Large Water Changes.

[The Mottfish]

A quick question on how I would go about making large water changes.

What do you folks do to get the water to tank temperature before putting it into the tank. I've got a 50 litre plastic bin type thingy to store the water and was wondering how to heat such a large amount? (My tank is 177 litres approx.)

Could I use a heater or would it melt the bin?

In the past I've used boiled water to bring the water to temperature but won't that become a bit of a farce when heating a larger amount?

Cheers.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i just do it slowly tbh, i regularly do 40% changes on our 92gallon tank. just add the dechlor straight to the tank and run the hose into it but with a slow flow of water so the heaters in the tank have at least half a chance to keep up!!

takes a while to fill but you don't have to do anything so i just put my feet up and watch telly while it's doing!

however if you want to put a heater in the plastic drum it should be ok short term. best if you have one with a heater guard on though.

 

[rdd1952]

I use a python and simply mix hot and cold water. When I used buckets, I did the same thing. I ran it almost full, then, if it was too hot, I added cold water and if it was too cold, I added hot water. I have had no issues at all related to using hot water. As long as you let the water run for 30 seconds or so, there shouldn't be anything in the lines that will harm the fish other than the chlorine and chloramines and obviously that has nothing to do wiht hot and cold.

 

[Sysiphus]

If you can get the reserve in a position to syphon you can take an air line or two and start a very slow refill back to the tank. Shouldn't be any problems. I use that system and the "take out" of water is maybe 15 minutes. I start the syphon and walk away for about 3 hours.