Ok To Use Cold Water With Water Change?

[Squid]

I just put the dechlorinated cold tapwater straight in.. if your tank was 25 C and you did a 25% water change with 15 C water then the temp would be 22.5C .. only a change of 2.5 degrees.. and thats with using 15 degrees cold water. I sometimes (if i have time and remember) fill up some buckets and just leave them in lying around for a day or a few hours. My mrs has the room pretty toasty, so the buckets of water soon come up to temps close to that of the tank.

I guess you then make a decision as to whether to dump the water in at one end of the tank, or splooosh it around a bit to make it more even.. But hey, if you wack it in at one end if the fish get cold, they can swim to the warmer end. hehehhe. well maybe.

Squid

 

[doresy]

Put your water (dechlorinated of course) in a vessel and put it in the airing cupboard the day before water change

Estate agent said it was the 3rd bedroom but I don't believe him!

What a great idea.....but you obviously have a much bigger airing cupboard than me. Or one that is not quite so stuffed with clutter LOL.
Note to self - go sort that lot out.

i've done up to 50% changes with cold water without any problems, however i'll keep the heater on (making sure it's submerged) and it's on the big tanks so it goes straight in through a hose from the tap so you can just set it running fairly slowly and leave it for a while.

So does that mean it isn't dechlorinated? Or do you do something clever with it?
(please humour me - I know nothing )

 

[SuperColey1]

Like Miss Wiggle I'm not sure how necessary the dechlorinator is but I use a pond dechlorinator after getting a tip on here, as it is 1/5th the price of aquarioum dechlorinator (higher concentrate so have to measure with a syringe).

Water wise I used to use hot tap water mixed with cold tap water. put the floating thermometer in........too hot. tip some out add cold.....too cold tip some out put hot in....too hot etc etc til the temp was exact.

Now I just put 20% changes of cold water straight from the tank into a bucket. add dechlorinator, and the 'jug' the bucket into the tank (I jusg because I have sand and plants, so I cant just pour a bucket in or It will make a mess of the whole lot)

Since I started using cold water the tank is really frisky for a while after changes and its wuite exciting to watch. Haven't had any deaths so I can only assume it is OK, although I will keep watching.

 

[discus dreamer]

I usually try to roughly match the tank temperature just by feel. I do this by adding approx 1 kettle full of water brought to boiling point to each 10 L bucket of cold water. All water coming from the cold tap and aquasafe added. I used to not be too worried about the temp for small water changes but had a problem with fish swimming into the incoming stream of colder water from a jug and acting strange afterwards. Since this happened to my gouramis they have taken to hiding away during any tank maintenance and only appearing when everything is back to normal whereas they used to be the most interested in what was going on and follow my hand as I cleaned the glass. I would like to be able to transfer the water by syphoning it as this would create a gentler flow but can't get the bucket high enough.
DD

 

[aquamike]

I was told that changing water with cold water can cause an outbreak of ick. Based on what i been reading on here, it must be species specific. The person who told me this has kept all kinds of fish for countless years.

I change my water with matching temps based on touch. After i do the water change, my internal thermeter is always within the normal temp. I have a large tank so its not going to change too much but i'm sure that smaller tanks would be safer to use this method.

Mike

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Miss Wiggle...... u kept a tank with no water conditioner??? is that correct???!

Is that ok???


i do my temp by feel, i was told by the lfs not to do straight cold water as of the bacteria and fish!!!!

scientifically speaking it's not been conclusively proven one way or the other. there is evidence to say it's nescessary, and evidence to say it isn't (mostly in mature aquariums).

But yes for a couple of years before I knew dechlor even existed I ran a tank without conditioner, and although there were some problems personally I don't believe it was chlorine related. However that's hardly a controlled experiment so not enough evidence for anyone to go and stop using it themselves, I do use dechlor now but as I said before, I don't get worried if it goes in before during or after water is added to the tank.

if you search for posts on here about dechlorinator you'll turn a few up with the scientific info on if you want to have a read