New Tank - A Bit Daunting...

[Schmill]

Ok, so at the weekend we took the plunge and bought ourselves an Aqua One Regency 120, 300L tank.
The tank I have at the moment, (and have had since young), is a (now seemingly small!), 60L tank.

So although not new to the hobby as such, I am new to it on this scale!
How do I fill it with water? With my 60L I just used a bucket from the kitchen tap, but I don't fancy doing that with 30 buckets full.
I am thinking I'll use my hose pipe, like I used to with my pond. Tap on, time how long it takes to fill a 10L bucket, then fill the tank, and based on how long it takes calculate how much water actually went into the tank. Does this seem reasonable?

Also do people use hot / warm water from their taps to fill tanks? I've only ever used the fresh cold water from the mains, which wasn't an issue with the 60L tank, but I'm thinking with 300L(ish) and a 300W heater it will take a long time, (and be expensive?), for it to heat the water up to the correct temperature?
It's not too much of an issue at the beginning because I still need to cycle the tank, but when there are fish and plants in the tank a 25% water change will be 75 litres, and I'd think that much cold water might be a shock for the fish?
My only worry with using warm water would be if there are any contaminants in either the cold water tank in the loft, or the hot water cylinder it feeds? Would an API test of the warm water be sufficient to check it? (Although that will only be ph, no2, no3, and ammonia??)

Any advice on this greatfully received

Any other advice people can give for someone new to 'large' tank ownership would be wonderful

As a final note... when the day eventually comes that the beast is cycled, and water changed etc, can I just take my fish out of my existing little tank and pop them into the big one, or do I have to do it similar to bringing fish home from the shop? (Fish in a bag, float the bag, mix some water, finally net the fish out the bag into the tank?) Doing it the 'from-the-shop' way seems a bit pointless to me as the water will all be from the same place, and the 2 tank temperatures will also be as close as possible, but again open to advice

Thanks all!

Will upload some (boring) pictures later, as I can't see how to attach them directly to this post, and I can't access my photobucket account from my work PC!

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds exciting! Guess you have done the basics re trusting your floor (going across multiple floor joists rather than along 1 or 2 if that is at all applicable). I'd also take care leveling and ensuring no raised points etc. and all the other good "location" considerations which I'm sure you know.

I count myself among the "Python" water filler people, not feeling overly concerned about the quality coming from my hot water heater and so being perfectly happy to mix hot and cold and sent it through the Python. Once I had fish and got into the weekly routine I started using a large cup of existing tank water to put my hand in while standing at the sink and adjusting the tap mix (I happen to have one of those faucet levers that will maintain my left to right temperature choice despite the flow being completely off while I attach a hose to the adapter, but the Python valve can help you accomplish the same thing with any type faucet.) I toss half the Prime (or whatever conditioner you use) into the tank just before and the other half of the dose near the end of the fill.

Please be aware that you can search TFF and read various threads of aspects of the water fill topic. Technically, it can get into controversies and I wouldn't want to steer you wrong if your water heater type warrants that something different be done. Apparently in some places there is more concern about metals and other things being too high from certain type situations. Also, some fishkeepers like to be extremely careful in the prep of their incoming water. I think I'm in with the looser majority but we may not be the most careful bunch.

I think it never hurts to to the bag change procedure, even between your own tanks, better safe than sorry.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[minxfishy]

You can just use the normal tap to fill up from with your hose, alot of people here including myself do so, or you would be forever back/forwards with buckets, nightmare, tried it for a while and invested in a python, similar thing, but also syphons the water out too

If you have a mixer tap, its easy to fill at the right temperature, if not, then on normal 30% water changes, the drop in the temp isnt enough to harm the fish and can indeed induce spawning on some species as in the wild, the temp isnt stable and often drops during rain etc. So dont worry about the temperature, the heater will warm it quickly enough.
You can also pop the dechlorinator directly into the tank water as you re-fill so again no worries on the score, usually best to double dose the amount you putting back in just to be on the safe, and you get used to amounts, I used to wonder how I was suppose to know how much Id taken out without measuring it, I even did the first time I used the python by taking out in 10 litre bucket and marked the tank at the back, so I knew each time, then you just get used to it and know roughly how much youve done and with double dosing on the dechlor its not much of an issue.

Providing once youve done the fishless cycle, your temps and ph match that of your existing tank, its perfectly fine to just add the fish immediately, no need to float them, of course if it turns out your ph is wildly different then yes they would need acclimatising, but its unlikely as you are using the same water source.

 

[OldMan47]

With as modern fiberglass lined water heater, there is no problem at all using a temperature matched blend of water to fill your tank. Although I say modern, I think that type of heater has been fairly standard for at least 40 years. I always flush my pipes long enough to get the tap water to show the hot from the heater and the cold from the mains before I start trying to temperature match. That way I don't end up using water that has been sitting in my house copper tubing for a long time. I really don't want high copper content in the water I use for the tank and I worry about the lead in the solder used to join copper tubing sections. After the flush I figure the water is as safe as the water in the street mains so I have no problem using it in my tanks.