Water changes and fish

[Banafish]

Now I do 50% water changes once a week on my 13 gallon tank which as of right now has no inhabitants (I'm silent cycling). I've noticed that during these water changes, the overall water temperature can drop to 10 degrees celcius. This is not a problem now, but what should I do in the future when I have fish? Surely this would affect their health/stress them out. Thanks in advance!

 

[Ram419]

I assume your source water is cold then? You would need to put a heater to the cold source water before adding to the tank. In my case the water is way too warm so have to ice it down first. At least during the summer months.

 

[AlexT]

This is not always practical, but you can allow the new water to sit at room temperature for 24hrs. Depending on the time of the year, and more importantly, your room temperature, this might raise the temp and mean you don't need to use as much electricity to manually heat the new water before it goes into the tank.

 

[GaryE]

I mix hot and cold tap, or in winter, iId have 5c water going in. It causes no problems.

 

[Essjay]

If your hot tap water is safe for human consumption just mix hot and cold tap water. If it's not safe, you need to boil a kettle and mix cold tap water and boiling kettle water in a bucket to get the temp right.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. That's an extremely small tank. I'd perform that 50 percent water change twice as often. When I perform a water change, I just put my hand into the aquarium water to get a feel for the temperature and adjust my tap water the same way. Once I get a feel for the temperature, I simply put a black mark on the faucet for future reference. This keeps the incoming water within a degree or so of the outgoing water. I've been doing things this way for quite a few years.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Banafish]

Hello. That's an extremely small tank. I'd perform that 50 percent water change twice as often. When I perform a water change, I just put my hand into the aquarium water to get a feel for the temperature and adjust my tap water the same way. Once I get a feel for the temperature, I simply put a black mark on the faucet for future reference. This keeps the incoming water within a degree or so of the outgoing water. I've been doing things this way for quite a few years.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

Thanks for the advice on water changes!

 

[Banafish]

Hello. That's an extremely small tank. I'd perform that 50 percent water change twice as often. When I perform a water change, I just put my hand into the aquarium water to get a feel for the temperature and adjust my tap water the same way. Once I get a feel for the temperature, I simply put a black mark on the faucet for future reference. This keeps the incoming water within a degree or so of the outgoing water. I've been doing things this way for quite a few years.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

Hi, so just a question - should I be doing said water changes during a silent cycle? Thanks!!

 

[Essjay]

Not during a silent/plant cycle unless you do something like add too much plant fertiliser (which would encourage algae to grow). But I would do one before putting fish in the tank, and once you have fish start doing regular water changes.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hi, so just a question - should I be doing said water changes during a silent cycle? Thanks!!

Hello. I have a very simple means of cycling a fish tank, using a very specific and aggressive water change routine I've never used the Silent, Fishless or whatever means of tank cycling. I've always preferred to have fish in the tank from the first day and cycle the tank using a hardy fish species. Some say this method puts too much stress on the fish. But, done correctly, the fish are fine and will live and breed normally.

10 Tanks (Now 11)