Water Quality in Singapore. (anyone have the means to do mass spectrography etc)

[loupgarou]

This is just a noted "curiousity" between me, simon and a few others.

eg: redhill water can be added unadulterated to the tank, clementi/rumah tinggi water causes fish to die like crazy..

(eg: before december, I was in clementi, I tend to lose fish at the rate of like 1-2 corydoras a week at the very least..now that I've moved to redhill, I only lost 1 fish in 3 months. since the keeper is the same and I still use the same dechlorinators/dechloraminators...)

I'm wondering if anyone can do a through analysis of water chemistry, including traces of metal ions. (eg: copper from the piping or water tanks or something)

[Simon]

for me, I seldom lose any fishes other than deaths cause by another fish. (I moved out of Chris's present block at Redhill, to Lengkok Bahru (about 10mins walk away). Now I experience more deaths, even with dechlorinator.

Very unlikely cause by the piping from the water main/pipe. As I'm in the construction line, copper pipes are way to expensive. btw, I now live on the ground floor, so water comes straight from the mains

[Rupert]

I would really like to know exactly what is coming out of my tap, and would appreciate if anyone knows of any testing services available and suited to the aquarists needs.

[Giant]

Just to add on.

Am living in a new apartment block in AMK. (construction finished last quarter of 2004)
Don't seem to lose much fish or any at all, minus fraction of those newly bought ones which probably die from transport stress.
However, water pH seems to be consistantly low, keep having to add pH up.

[e-mini]

I would really like to know exactly what is coming out of my tap, and would appreciate if anyone knows of any testing services available and suited to the aquarists needs.

Are you going to test for every chemical/element present in your water or just a particular chemical/element?

It's going to costly to do this kind of testing.

[loupgarou]

Are you going to test for every chemical/element present in your water or just a particular chemical/element?

It's going to costly to do this kind of testing.

I believe mass spectrography shows the presence of every element.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_spectrometry

[bclee]

I work in a testing lab. We perform tests on all kinds of water... from ultra pure DI water to portable water to waste water.

But tests will not be cheap...

BC

[Rupert]

Hello bclee,

I might be more appropriate to PM us what is the indicative cost. Then we can recoil in private and learn to live with not quite knowing what comes out of the tap.

Rupert

[bclee]

There are a number of tests that are usually done:

Ionic contents
Total organic contents
Total bacteria count
Heavy metal contents
Turbidity

Costs >$500 per sample

BC

[mozesyap]

Ouch... I can get a lot of livestock and equipments with $500....

[PeterGwee]

I'm skeptical about all the poor water quality mambo jambo thingy. It all boils down to good up keeping of the tank (weekly large water changes, good plant growth, low to moderate stocking levels, not taking surface movement down too far, don't add anything to the water other than dechlorinators and nutrients, feed the critters well with good variety of food (frozen live food are fine but live worms should be avoid as they carry loads of parasites.) and etc.)

Regards
Peter Gwee

[Rupert]

It is not about poor water quality, it is about knowing absolutely what is coming out the tap, even though this is only at the point in time of when the test is taken. Since water is the primary constituent of the aqua environment doing nothing to determine this might be ok for some, for me I like to convert unknown variables to known.

You are right it does boil down to maintenance, patience and effort, stocking etc.

I was also thinking as a side benefit that I & my family drink the water [after it is boiled].

[Heuer]

I read somewhere stating that we should avoid using the first few liters of water from the tap because of some inpurity settle along the water pipe. What i do is i will store about a pail full straight from the tap for toilet flushing to clear the inpurity and start topping up the tank after.

Just my 2 cents

[andrewtyr]

It is not about poor water quality, it is about knowing absolutely what is coming out the tap, even though this is only at the point in time of when the test is taken. Since water is the primary constituent of the aqua environment doing nothing to determine this might be ok for some, for me I like to convert unknown variables to known.

You are right it does boil down to maintenance, patience and effort, stocking etc.

I was also thinking as a side benefit that I & my family drink the water [after it is boiled].

I beg to differ. You cannot be certain that the lab samples are exactly the same things that in the water you use. Neither can you be sure that it is the exact same stuff the next time you change or top up your tank.

We need not know every nitty gritty in order to do well in this hobby. Neither does knowing every nitty gritty make one an accomplished hobbist.

[BFG]

After getting the results of the test, then what?

[loupgarou]

if lets say there is excessive copper or other kind of metals , oestrogen mimickers etc, then may need to install RO unit or something like that.

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andrew, other people WILL have different requirements, just like why some people drink perrier and others drink tap water.

in anycase, a friend of mine working in a test lab mentioned that the only greatest contributory difference between tap water is age of pipes.....

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in anycase, lamotte and hach do sell water test kits that test quite to nearly everything, unfortunately its 1k or so...

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[andrewtyr]

andrew, other people WILL have different requirements, just like why some people drink perrier and others drink tap water.

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Thanks for the gentle reminder. Pls pardon me for my tone, Rupert.

[Rupert]

Thanks for the gentle reminder. Pls pardon me for my tone, Rupert.

No pardon required, this is a hobby with many paths many destinations and many good people to share the journey along the way.

[andrewtyr]

No pardon required, this is a hobby with many paths many destinations and many good people to share the journey along the way.

yeah, agree. It's not just the tank alone, but the people related and the knowledge gain, making the hobby very indulging.

[BFG]

If I would need to use RO/DI water and I will need to in the future, I would use this....

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/inde...howtopic=29515