How do you peform your water changes?

[Newbie101balla]

Just curious how people do there water changes.

SOme of my questions are

Do you use a gravel vacum everytime?
Do you take the water from the top sometimes or always from the bottom?
HOw often you change your filter and how often you just clean it out?
Do you turn anything off like filter or heater?
DO you take out your decorations plants and things like that to scrub down?

Thanks alot guys i think this is going to be helpfull to everyone

 

[khombre]

First, I get/scoop water from the top to just to ensure that I remove some oil or any substance accumulating at the top. After that its gravel vac all the way.

Most of the time I just rinse my filter media with old water from the tank. This way I don't hurt my beneficial bacteria colonies. I don't usually change the filter media as long as it is still intact or functional. I'll change it when it becomes tattered and all.

I turn off my filter because it is powered by a powerhead, I don't like any risk of an electric shock. As for the heater, sorry can't help you with that one, I don't use one as I live in the tropics.

I only take out decor when there is algae to scrub. Most of the time there is none so they stay where they are.

Have a nice day.

 

[rosita]

To add to Khombre's post: I unplug filter and heater just to be safe. Fake plants I take out and shake vigorously in bucket of water since they tend to accumulate food etc. on leaves.

 

[LunchBox]

I unplug my gear and use a gravel vac to siphon water out of the tank. in my planted tank I don't actually vacuum, but in my non-planted tank i do. once the filter drains out I usually use a little cup to refill the filter with water as a kind of primer so the motor isn't running dry when I restart it (motor will last longer this way).

I rinse out my filter media every second or third change in old tank water, and also do a deep vacuum of my non-planted tank on those days as well.

it's also a good idea to check your filter impellers, powerhead intakes, etc. for debris every couple weeks and clean them out by rinsing them in old tank water and scrubbing them with a toothbrush.

 

[BloodThirsty28]

I pretty much do the same as everyone else. One thing I started doing with my new tank is I got about 25 feet of tubing for my gravel vac and just send all the waste water out into my back yard. No need to carry huge tubs of water to dump out.

 

[sophiecat22]

it's also a good idea to check your filter impellers, powerhead intakes, etc. for debris every couple weeks and clean them out by rinsing them in old tank water and scrubbing them with a toothbrush.

Yeah, Its definitly a good idea to frequently check your filter impellers. I pulled mine out the other day just to make sure that there wasn't any gunk accumulating on it and to my surprise, I discovered a massive amount of my very long hair wrapped around the main part of the impeller. My filter hadn't been making any strange noises or anything so I wouldn't have known if I hadn't checked. My filter is definitly running better since I removed the hair though.

 

[twig]

siphon the bottom once a week. do 50% water change. On my 20 long I clean out the filter every week with old water or dechlored water in a bucket (i use the gunky water to 'feed' my plants). my 77 gallon's filter is a fluval 404 and it doesn't get dirty much at all. I cleaned it out twice because of introduction of microswords and there being a lot of plant gunk but other then that the only thing that gets buildup is the poly wool and i clean that out once every 2 weeks.

I turn off the filter and heater...

I have plants but I still vaccum. I just shake the siphon above the plants vigorously to get any gunk that settled ontop the plants...

i clean the intake and then fill it back up dechloring with a half dose of prime. (i have very little chlorine in the water) and then i prime filter and turn on and watch as my rainbows start to spawn

 

[jay733]

I've heard that 20 percent water changes twice a week is good, and you can do this vacuuming, also if you just change 20 percent, there is no need to treat the newly replaced water.

The filters don't really need replacing, all you have to do is rinse them out every month and put them back in again, the carbon and stuff, that's only really necessary if your just starting to set up your aquarium and besides it only lasts 3 days anyways.

 

[thefirethief]

I do a 30% water change every week using a gravel vaccum. 10% goes into a bucket, 10% over the carpet and the other 10% in my mouth.

 

[LunchBox]

if you just change 20 percent, there is no need to treat the newly replaced water.

not sure I agree with that. chlorine is in water in a similar fashion to ammonia, where if it's in a tablespoon of your water it's in all of it. it'll eventually gas off of your water, but meanwhile your fish are getting some nice chlorine through their gills.