Water Change?

[Anthony_19]

when doing water changes,do i turn off the pump and heater ? when im adding the water back into the tank do i say fill a bucket with hot and cold water to match the temp and then add dechlorinator to the bucket and put it back into the tank?when should i clean or change my filters,ive got a small white sponge at the very top and the juwel instructions to change this weekly,should i be doing that ? thanks

 

[mooey65]

Yes always turn off filters and heaters if there are going to run dry.
I don't match the water temps ( As rain is cooler than the rivers )
Yep add dechlorinator to the bucket leave for a few mins to made a brew and tip it in.

Don't clean filters unless blocked up and when you do so do it only in the used tank water.
Yes about 25%-50% water change a week.


I hope this helps.

 

[Anthony_19]

Yes always turn off filters and heaters if there are going to run dry.
I don't match the water temps ( As rain is cooler than the rivers )
Yep add dechlorinator to the bucket leave for a few mins to made a brew and tip it in.

Don't clean filters unless blocked up and when you do so do it only in the used tank water.
Yes about 25%-50% water change a week.


I hope this helps.

Yes thankyou,btw how would i know when my fish in cycle is actually finish ?

 

[mooey65]

I did no that you were in a fish in cycle how long has the tank been running? Have you lost any fish and are you doing tests.
If you are in a fish in cycle I think you need to up the water changes.

 

[Anthony_19]

I did no that you were in a fish in cycle how long has the tank been running? Have you lost any fish and are you doing tests.
If you are in a fish in cycle I think you need to up the water changes.

Tank has been running about 5 days,no fish lost,im using api strip tests,going to get liquid 2moz.how often do i need to do water change and how much water ??

 

[waterdrop]

Once you get your liquid tests tomorrow you can use those to help you adjust the percentage and frequency of your fish-in cycle water changes. Run your tests morning and evening (at least at first) and look in particular at ammonia and nitrite(NO2) (although all results - ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH should be logged in your notebook each time (nitrate(NO3) can wait for now)). You have to be a bit of a detective. Your goal is to not let ammonia or nitrite(NO2) rise above 0.25ppm before you can be back at the house to do another water change. So right after a water change your two numbers should be close to zero. Over the next 12 hours they will (possibly and irregularly) rise. If one of then has shot up to 0.50ppm for instance, then you know you needed to change a larger percentage of water. If they haven't risen much when you test 12 hours later then you know you could get by without a water change or you could choose to make your water changes smaller a little. Eventually you will get a feel for getting it just right.

It takes, on average, about a month or a little more to fish-in cycle a tank. The way you know you are about at the end is when you can go two days without a water change and still not show even a trace of ammonia or nitrite(NO2). When that happens it means to pay attention, bring your testing back up to twice a day if it has lagged and see if the filter can hold the double zeros for a full week during which you aren't doing any water changes. If that happens you are cycled and can ease back on the testing and prepare for a small fish introduction of two or three small fish if that's what you've been waiting for.

I agree you should turn off the filter and heater if the filter would run dry. If it won't (perhaps you have a cannister with a low intake tube and a spraybar) then you can keep it the filter running but turn off the heater if it would become uncovered. I disagree about not temperature matching, I feel that during a fish-in cycle the bacterial growth rate will be helped by roughly temp matching (your hand is good enough) the incoming water. Rain in natural water bodies is a tiny percentage and the fish are free to move. We trap fish in a very small space and then change a large percentage of water during cycling, so I feel both the fish and bacteria are better off with rough matching. After the tank is mature and if the changes are smaller, cold water is ok. I also feel overdosing the Prime or other conditioner at 1.5x or 2x the instructed dosing is a good hedge against water departements that sometimes overdose chlorine/chloramine, especially for the period of cycling when the bacterial colonies are fragile.

A fish-in cycle is an unfortunate thing, involving a great deal of water changing, but if you follow these guidelines you should be able to save the fish and allow the biofilter to become ready to handle the fish, rather than you having to do in manually. Once you have a mature running tank you'll never have to worry about this again usually because you'll have mature media with which to "seed" a new filter and accelerate its fishless cycle.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[timbruun]

about temp matching... i actually tested an empty tank i had @ 80f and did a 50% change without temp matching and it dropped about 20 degrees if i remember right. maybe more. i do think i have really cold, cold water but still, that kind of shock is not good for fish. so don't tank the chance.

actually when i do water changes i just put the tube pointing at the temp gauge and adjust according to what it comes out at since taps have a tendency to change as the water flows.

 

[mooey65]

Were are you from and is there any one you know that can help you out and give you some mature filter?

 

[mooey65]

about temp matching... i actually tested an empty tank i had @ 80f and did a 50% change without temp matching and it dropped about 20 degrees if i remember right. maybe more. i do think i have really cold, cold water but still, that kind of shock is not good for fish. so don't tank the chance.

actually when i do water changes i just put the tube pointing at the temp gauge and adjust according to what it comes out at since taps have a tendency to change as the water flows.

My tank drops about 1-2 degrees tops I leave the water in the room for a bit before I add it. If it was a cold day +5 degrees I will add a small bit of hot water but only on a cold cold day.

 

[Anthony_19]

ok i know what i need to do.btw i have a juwel rio 125 and it has about 8 different sponges in the filter,the top sponge(small white1) is meant to be changed weekly and the 2nd 1 every 6 weeks, is this advised? the rest just have to be cleaned,surly cleaning them in a bucket of your tank water is good ?

 

[indigoj]

don't change any filter media, just rinse in tank water and then only 1/3 at a time once a month or so.

fish in cycle - 50% minimum daily waterchanges - maybe twice daily.

 

[arobinson1984]

Agree with indigoJ, Dont replace your filter sponges unless they are literally falling apart, the manuals say every 6 weeks or so just to get you to spend money.

One exception is the white filter floss pad on top that you mentioned, I've had the rio 125 filter system and the white pad does get clogged quite quickly, personally I used to rinse it in tank water weekly and replace it every month or so, its just used to get the finer particles out of the water to leave it clear and isnt too expensive.

Don't clean any of your other filter media yet, they shouldnt be touched at least until the cycle is fully completed and when they do eventually get cleaned, like you said only do it in tank water. Cleaning sponges in tap water will kill the good bacteria due to the chlorine in your tap water.

Andy

 

[Anthony_19]

Agree with indigoJ, Dont replace your filter sponges unless they are literally falling apart, the manuals say every 6 weeks or so just to get you to spend money.

One exception is the white filter floss pad on top that you mentioned, I've had the rio 125 filter system and the white pad does get clogged quite quickly, personally I used to rinse it in tank water weekly and replace it every month or so, its just used to get the finer particles out of the water to leave it clear and isnt too expensive.

Don't clean any of your other filter media yet, they shouldnt be touched at least until the cycle is fully completed and when they do eventually get cleaned, like you said only do it in tank water. Cleaning sponges in tap water will kill the good bacteria due to the chlorine in your tap water.

Andy

Thanks andy,i thought that was a bit much to be changing a filter every week,at least i know now.can i rinse the white sponge during the cycle then ?

ps. what temp is good for the rio 125 if im looking to keep a variety og fish,this i a few on my mine, abino shark,clown loach,some sort of algae eater,shrimp,neon tretras. puffer fish..also would these sort of fish be ok in 1 tank??

 

[indigoj]

can you post your full stocking please?

the list you mentioned already does have some potential problems.

 

[Anthony_19]

can you post your full stocking please?

the list you mentioned already does have some potential problems.

I have 4 tetras in the tank now for the cycle.

I would like to get -
a algae eater or sucker fish lol
3 or 4 clown loachs
8 or 10 neons
shrimps of some sort
i was lukin bala sharks but was told they to big so albino shark maybe
i love the puffer fish but heard they agressive
maybe a little frog also.
There will be more but cant think of any atm.