Pre-treating Water

[jts112278]

In my ever evolving plan to keep the "kings of the aquarium" i have decided to purchase a 55 gal garbage can to pre-treat the water to keep stress at the absolute minimum. The can will have a heater, gravel on the bottom for bacteria, everything. My question is, is there anything that the plastic is treated with that would be harmful to the water? Anything to look out for? thanks for your help.

Tis a good question however I dont think that it will be a problem. Usually when you are pre-treating water, it will stay in the can for only at most a week. Im not sure if they would warrant enough time from any 'harmful' chemicals to get in the water. Another thing is that plastic usually breakdown in outside weather conditions where the elements can be quite harsh. Sunlight is especially bad for that and heat. Besides, I know a lot of breeds that use plastic cans to pre-treat the water. Of course, there could be some cans that might have problems with it.

Just a question out of curiosity. Why the gravel on the bottom for bacteria? I would not think it nesseccary since there will be no 'food' for the bacteria to live off unless you will be adding it which really is not worth it.

Are you using a R/O unit or pre-treating tapwater?
Good luck!

[colesea]

Yes the manufacturer of the plastic garbage cans do put something on the plastic to make it shiney for sale. Rinse the garbage can out very well before you use it. Sometimes we would bleach even new stuff before we used it in the lab, to make sure that coating surface was off. But if you just rinse it and scrub it slighty with non-soapy brillo it should be fine.
~~Colesea

Interesting! Just dont buy the shiny garbage cans *ley* I do know that not all cans are shiny but this is something to watch out for.

Another thing I guess that should be added (from my experience) is that no matter what you use, you should always be washing it out very well. I prefer to use a vinegar with water mixture myself instead of soaps or bleaches.

[jts112278]

Okay, so vineger and water sounds like the way to go. Give it a through cleaning and don't buy a shinny one. Does anyone feel like our real pet is water and fish are just for decoration?

[Somonas]

LOL, or that we are raising pet bacteria instead of pet fish ?

I have considered doing pretreatment as well and pumping it into the tank with a sump pump.    I got this python and used it for awhile...  my tap water is high enough (7.6) and the tanks are around 8.2 it doesn't seem to stress the fish out at all even with a large change (40%).   temperature remains the same and PH is the same before and after the WC.   I just have to remember to drop in dechlorinator as I refill the tank

now I understand with discus this can be easier to pretreat the water with peat and what not to make the PH the same...

anyway I digress, good idea, let us know how it goes !