains chlorine (bleach) in small amounts. this is deadly to fish and your filter. firstly in will attack the fish slime(protective coating) this will leave the fish unprotected and open to disease. second the gills will be affected along with many other things. I have seen fish that have been put in water without treatment and it looks pretty awful. skin peels and fins fray, for the small cost its not worth it.

Some countries use smaller amounts of chlorine to treat tap water this could be why some can get away with it. it may not kill your fish right away but believe me, it won't do your fish or your filter any favors. as you fish are having problems already I would say you most likely will kill the lot. lastly if you leave water to stand for a long time the chlorine fads and you can use it without conditioner. I am not certain of the time needed for it to stand. you can use rain water untreated. I always make sure i have a new bottle unopened so can't run out.


you need to change large amounts of water if your readings are very high. ammonia/nitrites will also damage the gill and affect the breathing. what you see wrong with your fish and the reason they are getting injured is because the water conditions. if the water is bad the fish won't want to be there and may even try to jump out in the hope it will find better water.

What are the readings now?

Hi Marcus

I am not too sure of what kind of tap water we have here in Australia but we can drink the water straight from the tap. I suppose it has been treated so there may be some chlorine content in the water for disinfectant purpose, but maybe small amount as u said and I agree that it may not bring any good. But the level of ammonia and nitrite is so alarming.

I have not changed the water till now because it is 10 pm at the time I am writing this posting.

The silver dollar dashed into the reef decoration was due to me spooking them. (I opened a drawer beneath the tank) Before the silver dollar was introduced the little tank had good water quality. Mostly 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. The most I had with the tank was 0.5 but quickly brought down with ammo lock (API).

I am suspecting my filter. The capacity of that filter is only 400l/hour. (internal cannister with sponge few noodles and carbon catridge). It may not cope with the current bioload.

The previous reading is ammonia 2.5 nitrite 0.2 ph 6.6 (was previously 7.2 but I used ph down powder to bring the ph down to neutralize ammonia toxicity, or I should say, to make it less toxic)

At the moment all of the inhabitants are still swimming well including the 2 SD. The injured SD still swims a little but mostly stay below the filter.

Lucky I still have a some amount of zeolite (maybe around 200 gr), I put it in an old thin sock and put the bag in the tank. Current reading after that is ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0.2 (confused why this is not reduced) and ph 6.4-6.6 It appears that the zeolite is doing a great job.

I will get to aqua shop tomorrow after work and get a new supply of seachem prime (I always used cheaper stuff before) I also have ordered purigen through ebay see if it helps. I never wanted to use expensive stuff or some unnatural filtration media because I believe bio filtration is better. (my oscar tank is using fluval 305 with combinatino of bio balls, noodles and seachem matrix in all 3 trays)But I guess I need purigen help this time...

PAUL wrote:

I also have a friend who dont use tap water conditioner and their fish are said to be happy. But every aquarium store tells me to add some every water change time.

My friend's argument is that using water conditioner is the same as adding chemicals in the water and he said the chlorine content in the tap water is so small and it may harm fish if we change water too often. But he said the water will age over night. Plus the fish will get used to it...well he claims his cichlid collection are happy...

I think maybe it depends on the case. If your tank is healthy and you change water once a week, then maybe it is not really significant whether you add water conditiner or not as you only change 10-15% of water anyway. In my case where I have to change 50% of the water every 3 days (or even every day) then maybe water conditioner is necessary...

Gaahhh...I am hungry

even 10% water changes in a 150g with untreated water will knock your filter out. you answered your own question. you can drink your tap water. that means its treated and fit for consumption. that alone means it will harm your fish stock.

marcus wrote:

Yeah I agree with that (chlorine kills good bacteria too). It is strongly recommended by many experts. But maybe it depends on the fish? Some hardy fish may tolerate some dont perhaps? What i am saying is that, maybe the fish can cope in a case where there's a spike in ammonia and when someone needs to do water change asap and he/she may have run out of conditioner. But for my case, I wouldnt risk using mere tap water as my silver dollar is injured.

Sometime it is hard to decide when you see your fish in your tank lazing on the tank floor and you get freaked out when you test your water and you found out that you re running out of water conditioner. If you leave your fish, it may die...if you use tap water...it may also die... Lucky the injured silver dollar was still swimming straight (not rolling over, or other horrible death imminent indication) so I decided to wait till I can get new conditioner tomorrow.

Better have some sleep 12:52 am lol

I know of people that have kept fish for many years in the UK and never used any conditioner. The water comes straight out of the tap. Their fish are healthy and breeding so I have to disagree that not using conditioner is harmful. I'm also informed that as the new water hits the old that the splashing causes the chlorine to evaporate.

I read an article a while ago that said most aquatics shops do not treat their water either...

I can see both sides of this argument.. but for me, with all the time and money invested... It's not worth the risk of losing everything over a couple of bucks worth of water conditioner... JMO

I am not sure who told you that chlorine evaporates when you put the water into your tank. Sometimes I can make a cup of tea and I can still smell the chlorine. Chlorine is harmful to fish so you must always use a water conditioner.

Why do you think chlorine is added to water in the first place? To kill the bacteria, so if you do a very large water change and don't use the water conditioner, you are going to damage your biological filter.

We try to advise people on the correct way to keep fish. We always recommend using a water conditioner when adding tap water to an aquarium, I don't want to see anyone advising people otherwise, such posts will be edited.

Well I have to agree with OFL on this one. It takes at least 24 hours for chlorine to evaporate from water. Within that 24 hours the chlorine could cause you to lose your bacteria colony. Water conditioners offer many other benefits besides chlorine elimination. Water conditioners also neutralize harmful metallic ions as well as providing some fish protectorate. The water conditioners just make an over all water change easier on the fish and aquarium parameters alike. It's foolish to bypass the use of a good water conditioner. The benefits of using a water conditioner far out way the benefits of not.

Thx nicki, OFL, codeman for the support here. I felt I was on a loosing battle. As OFL said we try our best to give the "RIGHT" advice for a healthy aquarium and for members to keep there fish well. giving the wrong advice by intention could lead to people loosing there pride and joy fish. for a few £ $ why risk it. we know chlorine or chloramine is in drinkable tap water and it will knock the filter out and harm fish. ok true some fish will withstand poor treatment and survive it, but why try it for the few £ $.

I under stand a person running out of conditioner having to decide if to use untreated water or risk the high ammonia/nitrite levels. i wouldn't like to make the choice cos I wouldn't know what would come out worst. I have a good supply just to make sure this never happens.