Big tank water changes

I freely admit to purging my Python between drain and fill cycles, but not for any extended period. It is basically to be sure I do not have any Java Moss or snail shell fragments left caught in the hose before I fill my reservoirs. As the last thing through the hose prior to storage is chlorinated or chloriminated water, if you do a half-decent job of draining prior to storage, there should never be any pathogen or toxicity issues.

If anybody believes that their fish are the only bioload in their tank, they should try borrowing a kid's microscope and examining mulm, filter floss, bits of broken off plant foliage, etc. There is a massive and fascinating world operating in there - tanks are micro-ecologies, teeming with lifeforms.
 
OrionGirl said:
After all, it's dark and damp inside you, but drinking the water doesn't give you an ailment, right?
Click to expand...

It might if it's left to sit for a week. I'm not saying that the waste water itself is hazardous but that it will contribute to making a good environment for microogranisms to reproduce. If you run plain tap water through a length of tubing, drain it, and let it dry, you end up with a piece of tubing plus maybe some calcium deposits. Do the same with waste water and you end up with lots of little bits of waste/food clinging to the interior of the tubing. After a few days, there's the posibility of otherwise normal microogranisms in abnormal concentrations that get washed right into the tank.

Like I said, I have no evidence either way. So I'm not going to argue about it. I'm going to stay away from them though.
 
Just to clarify, I certainly know that myriad microbes are present just about everywhere as they should and need to be. I guess the situation I imagine is similar to snails in an aquarium (off the top of my head). In a well maintained aquarium, a few snails shouldn't be a problem; they could even be helpful. But once you have food accumulating for them, their population can explode leading to many other problems.
 
Well....it helps to remember that when you are draining from a tank, the water is moving at a fairly fast clip...its not stagnating and coming into contact with the hose for a long period of time. Then, as RTR rightly mentioned, the last thing through the hose will be chlorinated water - with chlorine to kill bacteria and lovely stuff like that. Drain the hose well and you should be good to go.
 
Just wanted to mention that I went to Lowes today and bought a faucet adapter for $2.97 and 25 feet of tubing for $.33/foot. I brought it home and it worked great. I WILL be going back for a little clamp though. I held the tubing on the faucet while it was filling today because it kept wanting to slip off. The tubing only came in either 1/2" (too small) or 3/4" which fits, but not extremely snug. Probably if you could get 5/8 it would be perfect and wouldn't require any clamps. I will probably buy more tubing in a few months, 25 feet is *just enough* but 50 feet would be better.

THANKS LEOPARDESS!!
 
Another thought has now occured to me. If water is being added straight from the taps and the correct amout of de-chlorinator added to the tank, would the fresh tap water not pass straight into the filter and possibly kill off good bacteria colonies and end up causing an amonia/nitrate spike.
 
Hmm, this is interesting. I don't do anything to clean out my hose after use. I get as much of the water out of it as I can and put it into storage... there's even some algae growing on one of the sections. I have never had any problems with any of my fish, and there's no chlorine in my tap so that doesn't clean it either.
 
Nice thinking, so i can do my water change straight from the tap just leave the filter off for a couple of hours while the water settles and all is fine.
Fantastic Im never using buckets again, over the years I think my arms have gone like popeye after eating spinage with all that lifting! :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom