water change

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hcuevas

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Jan 24, 2004
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Finally my N cycle has been estabilized and I did my first water change. But it seems like a very traumatic experience for the fish from my point of view.

I changed only 1/3 of the water, previously conditioned for chlorine, chloramine, diseases, salt and temperature. After the change the water was full of residuals from the bottom that I did not remove before because I didn't see them. The bottom seemed pretty clean to me.

Is this turbidity commom after a change? Do the fish tolerate it? is there any way to change the water more periodically but in a less traumatic way?

Thanks
 
If you use a gravel vacuum it will get rid of the goop that builds up down there. But that stuff won't hurt your fish.

Many things are traumatic experiences at first for fish. Plsu your fish are probably not doing well after going through a cycle without any water changes. I doubt they will last much longer. But your future fish will be much tougher and will be able to handle changes in water much easier.

Why do you add salt to a fresh water tank? They are fresh water fish, not fish and chips :) .
 
why salt?

Because I have mollies and they like a little salt in the water. I am using just 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons.

I did some water changes during the cycle but 15% each time every week or so. Sometimes it was more often when my ammonia at first or my nitrites latter were to high as per to risk the life of the fish.

But this is my first water change after a week since my tank was fully cycled.

I appreciate your help I feel better now.

Bye

Hernan
 
Glad to hear there were water changes during the intial cycle.

As for salt, this gets debated here all the time, but the Fresh Water Aquarium salt is little more than NaCl which is useful as a medication but not for fish to live in. The mollies you bought were probably in fresh water to begin with. they can live in fresh through salt water.

If you wish to make a truely brackish tank then I suggest you use Marine Salt Mix and not that cheap stuff they sell as a medication.

Mollies like harder water, but harder doesn't necessarily mean salty.
 
That's interesting to know. I learned something new! Okay, sorry to butt in on this post. :)
 
Most of the time, any solids that are stirred up during a water change will either settle back down to the substrate within a few hours or some may get sucked up by your filter. Generally, this is tolerated by the fish.

Since you mentioned that your fish seemed stressed, maybe you added the water too quickly. Slowly adding new water makes it easiler for the fish to adjust to and stirs up less solids.
 
Originally posted by hcuevas
... previously conditioned for chlorine, chloramine, diseases, salt and temperature.
Click to expand...

What treatment is used for diseases?

More frequent water changes will reduce the amount of debris that collects. Liberal vaccuming will also help. I assure you, a bit of distrubance and some floaties is much less traumatic than water that has a high accumulation of toxins.

I agree that the salt is not needed. Without a hydrometer and careful monitoring, regular additions of salt can result in high salinities--the water evaporates off, leaving salt behind. If no FW topoff is done between changes, eventually the salt concentration will get too high. While mollies and many other live bearers prefer hard water, adding salt is not the best way to meet thier needs, and many are acclimated to soft - medium hard water with no problem. What is you hardness now?
 
hardnes

I haven't measured hardness because I don't have the kit. But I was a little worried because with the evaporation I have discovered some deposits of salt at the top case of the tank and the air lines.

I will have to measure hardness.

For diseases I was using Aquari-SOL as prevention method, 12 drops every 10 gallons.

The water cleared up right now. I have two independent filtration system with activate carbon filters and they seem to be doing the job very quick.

I appreciate all your posts. Thanks,
 
Preventative medicating in your main tank is not the best idea, IMO. Quarantining fish and treating for specific diseases is great, but adding a medication 'just in case'? It's not like taking vitamins...More in line with taking an antibiotic every day. Not good for the micro flora and fauna in your tank.

A really good rule to follow--if you don't test it, don't try to change it. While this clearly doesn't work for ammonia, it does apply to most water chemistry issues.
 
Because I have mollies and they like a little salt in the water. I am using just 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons.
Click to expand...

This seems to be a common misconception. Like TKOS said, your mollies were most like raised in freshwater and therefore don't need salt in any way. Clean, warm, hard, alkaline water is more important than salt...

Here's a link to The Great Molly-salt Debate
http://tcoletti.tripod.com/molly_salt_debate.html
 
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