Water aging with trashcan?

[freespool]

I am thinking about aging water intsead of just using strait tap for water changes. I was looking at the Rubbermate Brute 44 gal can with the dolly to store water/age with airator and wheel in to pump into tank for water change. Had anyone used these rubbermade Brute cans and do they hold water OK or due they flex/ bulge? Will be storing in house so as to keep room temp and dont want a failure. Please lend me some advice. Thank you

[sunkenmetal]

They will probably bulge.

[freespool]

any other recomendation for movable water storage?

[troy tucker]

Find you a food grade Barrel. thats the best thing to us. add a sump pump and a hose. I tryed a rubbermate can and din't like the way it bulged out at the bottom. Now i use an old 55g tank built in to a stand. so it can't be seen and is blocked from light. Sump pump and a 25' hose. I use a RV water hose to fill with tap water. it never gets used for anything else. So I know its clean.
The 55g tank and pump will do two days of cleaning. (vac. and refill.) I can do a 1/3 water change in the 150. the pump will pump 50 of the 55 in the tank.

There is one prob. I find with aging water. As you age the bad things in the water just fall to the bottom of the tank. So as time goes by they build up. til the nitrates and nitrites spike. This will kill your fish. Ones a month I clean and dry befor I refill. Cleanig pump and flushing all hoses. It works and I'v been doing it a long time....

[sunkenmetal]

If you still want to use the trash can wrap in a butt load of duct tape lol that should help with bulging.

[freespool]

Maybe I can find a clean 55gal plastic drum. I can make a dolly.

[crazy42bmx]

Yes these BRUTE cans do work. I use one the 55gal one to mix water for my 110. They dont buldge at all and their are strong.

[Totenkampf]

i sure do see alot of people using the brutes...a full 44 gallon is right at the edge of the weight limit that the castors are rated for. i wonder how tightly a 32 will fit down in a 44 and if that would help with bulging in case food grade barrels arent available?

[crazy42bmx]

I used to work in a fish store ....high end store, in Sd. That was what we used to do water changes in our 300 gal salt tank. It wheeled around on the moving dolly just fine. So long as ur careful all should be just fine

[freespool]

Now lets get into the meat and potatos.... What are your thoughts on aging water? is it that much better than tap water treated with prime as you add it? How do you age your water? I do bi-weekly 50-70% water changes on a 110gal tank. thinking about doing weekly smaller changes.

[Totenkampf]

i prefer weekly smaller WC over larger bi weekly myself. if you age water the chlorine will offgas but i dont think that is true of chloramines if those are present. i age water and use 1/2 dose of prime now. aged water just seems less sterile to me, kinda like the difference in water between a newly set up tank and mature water. there is something in that new tank that we cant measure that makes it unbalanced and succeptable to algae (in planted tanks anyways). mature tanks seldom have this problem. it has been suggested to me that this might be the redox value of the water but i am ignorant of that for now. another benefit of aged water is that, in my case anyways, it will be full of mosquito larvae and water fleas for a quick snack lol.

[crazy42bmx]

I wouldn't technically "age" my water. I just make it , mix for a about 40 min by which its time to do my basic maintenance n stuff drain tank. And then fill. Not to sure on leaving water to age for a tank. Especially if its sitting for a period of time with no flow or surface area distribution.

[Totenkampf]

yeah, i forgot to mention that i use airstones in 5 gallon jugs

[eklikewhoa]

The food grade 55g drums are all over craigslist as well as the ~300g ones, I would use that with a large pond pump so it would agitate the water and double as a refill pump.

[cu0ngsayz]

might sound like a noob but what does aging water do?