Freshwater

Chapter 12: All Water Is Not Created Equal
The water was guaranteed to turn every color of the rainbow within a period
of five minutes during a shower, and Maddy’s body took on those glorious
copper colors when she stepped out. Instead of buying an expensive
Halloween costume, trick-or-treaters saved money by coming over to the
house for a shower.
The point of this reminiscence is that well water is generally not a good
source to use for filling your aquariums because too many bad things can get
into it, including sulfur, lead, and mud. Well water is usually lacking in good
oxygen content and is high in dissolved nitrogen and carbon dioxide instead.
If you insist on using it anyway, take a small sample down to your local water
company and ask them to test it for you. Water companies are pretty good
about testing your water for little or no money, even if it is from your own
well. Most standard aquarium and home water test kits are not made to accurately
test the chemicals, metals, and other odd items that can be found in
well water. If you get a dirty look from the water department clerk because
your sample destroyed her expensive equipment, you can forget the bad idea
of using well water altogether and use bottled water or treated water from a
friend’s city water supply (dechlorinate it before using).
If your well water is free of metals and does test acceptable for human consumption,
make sure you follow up with an aquarium test kit to check for
tropical fish perimeters such as pH and nitrites. They may have to be
adjusted using aquarium chemicals before you use it for your aquatic pets.
Collecting Water from Bodies of Water
(Why You Want to Forget This Bad Idea)
If you’re planning to set up a freshwater aquarium, someone has probably
suggested that you can be a real naturalist and go down to your local river or
pond to snag the water for it. You may be thinking that this isn’t a half-bad
idea — you can keep your fish closer to their natural environment. However,
after your dream of a cameo on National Geographic fades a bit, you can go
ahead and forget this idea entirely.
Why? Because most of the freshwater fish you purchase from the pet shop
are raised in a hatchery and have never been near any river or pond. These
fish are raised in standard aquarium water conditions. When you collect
water from a pond or river, you take a great risk of introducing disease into
your tank.
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