Best Way & Schedule To Change Water In 5 Gallon Tank?

[erintangerine]

Hi there,

I got a new 5.5 gallon tank. I let it cycle for two nights and then added two white cloud mountain minnows (I eventually plan to have five). There's a bubbler, filter, ed-chlorinated water, plastic plant, and a lot of hope. I understand I'm supposed to be testing the water (haven't purchased a test kit yet but will this weekend so I'm winging it until then). Tomorrow am I supposed to change 25% of the water? If so, how do I get that much water out? Is there a vacuum or do I just dip in a cup?

Other questions:
- How often do I do a full change of the water? What would be an ideal schedule for my fish?
- The direction say something about doing some vacuuming of the gravel. What device do I need to purchase to "vacuum" and how often should I be doing that?
- One store says that white cloud mountain minnows are "tropical" and need warm temperatures while another says they prefer slightly cooler temperatures. My tank has a thermometer so at least I'll know what the temp is but I don't have a heater for them. Do you recommend one?
- I've read these minnows need to be in groups of five. I've also read that groups of eight is the minimum. Can I get away with a school of five or will they be nervous?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Autonerd]

Buy a device called a gravel vacuum. It's actually a siphon consisting of a plastic cylinder and a long tube. I'm always embarrassed to leave mine out my apartment's porch to dry because it looks a bit like a male enhancement device.

I suggest a bucket for your water changes. I bought a 2.5 gal bucket from the pet store, the kind used to feed horses, and I use it only for fish-related stuff. Nice size and reasonable to carry when full. (It doesn't have a spout, though, so it's not great for pouring water back into the tank.)

You attach the gravel vacuum's hose to the bucket, put the bucket on the ground, put the cylinder in the water, then pump it up and down (this part always strikes me as a bit vulgar, you'll see why) to start the flow of water, and let gravity do the rest. Pull the cylinder out of the tank to stop the flow of water. While the water is going, you can use it to "vacuum" the gravel and pick up uneaten food, fish crap, etc. Be careful not to siphon a fish!

I always pour my old fish water on the plants outside, my wife sez the nutrients are good for them.

Aaron

 

[XeroTolerance]

- How often do I do a full change of the water? What would be an ideal schedule for my fish?

You should just be doing 25% weekly. You should never change it all at once.

- The direction say something about doing some vacuuming of the gravel. What device do I need to purchase to "vacuum" and how often should I be doing that?

Something like this

- One store says that white cloud mountain minnows are "tropical" and need warm temperatures while another says they prefer slightly cooler temperatures. My tank has a thermometer so at least I'll know what the temp is but I don't have a heater for them. Do you recommend one?

Yes you should always have a thermometer even though WCMM prefer a little colder waters. Keep the temp at around 72F

- I've read these minnows need to be in groups of five. I've also read that groups of eight is the minimum. Can I get away with a school of five or will they be nervous?

Five is fine. You might be able to get away with 8 though if you do two weekly 25% water changes. I wouldn't recommend it though.

 

[waterdrop]

Excellent advice from Aaron and the right question to be asking since water changes will be immediately important to you. The highest priority consideration here is that you are now in what we call a "Fish-In Cycle" since you did not fishless cycling your tank prior to introducing fish.

Study the fish-in cycling article in our Beginners Resource Center. A good liquid-reagent based test kit will be needed immediately. Your goal in fish-in cycling is to be a detective and figure out the size and frequency of water changes needed to keep both ammonia and nitrite (the nitrite will probably come later) at or below 0.25ppm (or 0.30 in some kits, basically the bottom color in this range that the kit has.) What the goal is helping you achieve is keeping the fish from having gill or nerve damage - in fish-in cycling that is what you worry about rather than the bacteria growing.. they will slowly take care of themselves.

There are people that will tell you to perform this or that percentage water change and such and so interval of time (and often this will indeed work) but those are just simplifications for doing the real thing that I've described up above. Testing and knowing is really better and often can buy you fewer water changes and work.

A 5.5 is a pretty small tank, so I'd play it safe and get it fully cycled prior to adding the rest of the necessary grouping to make the minimum shoal. The cycling often takes a month or so and you'll know you're reaching the end when you can go a couple days with no ammonia or nitrite showing and no water changes having been needed. A week of that and you can begin backing off on the frequecy of your testing and consider yourself cycled.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[erintangerine]

Thanks so much to all three of you for the clear, frank, and often witty posts. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your advice.

I work really long hours during the week but Saturday morning my very first priority will be to buy the testing items I need and the (hilariously vulgar) vacuum thing; your theory about KNOWING rather than guessing really appeals to me. I'm going to go see if I can get about 25% of the water out without annoying these little guys too much. I forgot to mention that I did let the tank cycle for three days before adding them. They just needed to get into the larger tank pronto because their only other tank was very inappropriate for them and I was terrified they'd leap out. One day I'll expand beyond 5.5 gallons but, like I said, I really think my horrible Ikea furniture would collapse under any additional weight!

Thanks again and I promise to give back to this forum in, like, a decade when I'm an expert with an oddly-shaped fish tank vacuum drying on my porch.

Best,
erin

 

[waterdrop]

Enjoyed your post, it was like a nice letter and I'm glad you seem to be catching on to various things and getting off to a good start.

Let me mention a thing about terminology (not an important thing really but might help some with understanding.) Here in the beginner forum we usually try to not use the term "cycling" too loosely. Letting a tank run for a few days without fish or even dosing it with ammonia or fish food is not something we want to call cycling. The term cycling really means that the entire process has been completed or is actively in process. Saying that a tank is "cycled" (to the hobbyists here in the forum at least) implies that the biofilter (and plants if that is part of the method being used) has become fully operational and can drop 5ppm of ammonia to zero ppm ammonia and zero ppm nitrite (NO2) within 12 hours of when the ammonia was dosed.. or that the same "double zeros" are being reliably maintained following a fish-in cycle.

One of the biggest "communication" or "publishing" problems we as hobbyists have is that many beginners will be told to "let it run for a few days" or to "cycle it for a few days and then come back and buy fish".. often this comes from their LFS, but sometimes from friends or others. This of course misses the whole big point of one of the great keys to good aquarium keeping! One must learn about and get the real feel for all this "cycling" stuff so that it becomes a deep and useful tool for the rest of one's time in the hobby.

Anyway, hope that doesn't sound like I'm jumping on you just because it's long, certainly was just a thought I had to express it.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Man of fish]

+2 couldn't of said it better

Enjoyed your post, it was like a nice letter and I'm glad you seem to be catching on to various things and getting off to a good start.

Let me mention a thing about terminology (not an important thing really but might help some with understanding.) Here in the beginner forum we usually try to not use the term "cycling" too loosely. Letting a tank run for a few days without fish or even dosing it with ammonia or fish food is not something we want to call cycling. The term cycling really means that the entire process has been completed or is actively in process. Saying that a tank is "cycled" (to the hobbyists here in the forum at least) implies that the biofilter (and plants if that is part of the method being used) has become fully operational and can drop 5ppm of ammonia to zero ppm ammonia and zero ppm nitrite (NO2) within 12 hours of when the ammonia was dosed.. or that the same "double zeros" are being reliably maintained following a fish-in cycle.

One of the biggest "communication" or "publishing" problems we as hobbyists have is that many beginners will be told to "let it run for a few days" or to "cycle it for a few days and then come back and buy fish".. often this comes from their LFS, but sometimes from friends or others. This of course misses the whole big point of one of the great keys to good aquarium keeping! One must learn about and get the real feel for all this "cycling" stuff so that it becomes a deep and useful tool for the rest of one's time in the hobby.

Anyway, hope that doesn't sound like I'm jumping on you just because it's long, certainly was just a thought I had to express it.

~~waterdrop~~