Cleaning Out The Tank

[killifish1]

im going to do a full clean out of my tank,now to keep it cycled do i need to keep some water from the tank now in a bowl or tub,put the fish in it and my pump?

also i got new stones and ornements,what do i do with them,put the stones in some old water and then put them in some new,il be adding water tonight bit by bit with some original water in and adding the water (with dechlorinator)

is this ok?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If you are going to do a 100% tank clean out, you should;
a. Keep the filter running in a bucket with the fish in it so the beneficial bacteria in the filter is kept alive and healthy.
b. Save as much of the old tank water as absolutely posible- try to save at least 30% of the old tank water.
c. Make sure that the bucket in which the fish are in is kept warm so the temp doesn't quickly plument once they are in the bucket- wrapping some towls around the bucket and putting some cling film over the bucket (so the fish don't jump out) will help a lot.
d. Make sure you turn the heater off in the tank before you start lowering the water level as if it is exposed above the water level, it will over-heat and crack (and potentially eletrocute you).
e. Make sure you thoroughly wash any new stones or ornements you get in plain tap water to make sure they don't have any nasty stuff like chemicals on them that they could have picked up at the store- if you are adding new substrate to the tank like sand or gravel, make sure you wash it out thoroughly before hand in plain tap water.

.

 

[killifish1]

thanks so much
ill do all that ,i dont know if i can keep 30% but ill try and find as many buckets as possible

thanks

 

[rdd1952]

Tokis pretty will covered it but I will say that depending on the pH of your tap water and that of the tank water, you may want to save a little more of the old tank water. If you have little buffering capacity and your tank pH drops considerably lower than what comes from the tap, it would be an easier acclimation for the fish if you saved 70% to 75% of the tank water so that it was like a 25% to 30% water change.

My 29 gallon pH is only about 6.2 while my tap is 7.2. A 70% WC would result in more of a pH change than I would be comfortable with putting the fish through. That would roughly raise the pH to 6.9 which is an extreme amount unless it is done over a fairly long time period.

 

[killifish1]

ill save as much as possibkle and will add dechlorinator.

 

[rdd1952]

Just be sure to check the pH of the tap water and the tank water. If there is a big difference, acclimate the fish slowly. Put them in the old water that you saved and fill the tank slowly to ease the change in pH.

 

[killifish1]

how slowly should i put more tank water in?

 

[rdd1952]

It depends on the difference in the 2 pH readings and how much old tank water you are able to save. If your tap and tank pH are identical, just get the temp of the tap waterright and fill the tank. If not, then you will have to do some calculations as to how much the change is going to raise or lower the pH.

 

[killifish1]

well ill fill 1 maybe 2 tonight And add more tommoz,as i cant find my test kit.