Best way to do a water change?

[Southerrngirrl]

Now that I'm really getting in to my aquarium, and want to keep my fish alive, I want to make sure that I do water changes properly. I did to a search for previous posts regarding this but didn't seem to have any luck.

I currently siphon out 20-30% of the water from the tank, then get fresh water from the tap (which is rain water). I check the temperature of the tank and then stick the thermometer in the bucket and fill it with a combination of warm and cold water to get it about the same temperature of the tank. I've always wondered if this is the right thing to do.
Then i add my stress coat and stress zyme and siphon it back into the tank.

Am I doing it ok, or completely wrong??

[schigara]

I'm am still fairly new to this but that is pretty much the way I do water changes except I only use Prime and I put the Prime in the bucket before adding tap water so it gets thoroughly mixed in while filling. I have gotten to the point where I can tell the temp of the water by just feel so I no longer use the temp gauge while filling the bucket.

[anonapersona]

If the tap has rainwater you probably do not need Stress Coat and Stress Zyme.

Personally I don't really understand what Stress Zyme is supposed to be doing in an established tank... adding bacteria? why?

[FisheyLisa]

It is not advisable to use hot tap water, as your water heater may have minerals and such built up in it that over time may not be good for your fish. You should put cold only in a container and brng it up to room temp. I have found it takes a couple of days to do that. With the 20-30 change you do adding room temp to slightly heated tank should effect the temp. If I ever need to do fast changes, I heat the cold water to room temp in my microwave. Don't know if that is good or not, but hat is what I do.

How often do you do changes? I assume you test your water for pH ammonia etc. But if you don't you should.

Finally why do you use stresszyme and stresscoat? Are your fish sick? These chem's aren't necessary if there is nothing wrong with your fish.

[d0nuT]

Hi :)

I use rainwater. I fill up two wateringcans with the cold rainwater (which adds up to the same amount of water that I remove with buckets) put them into a bath filled wih hot tap water and wait until the temps are the same, both in the tank and in the cans, and then put the water back in slowly so as not to disturb anything using my gravel vac, takes me about 15 minutes :) I do this every week, and it's usually a 25% change. :)

D

[wingnut6469]

Another trick for getting the water temp right is to put your heater, assuming its submersible, in the bucket with your clean water. In just a few minutes it should be the same temp as your tank water.

[d0nuT]

That's a good idea! Never thought of that! :)

[Southerrngirrl]

Well I use stress coat and stress zyme because the shop I bought the tank from told me to. What is a newbie to do if who you assume is a professional tells you that? Thats why I came to these forums to get better advice.. from someone that wasn't just trying to sell me something.

Ok so no hot tap water. We're just coming in to winter here, if I'm doing water changes at night and we have the fire going it shouldn't be too much of a problem to bring the water up to temperature.

I do weekly changes of about 9 litres, which is around 20-30% of the tank. I test the water for pH, but can't test for anything else yet as I don't have the necessary kits. I've just had the guy at the pet shop test my water and there was something wrong with it.. (he put some solution in trying to turn it blue and it took like 10 drops to look even slightly blue) can't remember what it was but he's instructed me to do weekly changes then in a fortnight bring back more water for more tests. I had previously been adding ammo lock and proper pH 7.0 (again cos the other petshop told me to). He wants to get that out of the system and see what test results we get then.

Thanks for the advice!

[Raskolnikov]

If your water heater is accumulating deposits, then it is actually removing them from the water and thus the hot water would have less TDS than the cold. I've used both hot and cold taps for years with no ill effects.

[FisheyLisa]

If you were talking about a stove to heat your water, make sure you don't boil it, jsut bring it to fishey temps. You'll remove stuff...and do something witht he kH I think. I don't do it, so I don't remember what it does exactly.

Don't forget, there is a lot of good, cited info on the net to help you research. Also there are a lot of different opinions, and they aren't all necessarily wrong, just different.

Lisa

[Liz]

You sound like you are doing a very good job with water changes. I just have a few empty gallon jugs of bottled water lying around that I fill up with water a few minutes prior, add some amquel, stick some airline tubing in my tank and siphon the water out the screen of my window, and just dump the new water in.
That is, if I forget to leave some water out overnight, which is like half the time.

[anonapersona]

Well I use stress coat and stress zyme because the shop I bought the tank from told me to. What is a newbie to do if who you assume is a professional tells you that?

I think most pet store employees get their education by reading the labels on the stuff on the shelves.


Ok so no hot tap water. We're just coming in to winter here, if I'm doing water changes at night and we have the fire going it shouldn't be too much of a problem to bring the water up to temperature.

I disagree, hot tap water is OK. Test with a thermometer, or just your hand to match tank temps, but stay with it don't walk away and find the temp has gone hot or cold on you, assuming you are using a hose hooked to the sink, using a bucket you can be more sure and more tired out by the whole ordeal.


I do weekly changes of about 9 litres, which is around 20-30% of the tank. I test the water for pH, but can't test for anything else yet as I don't have the necessary kits. I've just had the guy at the pet shop test my water and there was something wrong with it.. (he put some solution in trying to turn it blue and it took like 10 drops to look even slightly blue) can't remember what it was but he's instructed me to do weekly changes then in a fortnight bring back more water for more tests. I had previously been adding ammo lock and proper pH 7.0 (again cos the other petshop told me to). He wants to get that out of the system and see what test results we get then.

I'll make a wild guess that he was testing KH, and at 10 drops = 10 degress KH you probably don't have a problem with unstable pH. He would have also tested ammonia, and pH, each of those are a certain number of drops and the color is compared to a chart. KH and GH count the drops to a sudden color change.

I can try to explain the conflicting advice so far. The ammolock is something that makes your fish very comfortable so they are not hurt by building ammonia from a new tank that has no biofiltration. But, it may prevent the biofilter from getting established. So, you have to sort of wean the tank off of that, do water changes to keep the fish comfortable but let the biofilter begin to work.

It would be a wise idea to invest in a Master Test kit instead of most of the stuff on the shelves of the store. You want to know ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH. PetSolutions.com has that kit in the US for $11 online, the local store may have it for more, be sure what tests it has for you want nitrate more than the KH and GH some of the kits have.

[Southerrngirrl]

I really have to learn about all ths kh, gh stuff.. right now it doesn't mean a thing to me, all I know is pH, and the guy at the pet shop says I'll never be able to alter the pH of the water, for what reason I am unsure. I'm going to ask a billion questions next time I see him!