I feel TERRIBLE

[Jan Cavalieri]

Due to my disability I rarely do water changes but pay a good friend to do them for me. She's awesome. But she is out sick with a bad pulled tooth and 5 stiches so I have to start some of my water changes myself (it takes me about 4 hours - she can do it in 1 1/2 hours). We typically do a 70% water change weekly on each of 3 tanks. Monthly on my betta tank since it only has 1 fish and no algae. I don't want to get behind or the algae gets out of control.

One of my tanks had excessive algae even though I had just put in a UV light weeks before. This tank contained Rasboras and tiny tetras. I tried to find all the small fish to remove them while I did a water change but the algae was so thick I couldn't see ANY of the small fish. I was so careful to watch what went through the gravel tube, and to check every bucket of water before I dumped it but not once did I see any of my small fish in the water. I feel terrible - these were beautiful fish but that damn algae made it impossible to see them (plus I have cataracts that need removing for the 2nd time).

In the end, I lost 10 neon tetras and one Rasbora. I have two of each left. I feel sick. Any suggestions on what I can do in the future to avoid this? I'm getting ready to clean another tank that has 4 tiny sparkling gourami - they are about 1/4 of an inch in size right now. I thought they were fry at first they are so small.

Any tricks to catching such small fish before a water change? This tank has an algae problem but not nearly as bad as the other tank. But if there isn't a water change soon it too will be impossible to see.

 

[Jamesthecat]

70% seems very high for a water change - if your doing it weekly 20-30% is fine.

Algae gets a foothold due to high nutrients / lighting and low water flow so reduce the feeding, cut down on the lighting regime and make sure you have good water flow even if it means buying a cheap power head ( i did this and got one for £11 from Amazon)

If you use one of those tubes with the hose at the end - just stick it in the gravel and get the syphon started by sucking on the end.

As its stuck in the gravel it won’t suck any fish up. Ive had lots of juveniles and never even thought to get them out for a water change.

If your really concerned then fashion yourself some plastic into a right angle shape and push it into the aquarium into one corner

This makes a little space for the hose to go in without allowing the fish to swim in and get sucked up

 

[FishGuest5123]

70% is exactly what I do weekly. Can you place a large 5G bucket for water to flow in and check stop he Python, check it , empty, proceed? This may be too much for you. How about a piece of netting over end? You’re doing your best.

 

[Jamesthecat]

Yup all you can do is give out your best. How about a piece of old mesh or tights over the intake end tied with a cable tie.

Ive read a few people the past few days saying they do 70% weekly.

Am i not doing enough then only doing 30% a week. I think I’d struggle doing 70% tbh on a 450l tank

 

[kwi]

Yup all you can do is give out your best. How about a piece of old mesh or tights over the intake end tied with a cable tie.

Ive read a few people the past few days saying they do 70% weekly.

Am i not doing enough then only doing 30% a week. I think I’d struggle doing 70% tbh on a 450l tank

The 70% plus keeps your tank water as close as possible to your source water, this means if you have to totally replace the water there isn't a big sudden swing in water parameters. (There is more than what we test for.)
It also helps prevent old tank syndrome.
If you think about it if you only pull out 30% of the pollutants every week they'll climb faster than if you pull out 70%.
But a lot depends on how your tank is planted and what your actual bioload is.
If you do decide to go to larger changes, build up gradually to it.

 

[Jamesthecat]

Mmm thanks ill maybe try increasing it... rather than 70% i might try a 45% on say Friday then my normal 30% on Monday.

I’m also looking at plumbing in some sort of auto change system like the Picture so i just have to throw in a tube to empty 30% that goes straight into the drain and then chuck in the pipe to push new water in.

Jan if you struggle lifting the containers etc maybe this could be something you could look at?

I think its essentially a pipe that goes straight to your sink plug hole and a small electric pump to pump the fresh water in.

If you plumb the containers into your cold water pipe a ‘la RO units then you wouldnt need to lift anything/

 

[kwi]

The python system uses physics to suck water out of the tank using your tap, and then you fill it from the same tap. My concerns with python systems are;
a) It's very wasteful on water while emptying the tank.
b) Conditioning the water as it goes in directly from the tap.

A better solution may be an electric water pump and those rolling water barrels that caravaners use.

 

[Jamesthecat]

Agree with the previous post - i looked into the python and although its pretty cool out doesn’t give you much chance to add the conditoners.

Much better IMHO to use a big water barrel and some small pumps

 

[Ch4rlie]

Don't feel so badly, this is one facet of life that can happen to anyone, be it illnesses, disabilities or injuries that makes for changing water on tanks difficult.

First off, 70% water change is good, the higher the better really, most keepers on here do between 50 - 70% once weekly water changes, or if you have a small or nano sized tank then 20% daily or 3 times a week is perfectly ok.

The high water changes is basically to get rid of nitrate, dirty water that's full of poop and debris etc.

As for your gravel cleaner / hose, you can as already suggested fit some pantyhose, mesh, or even some coarse sponge media stuffed into the end of gravel cleaner pipe, (I did this to stop shrimps from being sucked up, worked a treat for me).

The bucket method as essjay mentions does actually works well but this is more time consuming and labourious, so perhaps not ideal for you.

I would recommend a sort of DIY python hose system with a small pump, perhaps a 600lph universal pump, this would help take out water from the tank to the sink or bath (with sponge media in end of gravel cleaner or hose) would be of assistance.
And then a hosepipe connector to connect hose to tap to refill water and dosing with dechlorinator whilst filling, dose for full tank volume if using this or a similar system.
I used this system myself for many years and proved to be invaluable to me, saves lots of time and a real back saver.

As for your algae issues, well, there is a imbalance somewhere that's enabling your algae to take hold and overpower your tank.

Usually down to one or two of three things -

Lighting, too much lighting is a common cause of algae, in UK 7-8 hours daily lighting time seems to work well for most keepers.

Nutrients, too much nutrients either by feeding too much fish foods or liquid ferts is another factor that may be a cause for algae outbreaks, simply reduce feeding amounts or liquid ferts if you use this.

Poor flow or circulation, this is common especially for BBA (Black Brush or Beard Algae) as dead spots where there is little or no water circulation is ideal for these BBA to grow, not just BBA, staghorn or hair algae likes this too.

One things that may be of help, I do not know if you have live plants or not in your tank/s, if not, then the addition of fast growing plants may help in absorbing the excess nutrients from the water column, essentially starving the algae of food.
Elodea /anarcharis or floating plants such as water lettuce or frogbit are particularly good for this.

 

[Brendanpat]

Mmm thanks ill maybe try increasing it... rather than 70% i might try a 45% on say Friday then my normal 30% on Monday.

I’m also looking at plumbing in some sort of auto change system like the Picture so i just have to throw in a tube to empty 30% that goes straight into the drain and then chuck in the pipe to push new water in.

Jan if you struggle lifting the containers etc maybe this could be something you could look at?

I think its essentially a pipe that goes straight to your sink plug hole and a small electric pump to pump the fresh water in.

If you plumb the containers into your cold water pipe a ‘la RO units then you wouldnt need to lift anything/

I always done about 30%a week .But on sunday there I tried a 60 % and the tank looked sparkling fresh the plants seem to be doing better and less algae build up .Fish looked more lively too ..so I think I'll be sticking to it ..

 

[Colin_T]

Jan, reduce the feeding and lighting to help reduce the algae.

Put the outlet of the syphon hose on a fish net that is sitting in a bucket of water so any fish stay in the net. You will need to have the top of the net an inch above the water level or drill a hole about an inch down from the top of a bucket. The water will flow into the net and trap any fish. The hole will keep the water level down low enough so the fish cant' get out of the net. You can put a marble in the net to help hold it down in the water.

Just about everyone has sucked out a fish or two doing water changes. I sucked out a few black moor goldfish in the shop and they didn't travel well through the hose. It was pretty gross. I have sucked out female Bettas, tiger barbs, catfish, loaches, eels and all sorts of things. We just had a net on the end of the hose and would run out the back and carry the fish back into the shop.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Mmm thanks ill maybe try increasing it... rather than 70% i might try a 45% on say Friday then my normal 30% on Monday.

I’m also looking at plumbing in some sort of auto change system like the Picture so i just have to throw in a tube to empty 30% that goes straight into the drain and then chuck in the pipe to push new water in.

Jan if you struggle lifting the containers etc maybe this could be something you could look at?

I think its essentially a pipe that goes straight to your sink plug hole and a small electric pump to pump the fresh water in.

If you plumb the containers into your cold water pipe a ‘la RO units then you wouldnt need to lift anything/

As @Colin_T always says, if you only remove 30% then you are leaving 70% of the gunk in the tank.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Interesting ideas. (I have a Python but it's water waste caused the kitchen sink to overflow - plus no way to put conditioner in at the right strength and right time. I like the stocking idea a lot - these silly fish of all sizes start getting curious about the hose and when we can see better we back them off away from the hose. Oh and Colin_T - you know I'm overfeeding that's been part of my problem in every post I do, I STILL don't know how much a fish eats - especially now that I have these Dojos in every tank (supposedly eat algae - NOT) - I have NEVER seen a fish eat so much. Mine are about 6 or so inches long - I had one eat 20 or more pellets from what I counted and still proceed to gorge on flake food. So I've got them, then the tiny neons and rasb's - that probably should only eat a few specs of food but I've watched them eat a lot too) I hope I learn better eventually.

So with this particular algae - it is actually brown slime algae and it clogs up the sponges in my filters - it won't go through nylon but it should work in my other tanks that have less of it. I actually have to rinse out the sponge part of my filter (with all that good bacteria) - 2 or 3 times per day, per tank because the Aquaclear filters just stop running if I don't - not to mention clogging up the input tube.

The net is a nice idea but we'd have to get a different style of gravel cleaner - one that has a long hose on the end. Ours has a wide round tube about 8 inches long and 2" or so in diameter to suction thru the gravel and water, then about a 7ft hose attached to the tube. At the end of the hose is a siphon bulb so the output end is actually the suction bulb so I bet that suction bulb got filled with caught fish - OMG now I really feel bad - they just got crushed up in there together - they would never make it into a net because the output is so much smaller than the input. I'll have to talk to my assistant - she's never killed a fish with this thing so her eyes are probably better than mine. But I need to find something I can use since nobody is 100% reliable, life happens. I also need to make an appointment with my eye doctor. He only removed cataracts from one eye and then my husband died and I didn't make it to the other two appointments for my left eye. Now I have little vision out of one eye and the cataracts are comming back to the eye he worked on already. Anyway - other than these 4 fish and 4 in another tank - all my other fish are too big to fit through the hose.

1. Find new style of gravel cleaner/water remover for me and set up the net thing
2. Get my eyes fixed

I have 4 tanks right now a 50, 2 - 29's and 1- 6 gallon(for a betta) - One of my 29 gallon tanks hardly has any fish in it. I'm seriously thinking I should move the remaining fish to the other two tanks and retire this tank. For some reason this acrylic tank has become more and more of a algae magnet no matter what we do and then the other tanks get infected with that same brown slime. I've got a UV-C light in it - have to clean the filter several times a day and the problems continue. I'll be 60 in January and with my lungs water changes are more than I can handle - plus if something happens to me who is going to take all the fish? So I'll slowly start downsizing. Makes me sad but if I can't do something well I'm not going to do it any longer. I was supposed to be dead 10 years ago so I've been living on borrowed time.