Water Changes In Large Tank?

[cs091]

Hello everyone,

This is a hypothetical question as I only have a 10g at moment!

How do people with large tanks - 40g plus - change the water?

I use two large buckets, one clean filled with water and left for a couple of days before warming with water from kettle, checking temp with thermometer, then adding conditioner. I then siphon off the dirty (used!) water into the second bucket, vacuuming gravel at same time and clean filter if it's due. Clean glass, heater and ornaments then slowly pour prepared water back into the tank.

This isn't too bad when I'm only changing 2-3g at a time but it can't be practical with a 10 gallon change!

So people - How's it done without soaking the carpet?
CS

 

[KyleJ]

I only have a 18G tank but getting a 50G tank and I believe its pretty much the same what you said.

I have a huge tube that holds around 50-60 Litres in so I just fill up the required amount into that, stick the heater in for a few hours during the day to get it to the right temp, once it is, syphon the water out the tank into a bucket, empty the bucket in the bath and do it again until enough water was out then fill the tank back up with the new water.

Cant see why that wouldnt work with a 50G tank, as with 18G its perfect and theres no mess at all and just takes around 20 mins at the most

 

[McMurray]

Hello everyone,

This is a hypothetical question as I only have a 10g at moment!

How do people with large tanks - 40g plus - change the water?

I use two large buckets, one clean filled with water and left for a couple of days before warming with water from kettle, checking temp with thermometer, then adding conditioner. I then siphon off the dirty (used!) water into the second bucket, vacuuming gravel at same time and clean filter if it's due. Clean glass, heater and ornaments then slowly pour prepared water back into the tank.

This isn't too bad when I'm only changing 2-3g at a time but it can't be practical with a 10 gallon change!

So people - How's it done without soaking the carpet?
CS

Well first of all you shouldnt warm you water with a kettle as you can kill you fish with the gas that is produced in the water when it is heated. the fish get a thing like the bendze.

I have had an RO system installed and anout drain off pipe which allows the water to over flow into it and run into the drain.

befor i did this i bought two large drums and one had new water and the second had the dirty water. the black drum was plastic and used for storeing chemicles, oils, but i first used it to store my we canoe gear.

back to the subject... yea so one container with a heater and and air stone to make a circulation

 

[saboy]

Well I do what kyleJ does aswell for my currant tanks, but when i get my 6x2x2 tank, I am gonna get a 200 litre water butt, put a heater in it, and a pump with long enough pipe to reach into my tank, so when the time comes to do a water change I will fill the water butt with a suitable hose from my kitchen, let the water age(with a airstone) and heat up in there, then put a pipe from the pump to the tank and flick a switch and bobs your uncle the tank starts filling up. (obviously this is all after I have siphoned water out to the drain outside my tank room area(possible into another water butt in the summer to use for the garden)

When money allows i think I will get another pump to use for taking out water

And for gravel vaccing i think i will use one of those unit that are either mains operated or battery operated, and all the gunk is collected into the little bag. But not sure yet.

 

[Taridan]

Well, my fiancee has a 55 gallon, and he started off by using large buckets and a manual gravel vac. Plug the sink and run the water into it at the right temp, then use the vacuum to switch water from sink to the 10 gallon buckets adding the declorinator then... after about 2 weeks of this he got tired of it and bought a Python.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Well first of all you shouldnt warm you water with a kettle as you can kill you fish with the gas that is produced in the water when it is heated. the fish get a thing like the bendze.

Have you got a reference for this? Never heard of it, have always used the kettle myself and know lots of fishkeepers who do.

 

[cs091]

after about 2 weeks of this he got tired of it and bought a Python.

Sorry to be a dimbo - What's a python?

CS

 

[andywg]

Well first of all you shouldnt warm you water with a kettle as you can kill you fish with the gas that is produced in the water when it is heated. the fish get a thing like the bendze.

Have you got a reference for this? Never heard of it, have always used the kettle myself and know lots of fishkeepers who do.

I agree, when boiling you will be driving oxygen out of the water and then as it cools it will reoxygenate. I have never heard or seen of this.

As for big water changes, I stick a 2,500LPH pump in, pump it inot the sink, connect a hose to the cold water tap with a shower attachement, stick some dechlor in the tank (though I may cease soon as more and more evidence shows this as an unnecessary step) and fill the tank back up.

Most people with large tanks soon stop using buckets as it just takes too much time and room.

 

[cs091]

..... connect a hose to the cold water tap with a shower attachement ........ and fill the tank back up.

Doesn't this cause the temperature in the tank to drop?

CS

 

[Miss Wiggle]

..... connect a hose to the cold water tap with a shower attachement ........ and fill the tank back up.

Doesn't this cause the temperature in the tank to drop?

CS

we've 6 tanks between 3g and 80g...... we just use buckets and a siphon for all of them, but my fella's a builder so carrying lots of heavy things (like shed loads of water) is his speciaslity so it's not a problem, I go round siphoning and he tops up behind me

A lot of fish are stimulated by the temp change, my livebearers and big cichlids love it. But I have one tank that the fish are v sensitive to temp changes so we need to check each bucket full of water is the same temp before adding it, just mix hot and cold from the taps then use dechlor and stick it in.

Most tricky water change is where we have 2 tanks stacked, there's not enough room between them to pour the water in so we have to siphon into the tanks as well

 

[saboy]

I was told hot water from the tap can have more copper in it from the tank its heated in , not sure about that still, but now if i need hot water i boil a kettle of water and add to cold, but that was too much work, so now i chuck in a 150 watt heater into a 40 litre tub and wait for the tempo to go up.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

aye, were going to have a spare heater soon as one of them's being upgraded so we were planning on using that to warm thed water in the future

 

[CFC]

18 tanks (nearly 1000 gallons) all emptied and refilled via a hose. First i syphon the water from the tanks down the hose and onto the garden (fish water is very good for plants, all that nitrate and dissolved organics) and then i attach the hose to the outside tap and refill all the tanks adding dechlorinator as i go, the only time i add any hot water is during the very coldest months of winter when i add enough to stop the tanks dropping below 21c.

 

[McMurray]

Well first of all you shouldnt warm you water with a kettle as you can kill you fish with the gas that is produced in the water when it is heated. the fish get a thing like the bendze.

Have you got a reference for this? Never heard of it, have always used the kettle myself and know lots of fishkeepers who do.

ok this can happen with filling the tank in the winter as well.
the supersaturation of gases in tap water due to pumping under pressure and/or cold water heating up to room temperature.
Tap water distribution systems are maintained under pressure at all times, both to insure adequate flow and to prevent polluted water from outside the pipes to enter in at leaks. Any additional gas introduced
into these pipes (e.g., a leaky manifold) will be dissolved at these higher partial pressures, and will often be supersaturated when it emerges from the tap. Also, gases are more soluble in cold water than
warm, so when gas-saturated cold water emerges from the tap and warms up in an aquarium, the water becomes supersaturated and can form bubbles.

The problem resulting from this phenomenon is called gas-bubble disease. This is characterized by the formation of gas bubbles in the body cavities of fish, such as behind the eyes (causing exophthalmia) or
between layers of skin tissue. Small bubbles can form within the vascular system, blocking the flow of blood and causing tissue death.
Worse, bubbles can form in the gill lamellae and block blood flow, occasionally resulting in death by asphyxiation. At 140% saturation and higher, gas bubble disease can cause fish kills, although the effect can
cause some problems at 105-140% saturation.

Sources:

Tchobanoglous, G. and E. Schroeder. 1985. Water Quality.
Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.

Lamb, J. 1985. Water Quality and its Control. John Wiley and Sons.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1995. Introduction to Fish Health
Management. USDOI Printing Office.


External gas bubble disease (EGBD)
is thought to be caused by either bacterial infection (wherein waste CO2 produced by the infecting bacteria becomes trapped underneath the skin) or by gas super-saturation of the water in which the fish reside.

Gas super-saturation causes problems similar to the bends, which affects SCUBA divers. The situation, wherein gas levels in the water are much higher than normally possible (caused by limited areas for gas escape), causes gas bubbles to form anywhere possible.

Because the pressure inside of a fish is lower than the pressure of gas super-saturated water, the gas bubbles emerge directly under the skin of the affected fish. Since the air bubbles cannot pass through the skin, they remain stranded there until treated or until they can be reabsorbed by the fishes own body.

Gas Bubble Disease
Super saturation of water

 

[dwarfgourami]

I don't see how this refers to boiling up a small quantity of the water in a kettle though; where does it say that? The danger seems to be in getting water from the tap in the first place and then warming it up in the aquarium. But we have to get the water from the tap to keep aquaria at all, and people who boil a kettle mix their warm water up in a bucket, so this is precisely when cold water will not still under pressure when it enters the aquarium; any gases will have escaped when it's being mixed up. (surely nobody is idiot enough to pour boiling water from the kettle straight into the tank?)
Sorry, am I being thick? I just can't see that this has any reference to mixing in hot water from the kettle.