Whilst Cleaning Out

[sam-starbo]

How do you let the water warm up a little before adding it to the tank?

 

[pj1blue]

Yep! I do!

Say if I'm doing a small water change - 6.5 litres treated tap water (enough to do 7 litres) and 0.5 litres boiled water to bring the temperature up a little.

 

[juwelfan]

Hot water tap, a thermometer and a cold water tap usually does me.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I use the kettle for the fry tanks and species tank- for the rest, I've given up, they get it as it comes out of the tap. Boiling kettles for a 63 gallon just takes for ever, and I have noticed no ill effects since I gave it up. Tap water isn't that cold, and 20-25% doesn't actually alter the temperature that much.

 

[sparky_555]

i just use a mix of hot and cold tap, after a while you can check the temp by hand

 

[my fat fish]

hot and cold top does thta work? i wastld not 2 do that foy my 47gal i do 3 full kettlw in with the rest of the water alwaye gets a nice temp as here the water is like ice and woul dramatically change thwe fish water temp if i just added it str8 from the tap

 

[ItsMyThing]

Really.... the hot and cold water tap should be just fine. Invest in a good temperature probe and check the temp in the tank after removing whatever amount of water you plan on. Then just use the temp probe at your hot and cold tap and match temps. Should work just fine. Do it all the time at my house.

 

[voo]

Actually water from the hot water tap is meant to be bad as it can contain higher traces of heavy metals, copper etc. However i've used it for a while although i do try limit the amount of hot water i am using, ie use a small amount of very hot water rather than a larger amount of warm water.

EDIT: The temperature of the new water you are adding doesn't need to be exact. If you're changing the average 10-25% then there wont be much of a temperature change if the temp of the fresh water is fairly near to that of the tank. Having said that, I've heard some people say that they use cold water to drop the temperature to get certain fish to spawn.

 

[Glod]

Hot water from the tap may be bad indeed if you have an old hot water system with a holding tank due to possible contaminants. If your system has no holding tank (instant heat form your boiler or whatever) then it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Larry_the_lobster]

I just cold water from my tap I havent noticed any ill effects of doing this.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah i just use cold, someone once explained it on here thatwith an average 20% tank whatever the size of tank, using cold water straight from the tap will only drop the tank temp by 1/2oC which is nothing to worry about.

so unless you have fish that are incredibly sensitive to temp chanegs then you don't need to worry about it.

 

[Underwurlde]

Now, this may be utter rubbish (very bad memory) but...

Using previously boilded or very hot water to control water temperature could do something which is akin to giving your fish the bends - like what happens to divers when they come up too quickly. Therefore you should add water from the cold water tap and bring it up to temperature before adding.

Of course I totally ignore that & use water from the hot water tap to match the temperature (slightly less actually) of the water in my tank.

Andy

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Now, this may be utter rubbish (very bad memory) but...

Using previously boilded or very hot water to control water temperature could do something which is akin to giving your fish the bends - like what happens to divers when they come up too quickly. Therefore you should add water from the cold water tap and bring it up to temperature before adding.

Of course I totally ignore that & use water from the hot water tap to match the temperature (slightly less actually) of the water in my tank.

Andy

nope there is something in it, i *think* water heated by a kettle has less oxygen in it, or the chemical structure is somehow modified and it's not very good to use on your tanks.

i can't remember but I'm sure I've heard something along those lines.



where's bignose when you need him!