New Water heater and loaches.

[Curtis]

I'm going to try posting this on the loach forum again since my last post was moved to the freshwater forum.

I use continous drip water changes for all of my many loach tanks, which have many loach species, from sids, to clowns to yoyo's.

I'm getting a new water heater installed today. Is there an issue with doing water changes right after a new water heater or should I wait a while for the water heater to "wash" out any contaminants before I continue my water changes.

Since loaches are so senstive to things, I just wonder if I should wait some time before I continue my water changes... if indeed I should wait a while, how long is a while?

Also, to install the new heater, some new copper pipes may need to be soldered in using flux and so on... not sure if that has a detrimental affect on fish or not.

If you have any clue regarding this topic I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

[plaalye]

Unless the feed from your drip system comes from the water heater, which i doubt, it shouldn't be an issue. Might help to describe your drip setup.

[Curtis]

The drip system does use a mix of cold and hot water... I guess I could just turn it to cold water only for a few days.

[plaalye]

I wouldn't use water from a hot water tank, all the nasties gather there. They usually stay on the bottom but can get stirred up sent through the system. Ask your plummer what he thinks.

[Pilze]

Cut open the old one with a sawzall and look inside. It might make you question the installation of a new "reservoir" style water heater. "Instant" hot water heaters can give you a tax credit of a couple hundred dollars in the US. It will also save quite a bit of energy, quite a bit of space and never runs out of hot water.

[chefkeith]

Modern water heaters have a glass lined interior and a magnesium anoid rod inside to prevent corrosion. Older water heaters get rusty water usually because the anoid rod inside was never replaced, then it probably broke into pieces, and fell to the bottom of the tank. These anoid rods should be replaced about every 5 years.

[chefkeith]

I don't think you'll have water quality problems because of a new water heater, especially if it's used for a drip system. I'd probably run some activated carbon in the filters for a few weeks though, just in case.

[Diana]

Newer water heaters are much better than the old ones. I would also add some EDTA to the tank for maybe a month. This chelates minerals, and will be found in dechlorinators like Amquel Plus. Front of the label will say something like "Removes heavy metals"

Maximum conservative:
Do water changes (drip style) with just the cold for a month or so. By then you and your family will have run enough water through the new heater that anything that was going to come off in large amounts will have done so.