Biggest Drop In Temp Whilst Doing A Water Change?

[SamUK]

I recently read on here that people (in the UK) were refilling tanks straight from the outside tap with a hose with no adverse affects to the fish.


well after carrying way too many buckets back and forth ( i change about 100 gallons each time) i decided to try it, refilling the tank slowly and the temp dropped about 2 degrees maybe a lil less and the fish seemed fine.


i was doing this on my 6ft tank but i stuck to the bucket for the smaller ones cos i figured the temp would drop too much?


neway lol, jus wondering how low people have let the temp go when doing a W/C and how far theyve let it drop?

 

[mark7616]

ive just started to do the same mate as i got that de chlorinating devise for the hose i use it on all my tanks from my 9g all the way up to my 160g and i never have a massive drop in temp thing my biggest was from 27 to 23 degrees no problems though was back up to temp with in the hour

 

[CFC]

I regularly let my tanks drop by 3 or 4 degrees centigrade over the course of refilling after a water change and have suffered no ill effects, but then my tanks take quite a while to refill (up to 40 minutes after a 50 gallon change) so the fish adjust slowly.
Providing The temperature doesnt drop more than 4c and not below 20c there shouldnt be any problems.

 

[mark7616]

Yeah i have the same drama mate i do a 40g a week change on one of my tanks it takes forever as i have a evolution aqua dechlorinator and you pass 2g of water through roughly every 2 mins btw way i would recomend these to anyone especially you cfc as you change vast amounts of water same as me and its saves hundreds of pounds on bottles of de chlorinator.

 

[CFC]

I use a pond dechlorinator on my tanks, 10ml diluted in 500ml of tankwater treats 750 litres of tapwater and a 1ltr bottle costs around £15 which is enough for nearly a year of water changes.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I am so lucky- I have well water that is ideal for fish. Unless I am trying to induce spawning I normally have new water w/i 2 degrees F of the tank temp and there is virtually no change in tank temp even when I do a 50% change.

However, if one has a tank at say 80dg F and uses 75dg water for a change of 1/3, The total max temp drop could only be 1/3 of 5 dg or 1.66 dg which is not significant.

 

[Hordsak]

I am so lucky- I have well water that is ideal for fish. Unless I am trying to induce spawning I normally have new water w/i 2 degrees F of the tank temp and there is virtually no change in tank temp even when I do a 50% change.

However, if one has a tank at say 80dg F and uses 75dg water for a change of 1/3, The total max temp drop could only be 1/3 of 5 dg or 1.66 dg which is not significant.

Why don't you guys get a python or something similar, that way you can use warmer water straight from your tap. That's what I do.

 

[SamUK]

thanx for the replies guys.



as for the python, last time i checked they were expensive and my tap is aload of crap in the kitchen.

warm water trickles out and the cold is like niagra so it would be hard anyway.

 

[Marcos]

I would of thought with a large tank (if you're changing 100 gallons at a time it's LARGE!) it would be fine as the temp of the rest of the water isn't going to drop instantly, as there's so much it'll take a little time. With a smaller tank it may not be such a good idea.

 

[andywg]

I have filled everything from a 4 gallon to 180 gallon straight from the tap and never had problems. I was a little more wary on the smallest ones only changing about 30% of the water (temp dropped by about 1.5 degrees).

The larger one often gets 30% and again only loses about 2 degrees, 3 at the most.

A 24 degree tank will only drop by about 3.6 degrees if you use tap water at 6 degrees (coldest winter) and change 20%. That is calculated mathematically, not taking into account the amount of time it takes to fill up, the heating effects of heaters and pumps or the ambient room temperature etc.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

depends on the fish, were setting up a tang...wefikweafblkerfhvbaerufhber (can't remember how to spell it ) chiclid tank and apparently they're very sensitive to water changes so you should do loads of v small changes so the temp doesn't drop too bad, or if you can heat the water before you put it in.

but on the rest of them I don't worry about it, just stick it in straight from the tap, a lot of the fish liek the stimulation of the temp change, the cory's and livebearers play in the change in current and new water when I add it.