Tips For Water Changes

[paulw]

Can anyone offer any suggestions or tips for carry out water changes. Whenever I syphon off water the tank tends to get quite cloudy from all the gravel movement. Is this normal? Is there a right way and wrong way to syphon off the water?

Cheers for any advice.

 

[Tolak]

Are you using a gravel vac?

Tolak

 

[paulw]

Yes I am

 

[Wit]

How big the tank and how much you change ? Maybe you might need to do a bigger one off change to clear dirt an waste then back to your norm.

 

[paulw]

Its a 125 litre tank. I normal do a 10-15% change once a week.

 

[Tolak]

What type & quantity of fish, & what type of filter? I've found that having messy fish, or average fish in a tank with a sub par filter can leave plenty of leftover junk in the gravel. You also have to look into how often you are feeding them, & how much.

Tolak

 

[paulw]

I've got 4 red wagtail platies, 5 white clouds, 2 pearl gourami, 2 clown loaches and a gibbicep. Generally feed them once a day with flake food, normally a 1-2 flakes per fish. Plus a wafer for the bottom feeders. Not sure what the filter is but it's a Jewel Rio 125 tank so whatever came with that.

 

[Wit]

What type & quantity of fish, & what type of filter? I've found that having messy fish, or average fish in a tank with a sub par filter can leave plenty of leftover junk in the gravel. You also have to look into how often you are feeding them, & how much.

Tolak

Wouldn't there be a problem with amonia levels if over feeding was the case ?

This happened to me a few weeks ago because I put a bit extra granules in for corries because rummys were taking them all even after flake.

 

[Tolak]

Sounds like a pretty busy tank for just the one filter. Try getting a powerhead & putting it in the bottom to keep debris from settling as much. This way the filter will pick up more of it. I've done this on quite a few tanks, makes maintainance a lot easier.

Tolak

 

[paulw]

It's only 14 fish. I was under the impression I could at least double that amount (depending on size of course) ?

 

[Tolak]

You would see ammonia if the filter couldn't handle the biological aspect of there being leftover food. This seems to be more of a difficulty with mechanical filtration.

Cannister filters are generally great for bio filtration, a little lacking in mechanical filtration due to the slower flow rate & fewer times the water needs to be turned over per hour. Hob filters are many times better than canisters at mechanical filtration, but due to holding less media, are not as good at bio filtration as a canister. That is why many people will use both on a larger, or really stocked tank, especially with messy fish.

Tolak

 

[paulw]

Thanks for that. I'll definitely look into it.

 

[Tolak]

Your tank has plenty of fish, considering one of them is a plec that can hit a good 16". The Gouramis would do well as the centerpiece of the tank, with the livebearers filling in. Those loaches get to nearly a foot also.

I would trade the gibby for a bristlenose, and trade in the loaches once they get larger. Then your filter will do what it's designed to do, and your gravel will be much cleaner.

Tolak

 

[paulw]

Yeah, I will definitely trade the Gibbicep. currently it's about 5". I was disappointed that the shop didn't advise on this when i purchased it.

 

[Tolak]

Cool! I'm guilty of overstocking, as well as overfiltering tanks, that plec takes it to a real extreme though. If you double up on the filtration, you may be able to keep the loaches for a while. I never trust what they rate filters as being able to handle, and most always double up.

Tolak