MANAGING WATER CHANGES

S

Sidewinder

AC Members
Mar 10, 2007
13
0
0
I'm doing water changes on 4 different size tanks. 5, 10, 15 and 55 gallons. I'm using the API tap water conditioner to take care of the chloramine that is in my tap water. I'm having difficulty determining just how much conditioner to add, especially the smaller tanks. Directions say to ad 1 ml to 5 gallons of tap, but on the 5 gallon, I only change 1 gallon at a time. It's difficult to determine by using the cap measuring ml lines to determine to proper amount. I'm trying to break the measurement down to the amount needed for one gallon. The pet shop owner told me to use 1 drop per gallon. I asked him one drop from what, and he said any type pf dropper. Even I know there are several different sizes of droppers. Can you overdose the fish on dechlorinators? All the tanks except the 55 have fancy guppies in them.
Thank you in advance.
 
If you know anyone who is diabetic, you can use an insulin syringe. 1cc = 1 mL. A pharmacy might sell something to measure it (like for baby medicine) or maybe they will sell you the syringe without the needle. Good luck.
 
Do you add the dechorinator to the water before adding it to the tank?

Not user on the API, but most of them if you add to the new water before it goes into the tank, you base it on the new water. If you add to the tank then you base it on the total tank size.

I use Prime and just dose for the full tank on my tanks.
 
I use a syringe to dose with. I also use prime and dose my whole tank bc I use a python to do the water change. I have found the syringe to be much more useful than the cap ;)
 
Just use the approximate amount for the size of bucket you have. You aren't going to cause any problems if you put too much in.
 
Sidewinder said:
I'm doing water changes on 4 different size tanks. 5, 10, 15 and 55 gallons. I'm using the API tap water conditioner to take care of the chloramine that is in my tap water. I'm having difficulty determining just how much conditioner to add, especially the smaller tanks. Directions say to ad 1 ml to 5 gallons of tap, but on the 5 gallon, I only change 1 gallon at a time. It's difficult to determine by using the cap measuring ml lines to determine to proper amount. I'm trying to break the measurement down to the amount needed for one gallon. The pet shop owner told me to use 1 drop per gallon. I asked him one drop from what, and he said any type pf dropper. Even I know there are several different sizes of droppers. Can you overdose the fish on dechlorinators? All the tanks except the 55 have fancy guppies in them.
Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

If you do 20% water changes, I assume you are (1gal for the 5gal tank) then why not get a 6 gal bucket and dose for that and do the three smaller tanks at the same time (1 gal for the 5, 2 gals for the 10 and 3 gals for the 15).

Q
 
Last edited:
A little extra won't hurt. But a dropper of some sort will maek thing easy enough. Most droppers should say what size they are, probably 1 or 2 ml.

Truthfully a little under the recommendation probably won't hurt when you are only changing out 1 gallon from a 5 gallon tank.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom