Water Changes, Procedure?

[tetraboi]

when you do your water changes:
1. how much do you? 10 percent 25 percent?
2. do you add conditioner to the tap water first then put it in or add conditioner after putting in ur tank?
3. do you put anything in the tap water to bring the ph to the level you want?
4. Is there anything else you do?

[Richer]

1. I change about 40-50% of my tank water at least once a week.
2. I put in the conditioner while I fill up the tank with water via my python. If you're carrying the water to your tank via a bucket, just put the conditioner into that.
3. Its a bad idea to use chemicals to adjust water pH. That generally leads to a flucuating pH, which is more harmful to fish than a non "perfect" one. Some people add baking soda to their water to bring up KH levels.
4. I just make sure that the temperature of the water going into the tank is simliar to that of tank itself. Makes things a bit less stressful for the fish.

Just remember, the more often you do a water change, the better off your fish will be. If water changes are done often enough, the tank water parameter will be simliar to that of your tank. That will allow you to do very large water changes without a lot of risk if an emergency ever arises.

-Richer

[PumaWard]

30-50% every week on my Tanganyikan and CA tanks and 15% at least every other day (I was doing every day but things have gotten a little busy) and then a 40% change on the weekend in my discus tank.

I don't use conditioner because I have well water.


I only add baking soda every couple of weeks to my Tanganyikan tank to keep the pH up around 8.5. Other than that, I don't add anything.

I clean the filters once a week.

[Hound]

As I've said before, I'm one of the more lax when it comes to water changes. I change 20-30% every two weeks, but I test for nitrates durring that period to make sure I stay below 20ppm. Tank is a 50g community tank that is lightly planted. I add conditioner to the water I am adding (I use a large pitcher) and try to match the temperature as much as possible. I don't use any ph regulating chemicals as it seems it would be a never ending battle if I did attempt to keep my ph at 7ish. My ph out of tap is about 7.7 and so far my fish don't seem to mind.

[TKOS]

I change about 20% in my big tank (20 gallons). I have a very low hardness (kH and gH) in my tank and if I change any less than that per week then my pH starts to crash. So a 20% is the minimum that I can do and keep my tank stable (it is also the size of my change bucket).

I have only chlorine added to my water and I try to let as much of it off gas as possible so I actually use only a tiny amount of dechlorinator.