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Water change Sunday, which I was dreading because it is 20F outside. No draining it all out the back door. Instead it is 39 five gallon buckets drained and dumped one by one down the toilet.

Decided the FX 5 was due for a cleaning (I hate canister filters). It proceeded to gurgle out several gallons of water all over the floor as it always does. As I am dealing with the flood and cussing I realize the tank I am filling is full and move the Python to a 20 long.

I then go back to trying to address the flood and figure out why the FX will not prime (did I mention I hate canisters?). Five minutes later I realize I did not add Prime to the 20 long. Too late, all six fish are dead. Anyone that has attended CatCon knows how deadly the water is here. No fish can survive in untreated DC water for more than a minute or two.

39 buckets later, a minor flood, and a complete tank wipe out and water changes are done for another week.

All I could think was, "One more bucket.. and the farce is complete."

Read this on a bad fishroom day and feel confident that even the "Experts" have them as well.

-Shane

Wow, sorry Shane. I never knew municipal water could kill so quickly!

Regards, Eric

Always dangerous to do too many things at once when doing water changes! I’ve had a few disasters as a result. Usually more a case of not monitoring the temperature closely enough, but dechlorinator can be a concern too.

Wow. That's quick. How many ppm of chloramine does your tap water contain? It sounds like it should have been a lot. 10 ppm? Or were the fish of the sensitive kind?

Sympathies Shane- we all have a really bad day now and then in the fish room. I am having it worse. Not only can I not pump water out the window, but we are doing house renovations and my main bathroom which serves as fish central for water changes has been in pieces. When it is functioning I pump water directly into the toilet from tanks. This works great. I have one advantage. We have a private well with water that soft-water fish love and which does not need dechlor.

I have been trying for years to succeed at putting 5 gallons into a four gallon space. I sense I may be getting close if I just keep at it.........

Looking forward to seeing you at the NEC in March. This is my last year in the vendor room.

Viktor, I have no idea how many ppm but it is clearly at the higher end. Our water supply here is actually the Potomac River. The County website is cryptic to say the least stating that Fairfax water is cleaned using "Advaned Technology" and "Treatments." I do know that chlorine is at 4 ppm. The fish were Steatocranus. Not sensitive and these were grandchildren of fish bred and raised in my fishroom.

Chris, looking forward to seeing you as well. It will be my last convention for a couple of years.
-Shane

That DC water is lethal for many of the fishes we keep. We've all had bad fishroom days, thing is what you then do about it. The only thing I've managed to figure out about being an expert is that you get a much deeper understanding of what you don't know.

Jools

I guess I've been lucky with not killing fish directly during water changes mainly because I pre-treat my city water in 55 gallon barrels along with using a whole house filter for my fish water. What I have done is flood my fish room so many times that I've lost count.
Ken

I have done the same thing as Ken.

I had an 8' long gutter floor drain installed in my new fishroom for just such an occasion!