Need Advice for Water

[Talon]

I just bought a 5 tier running water fountain for indoors for my parrots. I will post a pic soon. It recycles the water with a pump so there isnt fresh water coming thru it. Is there anything I can put into the water that would be safe? I have been researching it and I have heard copper pennies or a small piece of copper pipe to keep the slime at bay in between water changes.

[SRSeedBurners]

I'd go with apple cider vinegar. Unless that can damage the pump. Would love to see what fountain you got. We want to get something for the outdoor aviary.

[Talon]

i HAVE A VIDEO OF IT ON MY IPAD AT HOME, I WILL POST IT TONIGHT, BUT THIS LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE IT, EXCPET MINE IS ABOUT 4' TALL AND HAS 5 TIERS

[Talon]

How much apple cider vinegar would you add. It's approx 10 gals of water

[SRSeedBurners]

I know that vinegar (white) is used to de-scale and clean fountains. So I'm just assuming here that apple cider vinegar has the same properties. And since people feed that to their birds, why not use it to keep the fountain clean. How much to use, I have no idea. Another idea I had was hydrogen peroxide. I've heard of that being used in birdy fountains (wild birds) to help kill algea. I'd get some vet advice on that one first before I would use it on my birds.

[Greywings]

I think it would be safer for the birds as they may drink from this fountain to just clean it frequently or add some small algae eating fish like Mollies, Guppies or small Goldfish perhaps an Plecostomus. Vinegar strong enough to clean with would make your bird sick and diluted enough to be healthy to drink it would kill the algae. I would avoid the Copper for certain.

[birdhouse]

Or maybe skip the fish (poop) & go directly for the filter (although that would look pretty cool if you could actually make it work). You might find a submersible aquarium filter or something for a small koi pond or container as well as a pump. Thinking the water would probably need to be dumped fairly regularly & run thru w/white vinegar, like a coffee maker occasionally. Wondering if it would also steam clean, maybe?

 

Wouldn't probably be good to power wash, though. Those beautiful fountains are usually painted ...w/what I don't know. Assuming(?) it's safe to drink out of, it would still eventually be likely to start to peel at some point. Whatever you use in & on it would probably contribute to how soon it reaches that point.

Edited September 30, 2015 by birdhouse