could I use water from a natural stream?

Hey umm something related. When I do water changes could I use water from a natural stream by my house there aren't any farms around and its in the middle of the woods so there's not pesticides around

 

HI luke, your question has been moved to a thread of it's so the other stays on topic.

 

I personally wouldn't put water from any water way in an aquarium. There may be bacteria or parasites you can't see. Aquarium fish have not built up an immunity to outside water.
carol

 

thanks seemed to good to be true

 

I personally wouldn't put water from any water way in an aquarium. There may be bacteria or parasites you can't see. Aquarium fish have not built up an immunity to outside water.
carol

I vote an A+ on this response to the question. Natural water ways can have all kinds of things in them that we can not see or taste but that doesn't mean they are not there. Pesticides, fertilizers, petroleum products and nitrates are just a few things that man lets get in to the water but nature also has her ugly side too. Decaying plant and animal life and all kinds of bacteria, fungus, algae and parasites are all in any water way.

Yes nature does a great job of filtering some of the stuff out but I wouldn’t risk my fish to what my neighbor might think is ok to pour out on the ground or into the water.

 

Good morning,

I agree with the above and would not use creek/stream water. As an example, I live on a creek bank, however, there is a notice at the boat landing not to eat more than 1 fish per week from this creek due to possible Mercury poisoning.

So...no creek water for my fish.

Ken

 

Good morning,

I agree with the above and would not use creek/stream water. As an example, I live on a creek bank, however, there is a notice at the boat landing not to eat more than 1 fish per week from this creek due to possible Mercury poisoning.

So...no creek water for my fish.

Ken

ohh sounds nice

 

Good morning,

I agree with the above and would not use creek/stream water. As an example, I live on a creek bank, however, there is a notice at the boat landing not to eat more than 1 fish per week from this creek due to possible Mercury poisoning.

So...no creek water for my fish.

Ken

Hmmmm, I guess it is OK to poison yourself slowly by eating one bad fish a week! Now I maybe totally wrong but I thought once Mercury entered your body it had a tendency to stay there and builds up over time.

Here is a little info on Mercury poisoning that I found......

“ Long-term exposure to mercury can cause effects which develop gradually. It may cause shaking of the hands, eyelids, lips, tongue, or jaw. It may cause headaches, trouble sleeping, personality change, memory loss, irritability, indecisiveness and loss of intelligence. It can also cause skin rash, sores in the mouth, or sore and swollen gums. Many of these symptoms go away when the exposure to mercury stops. Your body gets rid of mercury through urine.

Mercury poisoning can be treated with a medicine that pulls mercury out of your body and into the urine. This medicine is only used if mercury exposure is recent—not if mercury exposure occurred many years ago,. When the effects of mercury last for years after exposure stops, that injury is usually permanent.” From: www.eLCOSH.org

 

You could use it provided you tested it every two weeks... Unfortunately the tests you need to run are so extensive it would be cheaper to set up any size reef tank you like!...

Here is my communities water survey, which governs our major underground water table and is tested once every six months. Check out the amount of testing required to make sure it is DRINKABLE (a rep from the service warned me to conduct further tests and experiments before using in aquariums)...

Kinda scares me actually...okey: