water changes + copper pipes and another question

[Meredith]

I haven't been using any hot water from the tap to do water changes because I am afraid of leached copper from the pipes leading into and out of the hot water heater. Is this a justifiable fear or can I used warm water from the tap?

A 20% water change for me is 30 gallons. This is a LOT of water. What is the minimum amount of time I can age the water? Its a pain in the bottom having a thirty gallon trash can full of water sitting in my dining room. :? (No its not the can we use for garbage )

 

[Fireworks]

You can always toss a cheap heater into your trash/ mixing can to heat your water, but don't forget that cold water comes through copper pipe as well.I don't know that copper will leach into the water but sooner or later most residential water will pass through copper pipe

 

[Meredith]

What I have been doing, Please don't laugh, is boiling water one tea kettle at a time. Filling about half full with boiled water, then filling the rest with cold water. There is no way I can get an RO unit right now. Hopefully for the time being this will be ok.

 

[steve-s]

You don't need to boil your water, it won't affect metals anyway. All that will do is kill bacteria and dissapate chlorine.

If you cannot afford and RO/DI as yet, use an additive that binds these elements. Seachems Prime is an excellent additive that will render most metals harmless, removes chlorine and breaks the bonds of chloramines. It does not contain aloe so it will not cause the skimmer problems. Add some carbon to your system and it will remove the bound elements completely. Alternately, you could buy you water from the local grocers. Typically it's not that exspensive.

Cheers
Steve