Water Boil Notice

thekoimaiden

My town was just put under a water boil notice due to "to problems with the water treatment processes resulting in abnormally high turbidity in the treated water on Monday, March 26, 2012. The water could not be adequately treated due to the heavy rainfall that occurred on the previous Friday and Saturday." This is in effect "until further notice."

Right now I'm treating a QT tank, and I need to make a water change tonight (roughly 10 gallons). I also know I will need to change another 5 gallons on a different tank tomorrow due to some cyanobacteria buildup. What would you guys do in this situation?

Boredomb

I would boil what water I could to get by until the water is safe again.

thekoimaiden

I started to boil the water, but then I tested the boiled water to make sure there wouldn't be any large parameter shifts. The tank is sitting at 7.5; the boiled water is 8.2. The notice was put out early this morning. By the time I found out about it (evening news) all the stores had been cleaned of bottled water. I guess everyone thought the apocalypse is coming.

My other options are remove water from my main tank or take water from my pond.

Boredomb

Well whats the ph normally out of the tap? Also with boiling water you KH gets lowered (the stuff evaporates out) so the boiled waters ph should drop once it settles in the tank. Still with that said I think I would just do like a 10 or 20% at most water change.

Your town sounds my mine when the weather man says the "S" word. LoL then all the stores sell out of Milk and Bread all of them and the bad thing is usually it never even snows.

Sanguinefox

Could you get a ph reducer to add to the water?

thekoimaiden

The pH out of the tap is between 7.8 and 7.5. I'm not sure why it went up like that. Unless testing warm water provides different readings than cooler water. Right now I'm just going to hold out, hoping it will be lifted tomorrow. If it isn't, I'm driving to the boyfriend's house to get his water. Right now it's 1a and there isn't much more I can do.

Boredom! Same thing happens here. The only snow we got this year caused everything to shut down. All the milk and bread was gone from stores. Propane, too.

Boredomb

LoL I don't even think we got so this year but maybe jut a dusting. I usually joke and say the Milk and Bread company's pay off the weather man to boost sells once or twice.a year around here.
its also 1am here still at work lol. At this time at night I agree not much you can do so I wouldn't stress over it to much until you wake up tomorrow.

Byron

When you tested the tap water, did you out-gas the CO2? The pH will test lower than it actually is if there is sufficient CO2 in the tap water.

On the turbidity, if this is just due to sediment, leave it. I have had this after very heavy rains for several days, sometimes in the autumn, sometimes in the Spring. They issue a similar warning. I just proceed as usual. Turbidity that is simply suspended dirt in the water will not harm fish. It looks unsightly--my tanks took several days to fully clear after each water change--but it is harmless. At its worst I literally could not see the back of the tank for a day or more.

I would be more worried if they are increasing any chemical treatment. Some places add extra chlorine/chloramine to deal with bacteria in such situations.

thekoimaiden

Out-gassing the boiled water showed a pH of 8.2. It was also taken from a different tap in my house. Either way, I don't think I'm going to use it in my tanks. Just save it for the dogs.

The news article today said they were waiting for "satisfactory bacteriological analyses" on test samples from around the city. So I don't know if it is just turbidity or if they are afraid something else snuck into the water supply. I'm also fearful of the chemicals they start dumping in. I'm putting a bit of carbon in the tank as well as double-dosing with Prime.

After this scare I think I'm going to start keeping a few gallons of spring water in the basement. Can't hurt.

redchigh

the turpidity wouldn't bother me, but the fact that the water is 'unable to be treated' would be my concern... No chlorination can lead to all kinds of nasties.

If it was me, I'd use rain water. (aka, pond water.)