I have concluded that I have rust in my water. After some calling around--it's rust in my tap water and nothing comming from the municipal water source.

I have a QT tub set up at the apartment now for the newest member of my fish family. It cycled just fine and my little guy is healthy and triving--the rust hasn't affected anything yet so I'm thinking that it won't be anything life threating

Anyway...I finally got around to starting my fishless cycle on my three tanks but decided I should look at my fliters before I got started. It took some work but I rinsed out a good deal of rust and junk from the sponges that had been filtering the water in the tank(s) for about a week. **yuck**

The pH was still at 8 (like it was straight out of the tap--it's extremely hard water too). Zero--ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

I was thinking about hooking a small cansiter (like a Fluval with the sponge inserts) up to my ageing barrel just to get the big chunks out before adding it to my tanks. I've seen other water filters for aquariums advertised but figured something to that extent would mess with the water hardness/pH.

Is this a dumb idea?

Someone mentioned that a water conditioner like Prime would bind the metals in the water as well. I couldn't find it on the bottle I have--am I wrong? I doubt this would keep my filters from filling up with junk though.

...help?

im not sure if water conditioners will remove rust but, i do know that they remove some heavy metals. you might have to get yourself a water filter (house hold) that has a small enough micron size to remove rust. you can get the housing and the filter cartridge for around 50 dollars. you can hook it up under the kitchen sink fairly easily. it will also make your water better for you to drink.

paul