Water changes.

[Fish are friends]

I’m in the process of cycling my 250l tank and need to do a 50% water change today. My bathroom is one room over so running a hose to drain the tank and refill is going to be easier. Now removing the water is the easy part but refilling it is slightly trickier. If I turn off the filter, dose the tank with the correct amount of water safe, can I just fill the tank with the hose and once filled turn on the filter again. Don’t want to push The cycle back to the beginning again..

 

[Galvin88]

I did this on my water change yesterday, as iv seen many post of people saying that's what they do with no problems. Also I use seachem prime and it says on the bottle can be added to aquarium directly but better adding to new water.

 

[Fish are friends]

I think by adding to the new water it reduces the amount you need whereas adding to the entire tank you have to dose for the full tank capacity

 

[mcordelia]

That is correct. For some reason if you dose directly into the tank the instructions say to treat the entire tank volume instead of the added volume only. It may be more cost-effective to treat the volume added prior to putting into the tank, but not everyone has the option to have intermediate water storage.

 

[AbbeysDad]

A couple of things come to mind here. In a new tank, the filter is a great place for BB to colonize...however, BB develops on any solid surface in the tank, especially the substrate where there's far more surface areas than in any filter.
Water conditioners/dechlorinators do recommend that when treating a tank, you use a quantity for the entire tank volume, not just the amount of new source water being added. Probably a conservative approach as some hobbyists report success with just using an amount for the new water being added. Although you might try only adding the amount for the new water being added, there may be some risk...for the amount of conditioner required, I think I'd treat for the entire tank volume.
(footnote: I live in the country and have my own well system of untreated water so I don't use a conditioner except to have Prime/Safe on hand in the event of an unexpected ammonia spike).

 

[Galvin88]

That is correct. For some reason if you dose directly into the tank the instructions say to treat the entire tank volume instead of the added volume only. It may be more cost-effective to treat the volume added prior to putting into the tank, but not everyone has the option to have intermediate water storage.

I would treat the volume added but my maths are not good enough to work out how much I should add into a 25ltr container ?

 

[Fish are friends]

Normally I add enough to each bucket of water and add the treated water to the tank but carrying 10 buckets of water through the house is hard work. I just need to work out which is the more cost effective.

 

[mcordelia]

yeah buckets are a huge pain. I think for the sake of you enjoying your hobby you are best off treating the entire volume (or, depending on how risk averse you are maybe a happy medium depending on how much water you change out...?), and using a hose system for water changes.