Water changes

[Chunandler]

Im cycling my take right now so I wont have to do a water change for about a month or so, atleast thats what guy told me. When you do a 10 or 20% water change do you leave the fish in there or what do you do with them. It would be kinda hard to do it with the fish in there. Im a newb, but you probably figured that out long ago. Please respond
Sincerely,
Chandler..aka..Newbie B)

 

[Thomas A. Anderson]

Depends on the size of your tank, filters, how many/type of fish etc with how often you need to do water changes but I do mine approx every 10 - 14 days.

You keep your fish in the tank and you syphon out some dirty water into a clean bucket that is used only for this purpose.

Obviously you dont go mixing up the water while you do this as this will cause stress to the fish as well as clouding up your water.

When you add the clean water make sure it has been dechlorinated first and to around the same temperature as the tank water.

Whenever you clean out the filters DO NOt do so under the tap, rather do it in the bucket of dirty tank water, however you won't need to do this at every water change. I do mine every 6 weeks.

Any more questions fire away & welcome

 

[Chunandler]

Thanks, one more question. I have two bala sharks and a plec all in a ten gallon tank. They are very small and seem to love it but how big will they get before their growth is stunted, at which point I will get a bigger tank or give them to a friend?
Thanks,
Chandler

 

[CFC]

Bala sharks (or as we in England know them Silver sharks)will outgrow a 10g tank very quickly,I have 4 and they reached 6" in as many months,they are now around the 10" mark and still growing.Plecs grow slower, but will still need a bigger tank wthin a year.If you do decide to keep them your going to need a tank at least 4' long and 18" wide as they need lots of room to swim around in.

 

[semper fi]

one correction to what ccl said. it depends on what type of medium you use in your filter. if you use carbon you will have to change it every three weeks. carbon that is more than three weeks old is inactive and can start to lech back into the aquarium the toxins that it has removed.
should do water changes atleast on a weekly basis. the fish can be left in the tank when you do it. make sure that the water is ammonia free and the same temp as the tank water. you do not want to shock the fish.

maggie

 

[Very Fishy]

It is best to leave the fish in the tank when you do the partial water changes. Taking them out of the tank would be more stressful for them than leaving them in. Buy a siphon tube for cleaning the gravel. These are available at your LFS(local fish store). Siphon the water into a bucket while cleaning the gravel. Discard old water and replace with fresh water (same temp and treated to remove chlorine). I do a 30 % partial water change weekly, rinse out the sponge filters in the old water and reuse. Activated carbon looses its effect after a few days depending on the load so I would only recommend using to remove medication or odors.

 

[CFC]

To make one correction to what VF has said you should'nt wash your filter media every time you do a water change,if your filter is of the type that has a floss pre filter this can be rinsed clean but leave sponges until you notice a loss of output from the filter.Also when washing sponges only do half at a time,even when rinsing them in tank water you lose a lot of bacteria which can cause an increase in ammonia and nitrite.

sorry if this comes out twice but i appear to have lost the first one

 

[semper fi]

another correction to what vf said is that activated carbon will stay active for three weeks. depending on the bio load will lessen the amount of toxins that it can remove. if you have a larger bio load then you would want to change the carbon more often than three weeks. carbon should not be left in the filter more than three weeks though since it can leach back into the aquarium what it has removed. is good for removing meds and what not from the tank. does not neccessarily need to be in the tank. cm is the poster boy for what diligent water changes can do for the tank. with 130+ tanks and only usig sponge and box filters his tanks are crystal clear all of the time. but then he does spend alot of time maintaining his tanks also.

maggie

 

[Kirstie]

If you have a 10 gallon tank or more, they should be fine. I have been suctioning my tank (10 gallon, soon to be 20) for 4 years now and they're fine. The fish move out of your way. If you clean your 20% water every week, and take the fish out, you will stress them and they will be more susceptible to diseases such as Ich, which is very hard to get rid of and highly toxic. Leave them in the tank and alone AMAP (as much as possible) or you might lose them.