How To Do Water Changes In A Tank With A Heater?

[CherrySparkles]

So I'm setting up my first ever heated tank and I'm totally clueless about it, so I'm looking for advice before I do anything! Working with a Penn-Plax 25watt heater in my 5 gallon Eclipse tank.

I know that the heater needs to be unplugged before you remove it at all from the water (unless it's the Visi-Therm Stealth that has overheat protection) but do you have to let the heater cool off too before you lower the water level? And the water you add to the tank has to be exactly the same temp. as what's already in there, right? Any other considerations for the heater?

Really not sure how to go about this, advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[Tolak]

Wait 5-10 minutes after unplugging the heater, it should be cool enough by then. You can either remove it, or just let it be.

For most any species plus or minus a few degrees isn't going to matter at all. Cooler water changes are a common way of inducing spawning in many species.

 

[waterdrop]

Interesting about waiting the 5 to 10 minutes Tolak, we have not been offering that advice to beginners but I'll try to remember it in the future. Thanks! (I have an external heater, so have not thought about the issue.)

CherrySparkles, we often mention to just use your hand to roughly judge the match of temperature of the return water, that should be close enough for the plus or minus a few degrees that the fish would need.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Gilli]

Agree with Tolak. No need to remove the heater - just unplug it to do your water changes but do remember to plug it back in when you have finished!

Water changes - the temp doesnt have to be exact. What I do is fill my buckets with cold and add some boiling water (I have a huge tank so I put large saucepans on to boil ) - if you have a smaller tank just boil up the kettle. Just stick your hand in the tank and judge roughly - fish dont mind cooler water and it will gradually go back to the normal temp when you switch your heater back on. Obvioulsy dont forget to add your dechlorinator - no need to divide it amongst all the buckets of fresh water- just add it to the first one.

Dont be tempted to add hot water from your tap unless you know its ok as older hot water tanks sometimes contain toxic levels of zinc or copper.

 

[mini_matt]

hiya, you say about not using the hot tap because of old boilers, iv been using the mixer tap from the kitchen but it is in new flats maybe 2 yrs old do you think they will be ok if i carry on doing this or should i switch to boiling the kettle? my fish love when i add cold water and come and play in it

 

[Schmill]

hiya, you say about not using the hot tap because of old boilers, iv been using the mixer tap from the kitchen but it is in new flats maybe 2 yrs old do you think they will be ok if i carry on doing this or should i switch to boiling the kettle? my fish love when i add cold water and come and play in it

Do you have your own boiler in the flat rather than a communual hot water supply?
When you turn on the hot tap, can you hear the boiler then light, (on demand heating)?

If yes to both of those questions chances are you are ok as the hot water is not being stored anywhere.



As for the general question, I tend to switch off my heater, then get my buckets, hoses etc all together, sort my plants in the tank and then start to remove the water. Doing it in this order means that by the time the water level gets down to the heater it has had plenty of chance to cool and disapate it's heat into the surrounding water.
In the summer I tend to just use water from the cold tap to refill my tanks as the water from the mains is not exactly cold anyway, however the last water change I did on my tank (20L in a 60L tank), the guppies went quite sluggish almost immediately and started shimmying in the water. Needless to say I took out 10L of water and replaced it with a mix of cold and boiled water, which perked them right back up again.
Seems I will be using the kettles quite a bit again between now and spring then , pain in the backside for the 300L tank, (although that doesn't suffer from the cold quite so bad, as it takes considerably longer to get the replacement water back in the tank! - lol )

 

[mini_matt]

we have a boiler in the flat but is not on demand hot water it is heated and stays in the boiler until i need it think i will change to the kettle

 

[bitteraspects]

If you just keep the heater horizontal in your tank, and place it near the substrate, you don't even need to turn the heater off during your WC
Also, unless your tap is ice cold, you don't need to worry about the temp too much. Keep in mind, tropical fish experience temperature changes in the wild (night temp, rain, etc)

 

[OldMan47]

As Bitteraspects suggested, I keep the heater low in the tank. When I do a big enough water change to worry about the heater, it has time to cool off while I siphon down to the level of the heater with my gravel vac.

 

[Tolak]

Unplugging electrical devices when doing a water change is just good safety, something I always suggest to beginners. A 5 to 10 minute cool down is just another safety margin, if someone guesses & pulls out a hot heat after being off two or three minutes it probably won't crack. If you state a few minutes & it leaves the water after 30 seconds it might.

Personally I shove the heaters down to the bottom, submersibles with no suction cups. I unplug nothing, but I also wear boots that meet Meets ASTM F 2413-05 standards for electrical hazards. Not knowing the setup, footwear, or any of that I suggested the safest way.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I turn off the power strip when I do waterchanges on my friends aquarium, because I do massive water changes on their tank, and it fully exposes the heater / drops the waterline too low for the filters to run properly.

I leave everything running on my tank (it's a heck of a lot easier to gravel vac when you can actually see), because I've splash guarded the electrical outlets, all the wires are properly drip looped, the heater is deeply submerged, etc, etc.