Water Changes

[Shelby]

Kind of an odd question. Do you think it is better to replace your water quickly? ie: large container and dump it in or ?? I always feel like I am going to hurt my fish trying to pour water from a container. So usually I use my syphon hose in a container to replace the water. I'm never really in a hurry when I do it so even though it takes longer it doesn't bother me.

I guess I'm just wondering if taking so long to restore the space is increasing their stress over the water change to begin with.

 

[Squid]

I don't know which is better, but personally i do it with buckets as quickly as possible. Then they can get on with it as soon as possible. My Rainbows almost look like the enjoy the rush of new water into the tank.!

Squid

 

[ChrisCook]

Remember that many of these fish are designed to live in rivers with quite heavy flowrates (think of the Amazon when it floods) so a bit of water going in to the tank from a bucket will do them no harm at all!

 

[Shelby]

well that certainly makes sense. I'm a paranoid beginner and I'm always afraid my temp is goig to be off, or i'm going to dump it on a fish and squish it on the rocks below. They look so fragile it's hard to remember where they come from.

Shelby

 

[Squid]

Dont worry about the temp too much. It is ok for it to fluctuate by a few degrees whilst doing a water change. I often leave water in buckets for a while to get to more of a room temp too.

If you think about it, if you were doing a water change and your water was 79 degrees, and you replaced 25% of the water with 70 degree water, the overall temp would be 76.75 degrees. so only just over 2 degrees difference.

Squid

 

[Davo86]

If the water is a similar temp I usually just chuck it in, but mostly I use a cold outdoor tap so fill up slowly over a 30-45min period

 

[steelhealr]

Speed of replacement is not any near as important as what you are replacing it with. You can replace the tank water as quickly as you want. The key is to minimize shock. You can reduce shocking the fish by:

1. making sure the replacement water temperature is close to the tank water temperature
2. make sure the pH of the replacement water isn't greatly different from the tank water pH
3. that the water has been pretreated to reduce chlorine, etc

SH

 

[Squid]

If the water is a similar temp I usually just chuck it in, but mostly I use a cold outdoor tap so fill up slowly over a 30-45min period

I'm not questioning your method, I just have a quick question: How quickly do aquarium heaters heat the water in larger tanks?

Squid

 

[flix_cw]

I put all the water in a bucket first, ensuring its as close to the tank temp as possible, and let it sit for a few minutes after treating it.

I then pour it in bit by bit using a jug. My danios love swimming underneath the stream as i pour the new water in, very cute.

 

[tom130691]

one mistake i made was leaving the heater on when the water was low and it came on and burnt the sucktion pad wont be doing it again lol

 

[Davo86]

I'm not questioning your method, I just have a quick question: How quickly do aquarium heaters heat the water in larger tanks?

Squid

Well my tank is 125G and on average the temp will drop by 2-3C max on a 50%wc, but within an hour of being full it will be back up to temperature. The key is to always have sufficient circulation and heating

This method triggers spawning in many species

 

[Squid]

Cheers davo. always helps when you hear it from somebody who actually does it.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with the rest. I don't think how fast and how you do the actual fill makes all that much difference. OM47 has a clever picture he's posted a number of times showing how he places a board on top of the tank, places a bucket on the board and siphons new water from the bucket into the tank, so no rush of water.

The way I do mine is considerably more violent. I have a long Python coming down a long hall from the bathroom and I turn the bathroom faucet (which has already been adjusted to temperature match) on full force and water and bubbles shoot forth from the inside of the gravel cleaning tube and fill the tank in minutes. My fish seem to greatly enjoy this and take turns dashing through the bubbles whenever they get the chance (after all they're kids really, aren't they ) I splash my small dash of Prime into the flow as the tap water pours in.

Agree with SH however that the much more important part is having worked out long ago that the water chemistry is all going to go right with where the tank parameters will be and what tap parameters will be coming in and whether any of this, the minerals/pH or the temp would constitute a shock to a given species that you stock. For most though, this is all a non-issue.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Ian H]

personally i take my water straight from the cold tap, add the dechlorinator and pour it from the bucket into the tank. Not a massive dump of water, but enough to create a good flow, not enough to disturb the gravel too much though. Suppose it depends on the size of the tank though, the bigger the tank the less the cold water will affect the fish as theres more water

 

[Shelby]

I have a 29gallon and I syphon it back in. I usually put the hose close to the thermometer so I can make sure things aren't going crazy temp wise. I measure my tap water by feel.. lol some hot some cold. Seems to be working well enough