How do i do water changes

by **joshheatherc** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:21 am

I've been doing this for about 2 months and just did a 50% water change and replaced the ugly blue gravel that i had in my tank with black gravel. And to put it lightly it strssed the crap out of my fish, i lost 2 fish, a molly and a catfish and to make things worse my 9 in bala shark jumped out of the bucket that i put him in and busted his eye. Please can anyone give me a step by step way to do my monthly water changes. I NEED HELP,,,,, AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

by **vwfan79** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 2:03 pm

I do weekly water changes of 10-20% and a monthly 50%. I use a water bed drain/filler attachment on my sink w/ my gravel vac. Basically it screws onto your faucet and starts the siphon, then use the gravel vac to clean the substrate till you have emptied out the amount of water you want to change. Then theres a piece on the bottom that you twist and fill the tank back up. This is the easiest way I've found. You can obviously use a gravel vac and a bucket, it's just more work and takes longer. Even when I do my 50% changes my fish stay in the tank, I know yours had to come out to change your rocks, but I have never lost fish from transferring them during serious maintiance. Its alway less stressful on the fish to leave them in the tank and take out 50% of the water them to remove the fish from the tank.
hope this help.

Heres a pic of the waterbed drainer, I think you can get them at you lfs also
http://www.waterbed101.com/images/assyl3.jpg

by **burgerking** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:15 pm

There are tons of ways you can do it. The one above, using a small bucket(or cup on small tanks) and scooping the water out into a larger bucket then pouring it down the sink, and some people have automatic changers(no clue how to set up).

It's best to do smaller more frequent water changes just like its bette to feed smaller amounts but more frequently. I dont make a schedule for water changes or tank cleanings, just when I dont have anything else planned, like tonight... nothing planned = water change!!!

by **natalie265** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:40 am

Don't forget to add dechlorinater to the tap water that you are adding to the tank. You should post some new pics, i bet the black gravel looks great!

by **dizzcat** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:45 am

This is my routine:

Once a week I: clean the glass with an algae scrapper, take out and clean any fake decor that is looking gross (plants, rocks etc) Vacuume the water and add it back in.

Once a month I: do a 50% water change. I take out everything (except live plants) and give it all a good scrubbing (finger nail brushes work great! Make sure its new). I take apart the filter and clean the plastic parts. Make sure to put the filter media and carbon in tank water when you do this or you will kill off the good bacteria. When putting the filter media back in, swish it in the tank water first to get all the loose stuff off. NEVER run it under the sink! This will kill the good bacteria and make your tank cycle again. I will clean the heater if needed, etc. Replace air hoses and stones if they need it. Then I put it all back in. I rearrange each time, it gives the fish a new setting and they spend all day exploring. It will also break up old territories.

I never take my fish out. The only time I have in the past few years is once when I switched over to sand. My African Mbuna Cichlids love it when I take everything out! They swim all over, up and down and dig in the sand. So when I do their tank I leave it half full with the filter creating a waterfall for them for about half hour. I usually get a spawn the next day :-)

My community fish: Tetras, Angels, Rams etc HATE it when I do LOL. They will all huddle under a plant until I am done.

I use a Python water changer. Its the same as the water bed thing. , you can get them at all pet stores. You open the sink spout and run cold water, that gives you the suction out of the tank. Then you twist it shut and it reverses to fill the tank. I mix up my declor (I use Prime) in a cup of tank water and when I add new water I dump it into the spray. One of the parts broke on me in the middle of a change once and I had to use the bucket, what a pain! I love this thing!!

Here is a link to what I mean
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=3910

Good luck!

by **cedricandcandy** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:59 am

As everyone has said above, there is many different ways to do water changes. This is what I do:
* 30% water changes weekly
* NEVER remove fish from their tank
* Syphon 30% of the water out of the tank using a gravel vac (while vaccing the gravel if required)
* I have a 130L container that I fill with water and I adjust it to the right temperature when filling it.
* Add declorinator / water conditioner to the container and stir thoroughly
* Refill the tank with the water from the container. (I recently acquired a cheap pond pump to refill the tank with but this is only because we have 3 large tanks but for 1 tank only you could bucket it back or syphon it into your tank).

Good luck!

by **a1k8t31524** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:05 am

i do 25% every 3 days, and then i fill gallon jugs with treated water fill it back up and when i fill the tank back up i fill the gallon jugs back up put them in the closet so my the time 3 days rolls around the water is room temp and repeat the process the whole thing only takes about 15 min

by **fihsboy** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 3:53 am

JESUS! Thats a LOT of water. That must cost you a fortune.......I change mine once a month. maybe twice, but not usually. Siphon the old out.....and I use a pump to pump the new in. Sure beats lifting 40-45lb buckets full of water sloshing around.

by **a1k8t31524** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:31 am

yeah i i reset it up i plan on doing that, i have had a extra pump sottin around for awhile but just no space for a large enough container to hold the water......and i just use tap water so it is free....

by **fihsboy** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 2:49 am

im thinkin RO water I guess.....generally with RO your looking at 3 gallons down the drain to every 1 gallon produced....that gets expensive doing it like that. But straight tap isnt bad. Do you have a large bio load?

How do i do water changes

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