Best Way to Do Water Changes

[redtailshark34]

This may sound a little funny but I genuinely would love some advice.

I do water changes once a week about 60-70 percent in all my tanks. Typically before adding water to the tank I let it sit out in a 5 gallon bucket and treat it with seachem prime a few days before introducing it to my tanks.

With my new 55 gallon I would prefer to not have to have 6-7 5 gallon buckets hanging around my room. Is there anyway to change water but be able to add it sooner to a tank?

Please help lol my carpet can’t handle any more water spills

 

[AbbeysDad]

You can add conditioner directly to the tank and refill from water from the tap. Modern chlorine/chloramine neutralizers act immediately. Here are some other tips:

Partial Water Changes – Fast & Easy – MJV Aquatics

mjvaquatics.com

 

[redtailshark34]

You can add conditioner directly to the tank and refill from water from the tap. Modern chlorine/chloramine neutralizers act immediately. Here are some other tips:

Partial Water Changes – Fast & Easy – MJV Aquatics

mjvaquatics.com

Thank you for the fast reply and the great link much appreciated!

 

[hansgruber7]

You can use a python to add water straight from the tap and add decholorinator straight to the tank. You can also get a bigger container on wheels and use a small pump to pump the water in.

 

[Tacocat]

You can use a python to add water

I don't know man, elephants work better for me

 

[Colin_T]

The problem with adding dechlorinator (chlorine neutraliser) and chlorinated tap water directly to the tank is you don't always get rid of all the chlorine/ chloramine straight away. The fish swim through the chlorinated water and it damages their gills and body. Now theoretically, the chlorine/ chloramine in the tap water will be neutralised as soon as it comes into contact with the dechlorinator, however, there is no guarantee the fish won't swim into the tap water while it still has chlorine/ chloramine in.

You also risk killing all the fish if the water company has done work on the pipes recently or just increased the chlorine/ chloramine levels in the water supply. This can happen after a power failure, earthquake, when work is done on the water pipes, or if the weather warms up.

You never know when they are going to increase the chlorine/ chloramine levels and you can easily wipe out an entire tank by adding tap water and dechlorinator.

The best thing to do is get a couple of large containers and fill them with tap water before you gravel clean and drain the tank. Add the dechlorinator to the buckets of tap water and aerate them vigorously while you gravel clean and drain the tank. Then fill the tank with that new dechlorinated water. You can use a water pump and plastic hose to pump the water from the containers into the tank. This way you remove the chlorine/ chloramine from the tap water before it goes in the tank, and you don't have buckets of water sitting around for several days.

This is all you need to do for your other tanks too. In most countries you don't need to let water stand with conditioner in for several days. Aerating the water and conditioner for 30 minutes or so will neutralise the chlorine/ chloramine, and it will help get the dissolved gasses in the water back to normal levels.

 

[Sunnyspots]

The problem with adding dechlorinator (chlorine neutraliser) and chlorinated tap water directly to the tank is you don't always get rid of all the chlorine/ chloramine straight away. The fish swim through the chlorinated water and it damages their gills and body. Now theoretically, the chlorine/ chloramine in the tap water will be neutralised as soon as it comes into contact with the dechlorinator, however, there is no guarantee the fish won't swim into the tap water while it still has chlorine/ chloramine in.

You also risk killing all the fish if the water company has done work on the pipes recently or just increased the chlorine/ chloramine levels in the water supply. This can happen after a power failure, earthquake, when work is done on the water pipes, or if the weather warms up.

You never know when they are going to increase the chlorine/ chloramine levels and you can easily wipe out an entire tank by adding tap water and dechlorinator.

The best thing to do is get a couple of large containers and fill them with tap water before you gravel clean and drain the tank. Add the dechlorinator to the buckets of tap water and aerate them vigorously while you gravel clean and drain the tank. Then fill the tank with that new dechlorinated water. You can use a water pump and plastic hose to pump the water from the containers into the tank. This way you remove the chlorine/ chloramine from the tap water before it goes in the tank, and you don't have buckets of water sitting around for several days.

This is all you need to do for your other tanks too. In most countries you don't need to let water stand with conditioner in for several days. Aerating the water and conditioner for 30 minutes or so will neutralise the chlorine/ chloramine, and it will help get the dissolved gasses in the water back to normal levels.

Am I right in thinking that if you replace water this way you should include some hot, boiled water to warm it up close to the tank temperature?

 

[Dephea]

I was using buckets and now I'm using python, I drain the water directly into the garden as the tap pump wastes water so no point in using it, really. I do refill my tank using tap water, I make sure the temperature matches my fish tank and I add conditioners to the tank. As I add water I make sure to gently move my hand around as well so it's not all in one spot. Water in UK is deemed okay to be drank straight from the tap, so with that logic I kind of assumed that as long as I add required conditioners I am good to go. My LFS owner does the same thing and it's a guy with like 40 years of experience so I kind of just trusted him


For more context : my tank is running for 6 months and I had 0 dead fish so far, water test is rarely showing issues and when I had some spikes water changes were always fixing it with no problems

 

[Slaphppy7]

Get a Python, makes water changes MUCH easier to do...

 

[Sunnyspots]

Get a Python, makes water changes MUCH easier to do...

Costs a bomb in water bills, unless you can catch the wasted water for another use. We have meters over here and water is expensive.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Costs a bomb in water bills, unless you can catch the wasted water for another use. We have meters over here and water is expensive.

Don't use the suction function for emptying tanks, use gravity, saves water....

 

[Dephea]

Costs a bomb in water bills, unless you can catch the wasted water for another use. We have meters over here and water is expensive.

Same boat here, just get the long hose one and drain the water outside of the house if you can (garden/drain in the ground) and then use python or other similar device to re-fill the tank I do it and I find it nice and easy

 

[Sunnyspots]

Same boat here, just get the long hose one and drain the water outside of the house if you can (garden/drain in the ground) and then use python or other similar device to re-fill the tank I do it and I find it nice and easy

I think I have a long hose I could use for that. For refilling I bought a small fountain pump in the end. That way I can make sure I'm pumping warm water back into the tank from a bucket. I'm not sure how I could do that from a tap as my hot water supply contains heavy metals from the loft tank (these old 1960s houses...).

 

[Dephea]

I was thinking about the pump but I was struggling with carrying the buckets in the first place so ended up going with the lazy option and just using the tap. I will triple check where my hot water comes from just in case..

 

[Essjay]

It is OK to use hot water from a combi boiler as these make hot water on demand from mains water.
It is where there is a hot water cylinder toppped up from a header tank in the attic that hot water shouldn't be used - and we should not drink it or cook with it either. The reason is the header tank. They are supposed to have a covering which stops things getting in, but in the four houses we have lived in there has only been a loose fitting lid which won't stop anything. There have been cases of dead mice and pigeons in the header tank and we've had insecticide sprayed on wasps nest in the attic several times which could have got in there.