The Perfect Water Change

[Bignose]

Don't overlook your local hardware store by restricting yourself to only an aquarium powerhead. I bought a little pump, supposed to be for a lawn fountain I believe. It is small, only 1/4 horsepower, but it does like 4 gallons per minute. You can get the appropriate length of hose at the same hardware store, too. I currently use over 50 feet of hose to get from the bathroom on the top floor to the tank in the basement. The pump has no problems whatsoever. I suspect you could easily go over 100 feet.

 

[Bex]

I live in a flat and we have a 480 litre tank. My hubby uses the gravel vac, straight into the bucket that I'm holding, and we have another empty bucket ready to go. When my bucket gets full, or too heavy we switch the syphon to the empty bucket, while I run to the sink and chuck the water away! You've got a girlfriend so get a couple of buckets and bob's your uncle For just a water change, do the power head and hose straight into your sink thing and vice versa to fill it back up.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it quickly and easily pumps the water out of the tank, then add dechlor to the tank, run the hose straight from the tap back to the tank and turn it on

Does is not affect the bio-filter? I thought the dechlor need time to 'work' on the tap water before it went into the tank? Certainly make emptying the tank easier thou, will remember that little trick!

Also, any ideas if you need to use RO water? I currently use a 24lt Jerry can, gonna need 8 when I get my 400lt tank! That's a lot of lifting!

Sam

sam powerhead again mate, put it in the jerry can full of RO, attach the hose to the end and pump it up into the fishtank you'll drain each one pretty quick so just line them up and move on to the next

 

[alisdairkr]

When I do water changes, I usually change 25-30% of my 16g, so about two buckets full. I always get the water up to temp in the bucket before topping up the tank, by mixing hot and cold water. Am I wasting my time? If you can connect straight to tap I presume temp is not that important?

 

[mr williams]

I add some boiling water to the bucket before I put it in but I do such a large change taht the temp invariably drops a bit. I'm no expert but I believe as long as the change in temp is not drastic you should be fine. If you have a small tank though you may have to be more carefull changing 40%.

 

[sussexgirl]

Modern dechlorinators work instantly with no need for water to be left to stand, i refill all my tanks directly from a hose connected to the garden tap adding dechlorinator as i go, a little bit at the start a little when half filled and the rest when the tank is full. As i change around 200 gallons of water a week having to leave this much water to stand would require me to have a second fishroom just for standing water in

So let me get this straight...........I can fill a bucket with part boiled water, part cold water make sure it's the correct temp, add stress zyme and then add it instantly to the tank? No having to wait for 10 mins before adding it? If so that's wonderful as I can do my water changes in half the time!

 

[Bex]

Modern dechlorinators work instantly with no need for water to be left to stand, i refill all my tanks directly from a hose connected to the garden tap adding dechlorinator as i go, a little bit at the start a little when half filled and the rest when the tank is full. As i change around 200 gallons of water a week having to leave this much water to stand would require me to have a second fishroom just for standing water in

So let me get this straight...........I can fill a bucket with part boiled water, part cold water make sure it's the correct temp, add stress zyme and then add it instantly to the tank? No having to wait for 10 mins before adding it? If so that's wonderful as I can do my water changes in half the time!

Yep, no need to wait for 10 mins! We fill our big tank straight from the tap and chuck the de-chlor in as it fills. Never had a problem either.

 

[sussexgirl]

Yep, no need to wait for 10 mins! We fill our big tank straight from the tap and chuck the de-chlor in as it fills. Never had a problem either.

FANTASTIC!

 

[Underwurlde]

Beware of using boiled water (to raise the temperature of cooler water) with fish. I remember reading somewhere that it can give fish problems much akin to divers who come up to the surface too quickly and get the bends.

I could be spouting utter dross of course....

Andy

 

[alisdairkr]

I have just found this on a Shrimp forum (which may explain why my shrimp died - appropriate thread already raised).

*Never* use the hot water tap. The hot water has increased levels of copper, lead and possibly other heavy metals toxic to shrimp. Due to certain chemicals added to the hot water, the copper pipes corrode more easily and release copper directly into the water. Other chemicals are also added to the boiler which, helped by the temperature of the water, release heavy metals into the water. Whereas fish will be fine (in the short term anyway), shrimp will react adversely immediately.

 

[LisaLQ]

Boiled water also has little oxygen in it. We do 30-40% water changes straight from the cold tap via a hose. Yep the temp goes down, but the fish love it It soon heats up again. We chuck in dechlor once it's filled back up.

When we drain it, the hose goes over the loo. Trapped with loo seat, you dont even have to watch it. Lazy, huh?

 

[sussexgirl]

Boiled water also has little oxygen in it. We do 30-40% water changes straight from the cold tap via a hose. Yep the temp goes down, but the fish love it It soon heats up again. We chuck in dechlor once it's filled back up.

When we drain it, the hose goes over the loo. Trapped with loo seat, you dont even have to watch it. Lazy, huh?

I only use a very small amount of boiled water to take it up into the lower range of acceptable temp. My temp is usually 79 and the water I add back in is around 68 degrees. It's never out of the hot tap, simply filtered cold tap water which has been heated up (often not even boiled) and added to the cold. My fish haven't suffered any ill effects so far.

 

[CFC]

Bolied water also has no buffering capacity as the calcium which forms the buffers has been "boiled" out, over time it could lead to low KH levels in the tank and eventual pH crash.

Unless your water changes are dropping the tank temperature by more than 3c then there is no need to warm the fresh water at all.

 

[vic]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=105769

Also, Google python and you will get a visual of what you are building, more or less.
Vic