Water problems!

[Stuart Hall <sturob@swbell.net>]

Hi there,

Just had a weird experience with a water change which killed some 
fish which I thought I'd share and ask for experiences from list 
members.

I took the tap water in to my LFS for testing, since they have a 
higher turnover of reagents, and I figured theirs would be fresher 
than mine.  My chlorine tested, as expected, at greater than 5 ppm. 
Ammonia was present, in very small quanitity; probably the first 
color change on the chart (sorry that I can't remember the quantity). 
Weirdly enough, the NITRITE in the tapwater was 0.5 ppm.

Now, why oh why is there nitrite in my tapwater?  Have nitrifying 
bacteria colonized my pipes?

What do I do about this?  I usually use SeaChem Prime to "condition" 
my water during a water change . . . but if my tap water has that 
much nitrite in it to begin with, is the water change beneficial or 
detrimental?

I think I had the dieoff because I forgot to add the dechlorinator 
and did a large-scale water change.  That's stupid on my part.  But, 
now I know what's in my tap water, so . . . thoughts?

Stuart
-- 
Stuart Hall
(sturob@swbell.net)
(gasdocstu@my-deja.com)


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