I haven't had luck finding an answer to this question and the Search feature on this site just gives me a localhost error. I've read that many use a large bucket to do a water change. I'm assuming you would then just fill the bucket with new water to the level the water was at after you were done removing tank water. How then do you know how many gallons are in the bucket to ensure the right amount of chemical to de-chlorinate the water is added? I actually don't have any empty gallon containers to re-fill the bucket. I guess I could use 2 liter bottles and do a liter to gallon conversion. How do you all do it?
Question About Water Changes
- Thread starter mancin
- Start date
markandhisfish
comfortably numb
your average plastic bucket holds around 10 to 12 litres 4.54 litres to a gallon (uk) so thats roughly 2.5 gallons per bucket. if you look inside the bucket quitye a lot will have litres/gallons marked on a scale somewhere
Thanks for the quick response. I have a few buckets in the garage, and I'm not home right now so I can't check them but I will cross my fingers and hope they have the scale on the inside. That would make it a lot easier.
fishyfeet
Fish Herder
one of my buckets holds 2 gals, the other 3, so i fill up both thats 5 gals, my tank hold 20 gals so thats 25% easy, then i fill em up and replace it, di
Hi mancin
Sorry, our Search isn't working properly these days, but it'll be fixed soon. Meanwhile, don't hesitate to ask as many questions as you need to.
That's a good idea. You only have to do it once and from then on it will be easy. If your tank is small, you can just add the dechlorinator/chloramine remover to each bucket you fill. For a large tank, add enough of the product to neutralize the entire amount of water in the tank and then fill it up.
Sorry, our Search isn't working properly these days, but it'll be fixed soon. Meanwhile, don't hesitate to ask as many questions as you need to.
That's a good idea. You only have to do it once and from then on it will be easy. If your tank is small, you can just add the dechlorinator/chloramine remover to each bucket you fill. For a large tank, add enough of the product to neutralize the entire amount of water in the tank and then fill it up.
Truck
UKAPS
just have a look at your tank and split it up into tenths, or with a peice of paper mark a half then the others etc, then everytime you do a WC use the sheet of paper to see how much water youve removed, i can tell through judgement you get the hang of it.
markandhisfish
comfortably numb
personally i would get a new bucket from say b and q and use it for the tank and the tank only. give it a good wash with just hot water 1st. reason i say this is because if you use 1 from your garage and its had chemicals of any sort in it like detergent etc there could be residues left behind which may poison your fish and for the sake of a coiuple of quid its just not worth the risk, unless you know what has been in the buckets beforehand .
Great ideas! Thank you. Good point about getting a new bucket.... I don't trust 100% that I know what has been in them before. I'm sure with time I'll be able to eyeball it and have a pretty good idea (like some of you more experienced can), but I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I want to be sure I do everything right until I get to that point.
Truck
UKAPS
their 98 pence at the moment! i bought 5! go out NOW and get some mancin, as this offer is till tomorrow only
fishyfeet
Fish Herder
oh thats what i did, got a new bucket and keep it for fishkeeping only, the black builders ones are good, di
I bought three 20l tubs from Willkinsons @ 78p each. each holds 17l (practically) 2 and 3/4 out and three in does my 190l tank. mind you, getting a tub with 17kg of water to chest hight, is not something everyone can do. they only hold fish water or tank items, NEVER anything else.
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Definately, two or three stackable fish-only plastic bucket are great to have near the tank, all sorts of uses, including emergencies. I always keep a large plastic "scooping" cup sitting in the buckets too.
Eventually you may want to investigate the "Python" type hose setups too, if you haven't already. Python company itself I thought made things particularly useful by offering all sorts of mix-and-match parts so you can put together your own custom system depending on what you need. You can have a gravel cleaning tube section that matches the height of your tank and then hook that to a very long clear tube that reaches to the nearest bath or kitchen sink. That tube can be used to siphon the old water out into your garden or to a drain. Then if you get the right adapter, it can hook up to a tap (preferably a mixing tap) so you can simply pre-adjust your temperature, dump conditioner in your tank directly and then fill the tank by turning on the tap. I then coil mine back up and leave it in the cabinet under the bathroom sink until next week's water change.
~~waterdrop~~
Eventually you may want to investigate the "Python" type hose setups too, if you haven't already. Python company itself I thought made things particularly useful by offering all sorts of mix-and-match parts so you can put together your own custom system depending on what you need. You can have a gravel cleaning tube section that matches the height of your tank and then hook that to a very long clear tube that reaches to the nearest bath or kitchen sink. That tube can be used to siphon the old water out into your garden or to a drain. Then if you get the right adapter, it can hook up to a tap (preferably a mixing tap) so you can simply pre-adjust your temperature, dump conditioner in your tank directly and then fill the tank by turning on the tap. I then coil mine back up and leave it in the cabinet under the bathroom sink until next week's water change.
~~waterdrop~~
Second part question to this. I think I've read many people keep their fish in the tank during their water changes, rather than removing from the tank, as to not over-stress the fish. Is there a certain % of water though that you WOULD want to remove the fish from the tank and place in a holding area? I would think if for some reason the tank needed to have 50+ % water removed, that could be quite difficult with fish still in the tank.
JustKia
Fish Herder
I've done quite a lot of 50% water changes (fish in cycle) over the past few weeks and have never removed my fish from the tank.
I made up a DIY python, place a net over the end of the hose (paranoid about sucking up fish) and just syphon off about 50% (ie half way down tank), dump in enough dechlor for the amount of water I have removed and refill from the hose (we have a mixer tap and add in a trickle from the hot tap as our hot water is heated on demand and doesn't sit in a holding tank, so it's just the same as our cold water. But note this shouldn't be done if your hot water sits in any kind of holding tank for any length of time.)
Some people just refill with cold water but that was dropping my temps too far (not that the danio's seemed to mind), you could always boil some water in the kettle or sauecpan and mix that into a bucket or two of cold to take the chill off.
I made up a DIY python, place a net over the end of the hose (paranoid about sucking up fish) and just syphon off about 50% (ie half way down tank), dump in enough dechlor for the amount of water I have removed and refill from the hose (we have a mixer tap and add in a trickle from the hot tap as our hot water is heated on demand and doesn't sit in a holding tank, so it's just the same as our cold water. But note this shouldn't be done if your hot water sits in any kind of holding tank for any length of time.)
Some people just refill with cold water but that was dropping my temps too far (not that the danio's seemed to mind), you could always boil some water in the kettle or sauecpan and mix that into a bucket or two of cold to take the chill off.
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