My suggestion is, fill the tank part up with water. Do NOT turn on the water pumps. Use your bubbler/aerator in the tank and allow it to sit for up to 24 hours (although a few hours should be enough). What this does is remove the chlorine. Your other option is still the ascorbic acid which is more or less immediate. Finally, turn on the water pumps and you will have no risk to destroying your biofilter.
There are definitely other options, but I wouldn't recommend them to you until you know a lot more about AP.
Originally Posted by chrisfoerst
Thanks for the info Urbanfarmer. Any suggestions/concerns about the chlorine killing the bio filter? It is going to be a logistical nightmare to move the cycled water on top of everything else that has to happen in the next few days.
My bigger worry is not so much that chlorinated water would kill the tilapia outright but that draining the system transporting it then setting it back up and filling with chlorinated water would kill off the bio-filter and then the next day transporting the fish and placing them into a system with little to no functioning bio-filter left then dealing with the logistical nightmare of having to do water changes or deal with dead fish from putting too much load on a system that is no longer cycled up.
If you are dealing with chloramine you might need to get a conditioner (chloramx or something) or you could use a carbon filter to remove it as you fill the tank.
Thank you for all of your replies! It's really fun to see how you all turn these problems around and find good solutions. My plan is to set up a tank in the gallery right now, fill it with water and let it sit over night. Once I install the system, I am going to fill the biofilters and as much of both tanks with that water. (the water authorities claim that we only have chlorine, not chloramine in our water)
After that I will add ascorbic acid to the tanks once I fill the remainder with water. (how much should I add to each 75 gallon tank?
The fish move in on Friday and the performance/reception is on Saturday night.
Thank you for all of your replies! It's really fun to see how you all turn these problems around and find good solutions. My plan is to set up a tank in the gallery right now, fill it with water and let it sit over night. Once I install the system, I am going to fill the biofilters and as much of both tanks with that water. (the water authorities claim that we only have chlorine, not chloramine in our water)
After that I will add ascorbic acid to the tanks once I fill the remainder with water. (how much should I add to each 75 gallon tank?
The fish move in on Friday and the performance/reception is on Saturday night.