Water Changes Straight From Faucet

[gforce17]

I bought a little Eheim pond pump and its fantastic both for emptying and filling. Recommend it. Here's a link to the company I bought it from


http/www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/catalog/eheim-compact-1000-pump-1501000-ltrhr-p-344.html

 

[OldMan47]

If you are doing less than about 10% water changes, ignore the impact of chlorine. I know people that do that much water change daily with no dechlorinator and never see any effect. It is simply that the residual chlorine after being diluted 10 to 1 have no effect on fish. If you are doing larger water changes and are not certain that your chlorine is safe, treat for the total volume of your tank. Since chlorine takes time to act, even adding the dechlorinator right after a water change is soon enough to protect biological processes in your tank and filter.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Most people think that the level of chlorine in a 50% or less water change is too low to kill off a bacterial colony, but I always switch my filters (and heaters!) off anyway, just to be on the safe side.

Same +1

 

[gforce17]

That's really useful and boosted my confidence because doing a water change on my new 260L tanks and having to dechlorinate the water in a water tub before pumping it into the tank, is a bit of a challenge. Now you're giving me confidence to put the water straight into the tank with the filter turned off. Have I computed?

 

[CezzaXV]

That's really useful and boosted my confidence because doing a water change on my new 260L tanks and having to dechlorinate the water in a water tub before pumping it into the tank, is a bit of a challenge. Now you're giving me confidence to put the water straight into the tank with the filter turned off. Have I computed?

Yup, that's right. Just make sure you add dechlorinator to the tank before you start pumping the water in and dose enough for the whole tank, not just the water you're adding.

 

[OldMan47]

If I do a large water change with a hose arrangement, I often add some of the dechlor before the change, more of it somewhere near the middle and the last bit when I am done. It is not that I don't know of people who safely do the whole thing in one go but I am inherently cautious.

 

[waterdrop]

I agree with OM47, fluttermoth and the others. For smaller changes such as 10 percent or so there is really no need for dechlor. For larger changes hosed directly to the tank it is safer to treat to the volume of the tank, not the volume of water being added. I am not so cautious to turn off my filter. My filter just runs on right through even rather large water changes (I should say though that it's a bigger volume filter relative to my tank size) - I quite enjoy the waterfall sound my spraybar makes during tank maintenance time. I add Prime right before the I start the refill hose - I add enough to treat the full volume of my tank and I dump it right in the waterfall from the spraybar - then I start the hose going with the (previously temperature matched) water coming in. I've never had a problem with the chlorine/chloramines hurting my bacterial colonies but over time I've tended to use smaller percentage water changes than I used to do when my tank was newer. As the percentage got higher I'd tend to be more cautious.

~~waterdrop~~