Water Changes

[clareriley]

When I do my water change I boil litres of water in clean buckets on a saturday night and leave it to cool untill I do my water change on a sunday and if its really cold then I add some boiled water to warm it up and get the temp near enough the same in each bucket to the tank. is this ok or am I doing something totally wrong? I have been doing this for years and I have never known anything different... is there a easier way than having 4 buckets of water in my kitchen?

 

[teaker1s]

I'm looking into nitrate removal systems both plants and biological bacteria and along the way I found that boiling water can increase nitrates and you risk either plastisizers from plastic kettle or metal leaching from metal components/kettle. Depending on the expense you wish to go to use either

Reverse osmosis water-expensive

rechargable ion exchange canister and gently heat water to tank temprature in bucket as below

cheapest get a 6 gallon bucket (cheaply avaliable at any homebrew shop) put tap safe in it and let it stand then
warm with a tank heater to the same as your tank

 

[Ami]

Hi Clare

You'll find on your travels that a lot of us here put the tap water straight in the tank and add our dechlorinator of choice right into the tank.

I used to worry about the temp, but after a lot of discussion on here, decided that my 10% weekly water change with cold water wasn't causing the fish any harm. I now don't bother heating it at all.

There are some people who think that an addition of cold water at changes helps keep their fish healthy and it certainly helps to encourage breeding behaviour in a lot of species!

 

[trace1]

yeah i fill mine straight from the tap, always have on the 2 bigger tanks as i only have a 3 gal bucket & that wud tank me forever to do waterchanges otherwise lol

 

[clareriley]

I thought you was all gonna flame me for being a bad fishy mummy for a minute haha. Well I have come to the decision that if I use tap water and let that stand then im better off than what i do now I can fill the buckets in the morning and fill when serenity has her nap in the afternoon