I Got Some Questions..

[My3Fish]

So when you guys aquascape, do you put the water in first, or do you put the plants and sand in first?

Also, when you do a water change, do you let your water sit overnight to get the chlorine out? That confuses me. How do you get it to the right temperature. Do you just leave all this water out overnight? seems kinda crazy for those that have HUGE tanks, and then doing a 1/3 water exchange, or half Just wondering, been really confused.

 

[mattyeatsmatts]

Wash substrate, then put it in the tank to the required depth.

Fill Tank to just over the height of the substrate.

Plant.

Fill

 

[pablothebetta]

Not sure about the water level Qs, but what I do when it comes to W/Cs is just run watet that is roughly the right temperature using a mix of hot/cold, put in my conditioner, remove the desired amount of tank water and then put the new water back in. The water is made safe pretty quickly after the conditioner is added, or so I have been told, so I don't bother to let it sit (I used to before I was told this).

 

[mattyeatsmatts]

Dechlor the water, leave it five mins and deposit.
IMO the temps don't have to be completely accurate but similar to the touch. I have a shrimp tank and shrimps are fussy with changes and have never had a problem.

 

[coldcazzie]

As pp said - wash substrate, put in tank, fill with a little bit of water so it's wet, arrange hardscape, plant, fill carefully with water.

When water changing, add dechlor to each bucket and add to the tank immediately - dechlor acts immediately, so no need to wait even 5 minutes. If you use a hose (as I do) then attach the hose attachment to the tap, run water to vaguely match the temp, then attach hose, put dechlor in to dechlor whole tank rather than just for the water you're adding lke when you use buckets. Also, if its anything less than 30% I use just cold water.