10 Tank's fish and tanks

[AquaBarb]

A good maintance routine is the best gift we can give our fish. I too do large water changes on all my tanks weekly and like you say this provides a stable and healthy water chemistry long term

I find maintance quite therapeutic

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello Aqua. Your response is much appreciated. I find all the tank work good exercise as well. Running back and forth with the siphon and the other hoses, will definitely keep one busy.

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[emeraldking]

I also do water changes old school. Using a hose. Once I thought of it to create an automatic water change system but the old way keeps me moving which I need with my health problems.
But in my case, I don't have to do a weekly water change in my tanks. All tanks are wellbalanced.

 

[10 Tanks]

I also do water changes old school. Using a hose. Once I thought of it to create an automatic water change system but the old way keeps me moving which I need with my health problems.
But in my case, I don't have to do a weekly water change in my tanks. All tanks are wellbalanced.

Hello emerald. You've very likely been at this hobby longer than I have. If you haven't found a better means of changing the tank water to make it easier on you, then one probably doesn't exist. I'm with you on the "old school" means of changing the tank water. This way keeps and old timer like me moving.

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[emeraldking]

Hello emerald. You've very likely been at this hobby longer than I have. If you haven't found a better means of changing the tank water to make it easier on you, then one probably doesn't exist. I'm with you on the "old school" means of changing the tank water. This way keeps and old timer like me moving.

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Using buckets and hoses gives me the right exercises that my body needs with the haelth problems I have. So, I don't have to go to the gym.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello and I hope you have a good Thursday! Today, we're going into the lighter part of the week as far as water changes are concerned. We'll do water changes on a 55 gallon and our 300 gallon tank. We're starting to change out more water and not cleaning the filters as often. There's just not much in the sponges if we change out a lot of tank water. The sponges can easily go two and even three weeks without squeezing them out. The sponges are basically just mixing oxygen into the tank water and all the water changes maintain a pretty high oxygen level anyway. I'm guessing we could do a larger water change weekly, say up to 60 percent and leave the sponges alone. I used to do this several years ago, but if I missed a water change for some reason, the water looked a bit hazy. We were changing close to 65 percent back then. Actually, it wouldn't take much longer to up the change to 75 percent, maybe a few minutes more per tank. Being retired makes it easy to take a bit more time on the tanks and other stuff if needed.

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[10 Tanks]

Hello and we're waking up to another Friday. We're taking a break from the job of tank maintenance. We have other duties to perform in the way of errands. Will take a coffee break at the local coffee shop and come back home to do a little house cleaning. Had a horrible wind storm this week and the neighbor's dead walnut tree moved from their back year into ours. Not much damage luckily. The tree fell into one of ours and is being supported. A little damage to our fence, but nothing to our house. Here's a lesson: If you have a dead tree in your back yard, remove it. It's cheaper than if you have a storm and the tree crashes into your neighbor's property. This will ultimately cost more than if you have the tree removed before it creates a future problem. Have a good weekend!

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[MuddyWaters]

Hello and we're waking up to another Friday. We're taking a break from the job of tank maintenance. We have other duties to perform in the way of errands. Will take a coffee break at the local coffee shop and come back home to do a little house cleaning. Had a horrible wind storm this week and the neighbor's dead walnut tree moved from their back year into ours. Not much damage luckily. The tree fell into one of ours and is being supported. A little damage to our fence, but nothing to our house. Here's a lesson: If you have a dead tree in your back yard, remove it. It's cheaper than if you have a storm and the tree crashes into your neighbor's property. This will ultimately cost more than if you have the tree removed before it creates a future problem. Have a good weekend!

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I live in Georgia, and we have tons of 100 foot pines that are skinny and have branches all at the top. They also don't have much of a root system, so they can fall. It's amazing that they don't fall more, but wind doesn't whip up around here like out on the plains or the coast, so that's one thing and they are very "bendy"- when there is a storm, those tall pines will sway back and forth with the best of them.

Anyway, my neighbor had a dead one on his property- thunderstorm rolled through and next thing you know, it has fallen and crushed 2 sides of my fence, put holes in my roof and slammed into my garage door.

I can definitely attest to the fact that it's cheaper to get rid of them.

On the discussion above of changing water- I was worried when I got the 75 gallon tank. I have never had one that big and now I have to change 35+ gallons a week. My filter comes with a method of allowing me to drain the tank via an extra hose at the bottom of the filter. It also will return water to the tank, so I fill 5 gallon buckets, stick the hose in, and let the filter pump it back up in there. Much better than the heave over the top- that would be difficult.

Before I realized the filter came with that feature, I did buy a pump used to drain ponds, etc. thinking I would use it to pump the water back into the tank. I'm still lugging the buckets back and forth, but like you and emeraldking, I need it for exercise anyway, so it's cathartic to do it.

Have a great Friday- I'm back to "work" today- will actually do some here in a few ;-)

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello Muddy. I got too old to carry the buckets. So, I use one of those python siphon things. It's roughly 50 feet long and can reach all my basement tanks. I run the siphon from the tank to the shower drain and even my 100 gallon tank will empty by half or more in about 20 minutes. Then, I have a small garden hose with a faucet attachment that I can refill the tank in about the same time. I just dump the water treatment directly into the tank as it fills. So much easier than the buckets, but you don't get the physical exercise. But, I find other ways to do that. Thanks for your post and thanks to all those people who are still working. Those of us on social security appreciate you all so much! And don't worry about social security not being there when it comes your turn to need it. The current amount in the government's bank will last until at least 2073. That's what I read and have no reason to doubt it!

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[MuddyWaters]

Hello Muddy. I got too old to carry the buckets. So, I use one of those python siphon things. It's roughly 50 feet long and can reach all my basement tanks. I run the siphon from the tank to the shower drain and even my 100 gallon tank will empty by half or more in about 20 minutes. Then, I have a small garden hose with a faucet attachment that I can refill the tank in about the same time. I just dump the water treatment directly into the tank as it fills. So much easier than the buckets, but you don't get the physical exercise. But, I find other ways to do that. Thanks for your post and thanks to all those people who are still working. Those of us on social security appreciate you all so much! And don't worry about social security not being there when it comes your turn to need it. The current amount in the government's bank will last until at least 2073. That's what I read and have no reason to doubt it!

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I want to use the python- I can attach it to my spigot out the front door, but in the Winter the the water is too cold without some hot water. My faucet in the kitchen is one of those that pull out and become a spray thingy, so I can't hook it to that one. The good news is that most of the year is warm here, so I should be good to go by late April. In the meantime, I'm lugging buckets

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello Muddy. Must be nice to live in a place where the weather is nice in the Winter. I have to heat my outdoor 300 gallon tank in the Winter. But, the fish don't seem to mind the cooler water. This Winter has been very tolerable, though. One pretty decent snow, but the temperatures now have been in the 40s and even 50s. Pretty cool at night, in the teens. Always sunny though. That's what we like about Colorado.

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[10 Tanks]

Now for my daily post. Saturday is a light day. We'll check in on the government office's tank. We'll change the half the water. It usually takes about 40 minutes. The shark type fish are really growing. One is getting close to four inches. The other two are quite a bit smaller. The fish in this tank are all egg layers, but I have yet to see any fry. The tank has been set up since May. I should think some eggs would appear and possibly some fry, but nothing so far. Hope everyone has a happy new year and be safe!

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[10 Tanks]

Happy New Year's Eve. Sunday has us changing out the water on the outdoor 300 gallon tank. We change half twice a week because it has quite a few fish in it. About a dozen standard Goldfish or maybe more and four large Koi. We're going to feed them all today. We have some pellet food, a couple of different kinds. The fish do very well, because we don't allow the nitrogen from the fish waste to build up in the water. These fish are heavy waste producers and if we feed just a little every other day and change out a lot of tank water weekly, they remain healthy. Even very hardy fish like Goldfish and Koi require large, regular water changes to be their healthiest. Have a nice New Year's and be safe!

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[10 Tanks]

Happy New Year everyone! It's Monday and we're back in the swing of things. Three tanks to do today. Last week I replaced a hose I use to fill my tanks. It was something I put together and it finally started to leak. I try not to waste water if at all possible. Fortunately, in Colorado, there's plenty of water from all the snow we receive. This year however, we've had one decent snow here in northern Colorado, but that's it. The mountains to our west are covered from late September through April and into May, so I think I can still change the water in all 12 tanks for next to nothing. Am seeing more and more Platy fry and of course the Guppy fry that are descendants from those I bought back in 2004 or maybe it was 2006, can't recall. Anyway, the males are very small and not very colorful and the females show no color at all. The Platys however, are bright orange with a little black on the tail. The last time I bought fish, the store had a sale on Mickey Mouse Platys and I got quite a few. If you're reading this and you're a newcomer to the hobby, my advice would be to get Platys. They're as hardy as any fish I've had and will tolerate most water conditions. You just need to remove and replace half their water every few days and don't feed very much.

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[10 Tanks]

Hello and I hope you all had a restful holiday. We're retired people, so we stay close to home most of the time. Anyway, there are four tanks to do today. Have been checking on the sponge filters and none appear to be running slowly, so we'll leave doing the squeezing out process for another time. We'll just remove and replace half the water in each and be done. The sponges are mostly aerators to keep the oxygen mixed into the tank water. They're filtering mostly water that's already clean, due to the fact we change out so much water every week. Also, the process of filling the tank mixes a lot of oxygen into the the water that's already in the tank. I'm curious as to how long the oxygen that's mixed into the tank during a water change stays in the water. Will have to research this and post the results.

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