Water Changing Question

[LineDropper]

When I run hot water out of the tap, it has a funky light brown color and is cloudy. Combine that with stuff I have read in this forum about what can happen to hot water while its stored in the hot water tank and there is no way I am putting hot water from my tap into my aquariums...

Lately, I've been doing 10-20% water changes with cold water from the tap that has been raised to room temperature.

As I add more fish, I want to mitigate risk even more and bring the water to a specific temp before adding in my aquariums.

So my question is -- how do you guys and girls do this? I have plenty of 5 galon buckets to use. Can I just put a standard aquarium heater in the bucket to bring it to the correct temp?

I guess what really brought this one is the fact that I have my first fry. Don't want those little guys to get hurt.

 

[mark1980]

When I do a 20% water change I use a large container which I nearly fill with cold water from the tap and top it up with boiling water from the kettle until it feels the same temperature as the water in the tank. Works fine for me every time.

 

[backtotropical]

Its not really necessary to match the temperature closely unless you are doing large water changes. I would just put it in at tap temperature if it's only 10 - 20%.

I do up to 50% water changes without worrying about temperature with no ill effects.

 

[darkwolf29a]

Its not really necessary to match the temperature closely unless you are doing large water changes. I would just put it in at tap temperature if it's only 10 - 20%.

I do up to 50% water changes without worrying about temperature with no ill effects.

Yeppers...I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I put my water through a Brita filter though, to get out all the major nasty stuff. It's not RO, but close enough and my fish seem to like it.

I use a big plastic tub, a homemade 40ft hose, and a MAG3 pump to get warm water back into my tank. Is the exact temp of the water...no way, not even close. I use a 1 warm to 3 cold/cool ratio. Works like a charm.

 

[mark.w.jones]

If you have a relatively big tank. Then you can easily do your 20% water change just with cold water. In my 33 US gallon tank two 10litre buckets of water only drops the water temp a degree or two. No more than it would drop in the wild when it rains. I've donw changes like this for about 6 months now with no ill effects. In my smaller 10 gallon tank I heat up water two 3litre squash bottles in the microwave as in a smaller tank the temp. drop from using cold water would be much greater. Hope that helps

 

[SexyFishKeeper]

Each bucket ~10ltrs I put in a kettle full ~1.7ltrs inside of that.

Although, would of thought as other people have said that on small water changes that the temp won't change much if you just use tap water.

I only use the kettle as it boils as quickly as I fill and empty a bucket! lol

 

[ibbledibble]

If you have a relatively big tank. Then you can easily do your 20% water change just with cold water. In my 33 US gallon tank two 10litre buckets of water only drops the water temp a degree or two. No more than it would drop in the wild when it rains. I've donw changes like this for about 6 months now with no ill effects. In my smaller 10 gallon tank I heat up water two 3litre squash bottles in the microwave as in a smaller tank the temp. drop from using cold water would be much greater. Hope that helps

if you do a 20% change in a big tank or a little tank should make no difference. if its 20% water change its the same relative quantity. just maybe put it in slowly into a small tank. as in a large tank it would take a while to add it all back, so try to take a similar time with a smaller tank.
sorry if thats not very clear, its late and my brain has pretty much stopped working.

 

[Tolak]

If your water is coming out of the water heater a brownish color you may be due for a water heater replacement soon. What you can do for now, especially if you haven't been doing it, is to drain a good 10 gallons out of the spigot on the bottom of the heater. This removes sediment, which may be giving you that brownish color. I do this every 6 months with mine, not just for the fish, but for the life of the water heater. It does come out brownish, which means it isn't going into my tanks.

If you leave the buckets of water overnight to reach room temperature, then use the room temp water for changes you shouldn't have any problems. I use a hot/cold mix, as I'm doing 50% to 80% water changes weekly on a lot of tanks.

 

[LineDropper]

If your water is coming out of the water heater a brownish color you may be due for a water heater replacement soon. What you can do for now, especially if you haven't been doing it, is to drain a good 10 gallons out of the spigot on the bottom of the heater. This removes sediment, which may be giving you that brownish color. I do this every 6 months with mine, not just for the fish, but for the life of the water heater. It does come out brownish, which means it isn't going into my tanks.

If you leave the buckets of water overnight to reach room temperature, then use the room temp water for changes you shouldn't have any problems. I use a hot/cold mix, as I'm doing 50% to 80% water changes weekly on a lot of tanks.

Thanks Tolak (and everyone else).

My house is only 1 1/2 years old so I hope the water heater is ok! The weird thing is the brown color comes and goes. We don't have city water... instead, we have local wells that are shared so maybe that has something to do with it I don't know. I'll drain the water heater and check out what comes out.

I'll stick with leaving cold water to come up to room temp...

 

[Amerce]

I run my cold tap water the day before into buckets, let it stand over night and then put it into a large swing bin which has an air filter with coral sand (to help raise the ph slightly) and a heater, this runs over night to heat the water and then the next day I can use it straight away at the right temp for all my partial water changes.

I've around 14 tanks ranging from 4 foot to 18inches, and they all get a partial change at least every other day, weekends I do a larger water change on the 4 footer cause it has discus in it.