Cleaning

[adriia]

Very silly question, but....

You should turn your heater off when you do a water change, right?

But if your fish are very new to the tank then the change in temperature may cause problems?

What is best? turn it off and get cold fish or some sort of in between... ie turn the heater of and do it asap in under 10mis?

I'm aware this is potentially a very silly question... but if i knew it all i wouldn't be here

Thanks

Adriia

 

[england]

depends if you turn off heater the water will not loose the heat that quick unless you decide to go out before changing
just remember if you turn heater off make sure you turn it on again, nows not a problem but winter might be, i dont turn my heater off as iam done quick, usually heaters only exsposed for minutes...

 

[adriia]

cool thanks, ill get everything ready and just do it quick so i can leave the heater on, & hopefully my little tetra will be oki with it

 

[mixmaster jay]

unless your taking hours changing your water it won't be a problem

 

[england]

yes it will be fine, however have you had the tank matured for atleast five weeks?
also just out of intrest where are you located?

 

[lilacamy931]

If you are quite new to water changes my suggestion would be turn off the heater as you could easily crack it.

Get two buckets, have water to go into the tank mixed at right temp and dechlorinated ready to go, siphon off water and replace, it will take a matter of minutes

 

[adriia]

I think im gonna shift the heater a little so when i take water out it shouldn't get exposed then i can leave it on - also ill be all ready to go and do it nice and quick

^ I live in the country, just north of Bristol

^ The tank is not cycled yet..... i put in bactria and conditioner, plants and plant supplements and then left it for a week before adding some fish - very few, I am now going to clean the tank as often as possible as im aware that the new fish will not be overly happy until it has cycled. Hopefully in 2 weeks ill add 2 x cherry barb then When its all cycled ill add in the rest of the fish , also trying to not feed the fist too much, and i have the temperature at 27oC to help speed things up but not upset the fish! - I haven't done it 100% right but fingers crossed!

Adriia

 

[KieranP]

Technically you should always turn any electrical equipment you have in the water off before cleaning. This is just so you dont risk any electric shocks with your hands in the water. I always turn mine off mainly just so i dont have to move the filter or the heater about!

 

[england]

not who i thought then , soz..
Just my wife's friend adriia was also joining soon....

Unfortuantly most of us did something similar, thats why they started this site

Do you know anyone with a fish tank or can you go to your local fish shop and ask for some mature media, basically you will take a good squeeze from the filter media all the muck and the good bacteria and then add this to your filter media, for example in my filters i have added filter floss into peices incase people need mature media to add to there filters, works a treat to speed up process

 

[adriia]

maybe the shop where ive been getting the fish will let me pinch a small amount of gravel from one of their tanks. All their fish looked very healthy + if i get it from the tank that i got the tetras from then I shouldn't introduce any new disease . Ill let you know if they all make it !

 

[frida]

maybe the shop where ive been getting the fish will let me pinch a small amount of gravel from one of their tanks.

In my understanding, there aren't that many nitrifying bacteria on the gravel, a better bet I think would be getting some of their filter media.
Good luck!!