water change with python
- Thread starter Gretchen
- Start date
you probably don't want to here this, but in my opinion, I wouldn't get rid of those five gallon buckets. It would definitely be best if you treated the tap water in the buckets, and then poured it into the tank. by running the tap water through the python directly into the tank you are putting chlorine into the tank. yes i know you are immediately treating it, but it doesn't take much chlorine, or much time to damage your bacterial colony. It would be best to continue treating the water in the buckets, but look on the bright side, at least you won't be carrying the buckets so far. :idea:
what graysilm says is what is recommended. I am lucky enough to have chlorine/chloramine free tapwater so I don't have to worry about it. there are quite a few factors that come into play, waterchange %, chlorine/chloramine level, type of treatment, bio-load, etc. What might work for you or someone else, might not work for the other. Kyle
Ok this may be way wrong but I want to ask it.
Since most of the bacteria live in the filter, can you turn the filter off during the water change? Dose the tank and then turn the filter back on?
Also isn't the dechloinator like ammonia. Where you add it and it dissipates through the water immediately? So maybe for sensitive fish you can dose intermittantly through the water change?
Since most of the bacteria live in the filter, can you turn the filter off during the water change? Dose the tank and then turn the filter back on?
Also isn't the dechloinator like ammonia. Where you add it and it dissipates through the water immediately? So maybe for sensitive fish you can dose intermittantly through the water change?
I've actually read that you can do up to a 30% water change without using any dechlorinator at all. This was from Ad Koning's book "Enjoying Cichlids". Of course it depends on the amount of chlorine in your water, and whether your municipality uses chloromine. I've just recently started using a hose to fill my tanks. I take a guess at how much water I'm taking out and dose for about twice what I'm removing (which is almost enough to dose the entire tank). I do 40%, and in the case of my fry tank 70%, weekly water changes. I have yet to lose a fish to this practice. As for our bio-filters, I think they are alot tougher than we give them credit for.
I have heard however that when using a fill hose in the winter, you have to be careful about nitrogen outgassing. Cold water holds more dissolved gass than warm water. When the ultra cold water from your tap mixes with the hot water from your water heater the average temp of the water goes up so fast that alot of gas comes out of solution very quickly (you can see it by running both hot and cold water for a minute, and then fill a glass of water, see all the bubbles). If you do a large water change with this water, fish can actually take up some of this dissolved gas into thier bloodstream, where it comes out of solution. This causes a condition similar to "The Bends" (only in that case it is a change in pressure that causes the nitrogen to come out of solution). Although I've done up to 50% changes with this water (before I knew better) without losing any fish, a very experienced hobbiest friend said he once lost an entire tank of wildcaught Tanganyikan cichlids to this process. As long as your water changes aren't more than 25% however, there is no problem.
I have heard however that when using a fill hose in the winter, you have to be careful about nitrogen outgassing. Cold water holds more dissolved gass than warm water. When the ultra cold water from your tap mixes with the hot water from your water heater the average temp of the water goes up so fast that alot of gas comes out of solution very quickly (you can see it by running both hot and cold water for a minute, and then fill a glass of water, see all the bubbles). If you do a large water change with this water, fish can actually take up some of this dissolved gas into thier bloodstream, where it comes out of solution. This causes a condition similar to "The Bends" (only in that case it is a change in pressure that causes the nitrogen to come out of solution). Although I've done up to 50% changes with this water (before I knew better) without losing any fish, a very experienced hobbiest friend said he once lost an entire tank of wildcaught Tanganyikan cichlids to this process. As long as your water changes aren't more than 25% however, there is no problem.
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I do 50% changes every week and 50% twice weekly on all my rainbow tanks.Gretchen said:
I have chloramines and treat the entire tank as soon as the water hits the water.
I have had no problems whatsoever with this method and many people do it. You really do not need to use a bucket, but some people do.
Roan