9 year old changing water

Lauren

Lauren

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Aug 9, 2003
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I was gone all weekend and my 9 year old sister did a great job of taking care of the fish. She turned on and off the lights and fed fish in five different tanks. On top of all that, her betta wasn't feeling well, and she was able to medicate it without me asking (I was out of reception for most of the first day). I think she used a little too much, but the betta is doing fine now. She also introduced three fish back into my 20 gallon (nitrits rose, I removed all the fish and was in the process of adding them back). I'm surprised that she remembered what I said about when those fish would be able to go back in, and that she was able to net and move them.

After this weekend, i'm starting to wonder if she is ready to be taught how to change water. I do an RO mix which may make things tricky for her. What do you think? Should I try and teach her, or do you think the risk of her messing up is too great?
 
Teaching

I don't know what an RO mix is but I do happen to be an elementary teacher and I can tell you that if your sister was able to do what you have already described she can do water changes. The best way to teach her would be to model it for her once, describing as you go along, then let her do it by herself and ask questions if she has any. But tell her the procedures first and let her know that you want to do it for her to see first, then she can do it on her own, otherwise she will be thinking only about how she can do it herself the whole time you are explaining it. A lot of people don't realize what kids can do. They are wonderful and a lot of them will be even more attentive to detail and caring than most adults who are new to the hobby. Best wishes!
 
try to teach her.

But stay with her like the first 5 - 10 times, because if she uses too much RO water, etc, it can starve your fish of oxygen (Which is unlikely, because your probably not changing 75% of te water)
 
RO water mixed with tap water is useful if your water is too hard or full of phosphates. Used pure it will kill the fish.

It isn't hard to teach kids, just be patient as you seem to have been and they will pick up stuff very quickly.

You should look at gettign light timers. I have them on al of my tanks and it makes life a lot easier. Plus the tanks get the same amount of light every day, which I like.
 
I looked at light timers; I have a question about them. My two major tanks have those extra outlet bars plugged in to give me more room for all the stuff. If I use a light timer, can I set it up not to effect heaters, filters, etc? But yeah, I should look into them, probably before after Christmas vacation.

I have very hard water with a PH much to high for the delicate tetras and gouramis I like to keep. So RO water is essential to me. Without it, I loose fish very easily.

I'll see how my sister does this week with water changes.
 
I use powerbars for all of my tanks. My sockets have 2 plugs so I plug the power bar into one socket and the lights and timer into the other socket. I assume you have the same setup, pretty standard for North America.
 
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