Well water and copper pipe questions!!!

Hey guys I am getting ready to move and the place I am moving to has well water and copper pipes within the house. I am currently using tap water coming from plastic pipes in my tank with the addition of tetra aquasafe for the chloromines. My concern is that the well water and the copper pipes could have something in it that is not good for my fish. Does anyone know anything about this? I have actually heard people say that well water is actually better for fish but I am worried becuase it is coming through old copper water lines. Do you guys think that will be okay for my fish and is there anyone out there that can tell me how to find out? Any advice or thoughts is appreciated. Thanks guys

0 members like this

Comment by Lewie on May 3, 2012 at 8:15pm: Well I can't tell you anything about the copper pipes but I used to use well water at home and it worked great. Its clean of all the chlorine and chloramides so you dont have to treat it there. The only thing that I didn't really care for was the water hardness but that can be adjusted. My fish alwasy seemed very happy with well water.

Comment by Ronald Last on May 4, 2012 at 6:12pm: I think that the age of the piping makes a difference.

Very new coppar pipes are probably a cause for concern, but if what I've heard is correct, with time the inner surface of the pipes react much less with the water.

Well water can be very good or very bad, even for us. I wouldn't trust it without having it analysed...

Comment by Chanyce Speakman on May 5, 2012 at 4:09pm: Thanks for the hlep guys. Ronald Last, I think I will take you advice and get the water analyzed the only problem is I have no idea what is acceptable levels of anything for my fish when it comes to well water. Do you have any idea of what to look for?

Comment by Ronald Last on May 5, 2012 at 6:37pm: You need to know the content of metal compounds and nitrogen compounds... Is there anything else? I'm not all that good at this stuff...
To find out what levels are acceptable you will need to consult some good documentation on the subject. I bought a book that covered this subject fairly well a couple of weeks ago but I'm away from home and don't have it with me. Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad.
Another possibility is maybe to set up some small tank with, for example, a few plants and some daphnia and see how it goes. (If the daphnia die the experiment wil be a bit inconclusive, but if they live then the water is probably o k for fish)

Comment by Mikkel Persson on May 10, 2012 at 3:59am: As long as the cupper pips is old its safe to use. But if the water havent benn used in some time, its good to let the water run in a minut or so before drinking it or using it for fish

Hope it helps
And sorry about my english ;-)