Water Change

[bexyjane]

Hi everyone, I really need some help with my water change. I've read throught all the information on here that I can find and spoken to my local fish store but no one thing seems to be saying the same, so now I'm so confused! Would it be possible for someone to give me a kinda step by step guide? I would be so grateful of any help as I'm so scared that I'm going to do something wrong!
Thanks
Bex

 

[SamUK]

empty water out the tank (about 20% a week is good).

fill it back up and add dechlorinator.

job done.


unless its flowing into the tank slowly eg. through a hose then you need to get the temp of the water your adding to roughly the same as the tanks temp to avoid any shock.

 

[dwarfgourami]

or the more in detail step by step guide. This is what I do:

measure up the replacement water in 10 ltr buckets. I do 20-25% a week. I add 1 ltr boiling water to 9 ltrs cold, but this is not necessary. Then I add dechlorinator to each bucket (enough to dechlorinate the bucket)

switch off the tank electrics

stick wide end of gravel vac/syphon into the tank and the narrow hose end into the bucket. Get suction flowing by moving the tank end up and down a few times until water starts running through it. Move tank end across the gravel hoovering up debris as I go

change filter floss and gently rinse out one of the two filter sponges every two weeks (so each gets a rinse once a month)
pour in clean water with a jug (also useful for catching fish and mixing up medicine)

replace tank lid and switch electrics back on

check I haven't hoovered up any fry before I empty the dirty water over the roses IME adult fish have the sense to get out of the way


use

 

[andywg]

Stick one end of a hose in the tank, the other by a sink, suck to start syphon and let it flow out (if sink and tank are same level, connect a powerful eheim pump to tank and wander off).

Once at the correct level throw some dechlor in

Connect hose to cold water tap, turn on full bore. once at right level turn off tap and pack it all away.

The quickest, simplest, and easiest way to do it.

Notice that everyone does it differently. some take ages and use buckets, others with large tanks just drain straight out. sopme heat the water, others don't bother. It's up to you really.

 

[keane]

All very good advice per se but.....whats the point in measuring out a row of 10 litre buckets, or sticking a hosepipe in, if its only a 3 gallon tank???

Bex, can you tell us how big your tank is, how long its been up and running and what fish you have in it first, so we can better advise you as to how to do a water change.

steve