Since the weather has turned crappy here in Pennsylvania, the water treatment plant has been sending really crappy water to my house. It smells and tastes strange, and I could swear that there’s some sort of life form in it that’s undesirable. I have around 300 gallons of freshwater fish tanks in my house, and I would like to filter the water a little bit when it comes out of the tap.

Since i have so much water to change at once, a reverse osmosis filter seems (from what I’ve read) to be too expensive and slow for my needs.

Are any lower tech filters that are suitable for improving my water quality a little bit. I see things that have strange chlorine reducing chemical pucks in them at home depot, but that alien chemical scares me without some reassurance that the byproduct is safe for fish.

I just have huge air-breathing catfish so I don’t need to really micromanage the water quality like a salt-water enthusiast would. I just need it to not be as terrible as it is now. And I need around 150 gallons every other week in one shot.