water changes

[ftx9]

okay in my fry tank i wanted to do a water change cuz its pretty darn cloudy so i have been doing these but i just wanna know what you accually do for a water change

 

[-Chewy-]

You actually use a siphon tube to suck up all the dirt from the bottom of the tank.
At the same time, it will suck up all the water. You can use your tube that you for your air stone as a siphon tube.

-Chewy-

 

[crazie.eddie]

You can use your tube that you for your air stone as a siphon tube.

This would be ok if you had a small tank. Otherwise, you would never get the larger detritus and it would take you hours cleaning up the bottom. I would suggest investing in a gravel vac or better yet, a Python No-Spill gravel vac.

There are a few methods using the gravel vac. I prefer to slowly stick the tube slowly into the gravel with a little twisting motion to stir the gravel around. Then I slowly pull it up twisting it again. When you do this, you remove the detritus on the gravel, which will also remove some of the water. Make sure not to remove more than 30% of the water when you have completed the cleaning of your tank. This is becuase when you add water back in, the water parameters will be more significant on a larger water change, which could effect the health of the fish.

 

[-Chewy-]

well ed, i assume he has a smaller tank as it is a fry tank. so the airstone tube would work just fine.

 

[crazie.eddie]

Then a turkey baster would work a lot faster. I use that to clean the detritus in the breeder container. I love using it, since it has multiple purposes...
1 . Easily catch fry to transfer to a different container if necessary.
2. Direct food at fish that appear to not be getting food, by squirting the food towards them.
3. Suck up/blow detritus in tanks
4. Catch small snails and transfer them to my loach tank.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Unfortunately, it's hard to remove detritus with a baster. It sucks in small gravel and it gets stuck to the bigger gravel. If you've got a sponge filter in there, it should lower the need to do water changes. However, if you use egg yolk or messy foods, that's a different matter.

 

[mr_br0kn_drmz]

lol i am very cheap so i made a gravel vaccum out of:

4 ft of 1/4 inch plactic hose
1 20oz pepsi bottle with the cap

cut the pepsi bottle in half.

then with a lighter heat a knife until its earing hot. so you can cut a hole in the cap. be careful with this step cuz you have to make the hole slightly smaller then the hose.

make sure that you dont cut it to big or too small. just enough so that you have to force it through the hole.

then just squeeze the hose through the hole. making sure its air tight.

screw the cap back onto the pepsi bottle and there you have it a homemade gravel vacuum.

 

[crazie.eddie]

Unfortunately, it's hard to remove detritus with a baster. It sucks in small gravel and it gets stuck to the bigger gravel.

Never had this problem. My fry containers do not have any gravel. If I do use it in the bigger tanks, my opening of the baster is too small to pick up ANY gravel, even of the tiniest.

i am very cheap so i made a gravel vaccum

Cool. Whatever works

 

[ftx9]

mr broken could you please give me the exact details cuz i want to make one please just pm me or post them here

 

[mr_br0kn_drmz]

i just changed the directions to be a tad more specific . but if you want i can take some pics and post them

 

[ftx9]

sure sounds good but how does it suck up stuff

 

[mr_br0kn_drmz]

it works just like a siphon but the bottle makes it so that its only cleans up the nasty stuff. so it wont suck up any of the gravel.

 

[ftx9]

are you gonna post pics and also what is a siphon lol

 

[mr_br0kn_drmz]

lol yea sure ill probably post it in the hardware diy section of the furom tommorow.

im not really sure how to explain a siphon though hehe lets just say its hose that you use to suck upp the cruddy water and stuff.

 

[Sang72]

If you have fry, you should put some netting on the end so the fry don't get sucked up too.

Siphoning is based upon the principle that once started, liquid will continue to flow out of a container through a tube as long as the discharge is lower than the intake. It's how some young miscreants got gas for their cruisers before locking gas caps were standard .

*only read on if you want to understand the siphon principle*

Basically the atmosphere presses down on the surface of the water at approximately 7lbs/square in. When you put a tube in the water and generate a vacum in the tube, the atmospheric pressure causes the water to travel up through the tube (like a drinking straw). Now if you place the discharge end of the tube below the intake, gravity will pull the liquid down out of the tube. The liquid being pulled out of the tube by gravity will continue to generate the vacuum and thus pull more liquid up and out of the container.