# What type of water you guys use for your piranhas?



## manuelmedina (Oct 27, 2008)

hi everyone just wondering what type of water everybody uses for your piranha, especially manuelli owners, i own a manuelli and i use tap water with prime conditioner, can tap water affect the life expectancy of it? since they say it carries heavy metals and some other stuff.


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## Brian5150 (Oct 17, 2006)

I use tap water. I fill 2 clean 5 gallon buckets with tap water and let it sit for 2 to 3 days then gravel vac into 2 dirty 5 gallon buckets . Then I dump the clean water in. Thats it no clorine treatments


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

A mix of R/O usually doesn't hurt, but a straight R/O water change is never good, except for SW setups. The mix of R/O to tap water depends completely on the composition of your tap water. I don't know the water requirements of a manny, but I will caution the use of straight R/O water, or even beyond 50% mix, very heavily.

My rhom is living in water with a pH of 8.2-8.4, and a kH that has to be higher than hell, because nothing I do seems to bounce the pH more than 0.2 or so (that's in Rapid City and my home town, Bowdle). I have never actually tested for gH in any of my tanks so I don't know the exact measurement, but i can guarantee its bad. You should see the calcium and iron deposits that show up anywhere with running water at my place and the parent's. I should grab a test kit for it next time I order anything. My rhom has grown 1.5-2in this last year. My buddy with a shoal of reds and a couple spilos is battling the same issues, and his growth rates seem to be inline too. This probably isn't much help when it comes to mannies. But







I posted mainly for the first paragraph of my post. The second one is just to show how bad the water can be without issue for piranhas.


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## the keeper (Jan 16, 2010)

i use tap water for my manny, he seems to be just fine, i use aquasafe, stresscoat, and mix it in the bucket before putting it in my tank, all my perameters are great, my water comes out of the tap with a ph of 7.6, so i guess it depends on your tap.


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## THE BLACK PIRANHA (Dec 8, 2003)

Tap water for years with no problem.


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## Ibanez247 (Nov 9, 2006)

I use tap water but I have an inline house filter so the water is cleared of chlorine and all that crap. I havnt dose any kind of chemical to prep the water and have had no issues.


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

I use the waste water from my RO/DI for my fresh water tanks. Been using it for years with no problem.


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## Greez (Feb 12, 2010)

I was wondering about this as well, I live in indiana where the water hardness is through the roof, is that a big problem?? Should be looking into it???


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## chaddfc (Dec 29, 2009)

michigan and my ph reads about 8.0-8.2 but stays constant so I don't mess with it.


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

I use straight tap water unfiltered. I do 50% water changes every week by just dumping the python in the tank and adding tap water conditioner straight into the display while it's filling. Haven't had any problems with this method for quite some time.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

I'm not a moderator, but isn't this a "Water Chemistry Forum" thing?

Anywho... yeah, I say screw the R/O water and go with tap... treated as required for your area.
Where I live, the water is so pure I just dump it in the tank right from the hose screwed into the sink faucet.


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## PirAnhA$p3ciAlisT (Oct 21, 2005)

Plowboy said:


> A mix of R/O usually doesn't hurt, but a straight R/O water change is never good, except for SW setups. The mix of R/O to tap water depends completely on the composition of your tap water. I don't know the water requirements of a manny, but I will caution the use of straight R/O water, or even beyond 50% mix, very heavily.
> 
> My rhom is living in water with a pH of 8.2-8.4, and a kH that has to be higher than hell, because nothing I do seems to bounce the pH more than 0.2 or so (that's in Rapid City and my home town, Bowdle). I have never actually tested for gH in any of my tanks so I don't know the exact measurement, but i can guarantee its bad. You should see the calcium and iron deposits that show up anywhere with running water at my place and the parent's. I should grab a test kit for it next time I order anything. My rhom has grown 1.5-2in this last year. My buddy with a shoal of reds and a couple spilos is battling the same issues, and his growth rates seem to be inline too. This probably isn't much help when it comes to mannies. But
> 
> ...


Have u tried putting a bunch of bog wood in there? I do that and it makes my ph go way down.


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## TJcali (Mar 27, 2009)

I would go with tap like everyone else :nod:


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## assclown (Dec 12, 2005)

i plumed 2 under sink filters together and cut my python twords the fill
section and i add it when im filling my tanks......so i use tap

r/o water is too striped of minerals


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

PirAnhA$p3ciAlisT said:


> Have u tried putting a bunch of bog wood in there? I do that and it makes my ph go way down.


I has peat in it right now, and that hardly wiggled it. Same with the wood in my tanks back home. It's just buffered way to hard.

I'm pretty sure the only way I could change it is with co2 or an R/O mix, but I'm in no hurry on that.


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

Tap water with Prime


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