Do you reuse your single-use dosing syringes?

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IndiaHawker

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Bought some online to use for measuring water conditioner as I now bought a more concentrated one and am working with a 57L tank - will also be using these to dose plant food as once again it's pretty concentrated. They're single-use only - but I can't see it doing much harm in this context to reuse them (obviously using separate syringes for conditioner and plant food, and anything else I may need them for in future). Just seems wasteful to throw them away after one use if I don't need to - but wanted to check with the experts first!

Also related question - my tank is called '57L', however I know tanks don't actually hold their full volume in water due to fillings such as rocks, substrate, etc. Recently bought stepped buckets with the litres measured up the side, and upon my most recent water change, realised that taking the water level down to roughly halfway down the tank was only about 20L. So I'm a little worried about overdosing my tank now. I've always taken the litres at face value when using water conditioner, actually rounding it up and accounting for 60L of water when measuring how much conditioner I'm putting in, as really worried about causing chlorine burn and killing/really hurting all my fish. I'm more worried now as the conditioner I will be using this sunday/monday is much more concentrated (Seachem Prime).

Assuming last time, I took the water level down to halfway or possibly just over, which was 20L. Then should I only account for 40L when dosing conditioner next time? Although the rocks are mostly filling up the bottom of the tank, and obviously the substrate too. And the wood is also more in the bottom than the top. So does that mean that I should actually account for LESS than 40L of water, since if I was to remove the last of the water, it may have only appeared half full but really because of the decor maybe there was only 10-15L of water left? So then I'd dose according to 30-35L of water - which doesn't seem like enough to put in a 57L tank? Or should I just dose for 57L of water? Sorry as you can tell I have OCD and am worrying over this hahah

I've heard that both overdosing and overdosing are bad and should be avoided (although I know some will say that overdosing is fine and safe from what I've seen online, but I've heard that's far from true). But from what I gather underdosing is more dangerous (short term at least) as they can all just die really quickly from the chlorine? So I'm unsure how much to dose and would appreciate advice for this tank!

As always, please and thank you, it's appreciated! :)
 
Syringes are fine to re-use. Just rinse them through when you are done. For dosing dechlorinator etc just do it in the bucket and dose for each bucket separately.

The bow front does make volume calcs tricky so just assume 50 litres of you are using fertilisers etc.
 
Re-use the syringes but don't mix them up. Basically have 1 syringe for the conditioner and another one for the fertiliser. Rinse the fertiliser one out after use.

Water conditioner should be added to any new water before it is added to the tank. If you have 10 litre buckets then fill them with tap water, add enough conditioner to treat the 10 litres, aerate for 30minutes, then add to the tank. If you want to fertilise the tank then add the fertiliser to the bucket of water after it has been aerating with conditioner for 15-20 minutes.

If you want to dose the main tank with fertiliser then under dose rather than over dose. Plants can live without adding fertilisers but fish will die if you over dose it.

If you have lots of rocks in the tank then fill the tank up so it is at normal level. Then remove all the rocks and wood (leave the substrate in the tank). Then work out how much water is in there. Use the following formula to work out the volume of water in a normal rectangular tank.

measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

when you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of the page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.
 
Thanks both for the help! Unless anyone says otherwise I will go with 50L for the dosing, as I really really don't want to remove the rocks/wood at the moment - plants are in a very fragile state due to a recent aquatic caterpillar outbreak, plus they're still not established and I've been struggling to keep them in place for long enough to root in - rocks are very much assisting me in this! As seangee mentioned my tank is bow-front - and not standard bow-front, it curves the other way if that makes sense), so can't use the calculations! But 50L seems like a comfortable medium. Like I said, if anyone says otherwise I will think more into this and possibly take my decor to pieces if it's the only way - but I'd really like to avoid that if I can!

And yeah I have been adding the conditioner to the water and swirling it around to mix it before adding it in - but didn't know about aerating the water for 30 mins first? (I'm assuming dechlorinator is the same as conditioner??) By aerating what exactly do you mean? Leaving it to stand, or doing something else? Willing to work with whatever but need to know! Also what is the purpose of this? Is it so I'm not adding a load of deoxygenated water into the tank? I do have (as of recently) an Eheim 200 air pump if that makes a difference, but if not I don't mind pre-aerating the water however I'm meant to do it!

Also regarding fertilizer - good to know to make sure I underdose rather than underdose, thanks! But someone on here told me not to add fertilizer the same day as conditioner, to do it the day after, as fertilizer contains heavy metals which the conditioner negates, so will make the fertilizer less/not effective? But I should add in the fertilizer in the same manner, into water first, and then into the tank, correct? I guess doing an extra smaller water change the day after the usual one can only be good at least!

Please and thanks! :)
 
Newb question - as my tank (Fluval Flex) has three back sections which the water filters through before re-entering the tank, could I add the fertilizer to the 1st back section so it's not directly entering the tank? Or would this still be too risky for the fish? Please and thanks!
 
Newb question - as my tank (Fluval Flex) has three back sections which the water filters through before re-entering the tank, could I add the fertilizer to the 1st back section so it's not directly entering the tank? Or would this still be too risky for the fish? Please and thanks!
That's how I do it.
Yes you should add fertilisers a day after water change.
The easiest way to add dechlorinator is to measure it into the bucket before adding water. The fill the bucket by turning the tap on quite high. By the time you have carried it to the tank it will be safe.
 
Dechlorinator is normally water conditioner but some water conditioners do not dechlorinate water. :)
Some water conditioners change the pH or add minerals or tannins to the water, whereas dechlorinators (often referred to as water conditioners) break down or neutralise chlorine & chloramine. My comments about conditioners are about dechlorinators or dechlorinators that also add minerals/ tannins to the water.

Aerating the water & dechlorinator mixture for a short time before adding the water to the tank allows the dechlorinator sufficient time to come in contact with all the chlorine or chloramine in the bucket of water. This means there will be no chlorine or chloramine going into the tank. It also oxygenates the water and drives out excess carbon dioxide and adds oxygen. When water is under pressure (like water pipes), the water can become degased, basically some or all of the gases in the water get forced out and there can be no oxygen, carbon dioxide or nitrogen gases in the water. Aerating the water for a short period of time allows gases to stabilise in the water making it safer for the fish.

Aerating the water is simply having an airstone bubbling away in the bucket of water. The more vigorous the aeration (the more bubbles), the faster the water & dechlorinator are mixed and the faster the gases are stabilised in the water.

You can use the airstone running off the Eheim air pump to aerate the bucket of water before adding the new water to the tank. Just put the airstone in the bucket of water, and then move it back into the tank after the water change.

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To work out the volume of water in a curved front tank, measure the width at the widest and narrowest point and add them together, then divide by 2. That should give you an average width for the curved front tank.
eg: tank is 60cm long x 45cm high and the width is 35cm at the widest part of the curve (where it sticks out the front) and 30cm at the narrowest part of the curve (where it joins the base). The average for the width would be about 32.5cm.
The tank formula would be 60 x 32.5 x 45 = approx. 88litre

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You can add plant fertilisers at the same time as some dechlorinators but it depends on the dechlorinator. Some bind with heavy metals and free ammonia and these can bind with some minerals in the plant fertiliser. Whereas other dechlorinators only neutralise chlorine & chloramine. You will have to check the directions on the dechlorinator/ conditioner that you use. If it says binds to heavy metals then add fertiliser 24 hours after doing a water change.

Plant fertilisers can be very concentrated so it is best to add some to a container with 1 or 2 litres of tank water, stir it up (aerate it) for a few minutes and then add it to the tank near a filter outlet. Or you can drip the straight fertiliser into the tank with an eye dropper/ syringe. The main thing is not to put a heap of fertiliser directly on the fish because they can be poisoned.
 
This is all great help, thank you both! A couple more questions:

When it comes to the formula for working out water in the tank - I will use if it can help but not sure if it can - I already know my tank is 57L, but the main problem is accounting for the amount of stuff inside the tank. But thanks though, the formula could still help in the future!

I have two 13L buckets for water changes - I only fill them up to 10L as easier to measure and 13L would be right to the brim anyway. When I do my ~50% water change (as in the water line goes halfway down the tank), it takes two buckets of 10L. When aerating my water for 30 mins, is it safe to take both air stones out of the tank to aerate both buckets at once (guess it would be a good chance to clean them a bit anyway)? Or should I aerate and then put into the tank one bucket at a time, and leave the other air stone in the tank?

Please and thanks!
 
It is fine to remove both airstones from the tank to aerate the buckets of water. But if you're really concerned, you can use a T piece and grab another airstone. Then leave 1 airstone in the tank and run an airline to the buckets and use the T piece to run 2 more airstones in the buckets.
 
Why complicate things?

When changing water.
Grab your bucket put required amount of dechlorinator in bucket fill bucket with water add water to tank, there is no need to use airstones the act of filling the bucket is enough to mix everything.,

Re-use the syringes but don't mix them up.

Why? The amount of what ever you are adding remaining in the syringe is negligible at best.
After adding what ever you are adding draw some water into the syringe and push it out, Bingo clean syringe.
 
When changing water.
Grab your bucket put required amount of dechlorinator in bucket fill bucket with water add water to tank, there is no need to use airstones the act of filling the bucket is enough to mix everything.,

That's what I do too. And I run the water into the bucket at full speed. I asked my son recently (PhD in chemistry) and he said that adding the dechlorinator first, then running the water in will take only a couple of minutes to mix thoroughly. If adding the dechlorinator last, yes it will take a while to mix in.
With my main tank it takes 10 bucketfuls of water to refill. If I let each one stand 30 minutes it would take 5 hours to refill the tank. And I do not have space to fill 10 buckets at the same time and let them run with an airstone in each for 30 minutes even if my husband would agree to that.
 
If you have lots of tanks use a bigger bucket :)

A few people I know use 200 litre plastic wheelie bins. They wheel the bin into the house (usually the bathroom or laundry), fill it with tap water, add dechlorinator, drop an airstone in and the following day they do water changes. They use a small water pump with some plastic hose to fill the tanks up from the bin water. When the bin is not being used to hold water, it houses the gravel cleaner and some general fish buckets.

Another person I know uses a 200 litre plastic wine barrel for water holding. He just has if filled up all the time and lets it bubble away with a big airstone in it. Then he uses it for water changes.

One guy has a 20,000 litre rainwater tank (for rainwater), and a couple of 5000 litre tanks he fills up with tap water. Then he mixes rainwater and tap water and aerates them for a few days before doing water changes on his tanks.

I use to have 3 tier stands and used the top row of tanks as water holding. I fill them up, add dechlorinator, and let them bubble away for a week. Then I would drain 50% of the water out of each tank below and let gravity fill them up with water from the top tank.
 
Another person I know uses a 200 litre plastic wine barrel for water holding

Yes I do the same thing, I premix the water with dechlorinator and put a heater in the drum the night before for my 100 gallon tank.
 

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