Cycled already?

"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...


Scott wrote:
snip

Also i guess I should mention I haven't done any water changes yet, and
going by my water results I don't think thats an issue. When the time
comes to do a water change what is the best way to do this? Do I need
to buy another heater to get the tempature right, or just play with hot
and cold tap and a thermometer?

You're asking these questions as if there will be a definitive and
agreed-upon answer to them all ;~). Many opinions vary, but imo,
generally for municipal water, you can just play with the taps and
dechlorinate in the tank. Gravel vacuum with some type of pipe with
suction (look at how the Python works), and don't vacuum under plants.
For
the average person, there isn't any chemical clues as to how often the
water needs to be partially changed. We sometimes go by nitrate levels,
but planted tanks can keep the NO3 level at zero. Typically then, try
to
do about 20% water change per week. It is to thin out many things which
you cannot neccesarily measure.



That is a question that I have hassled with since I bought my Python
aquarium cleaning setup. I am still adding water to the fish tanks by
filling a bucket by the tank with the hose and adding the de-chlorinator
to
that, then dumping into the tank. So it IS OK to add the chems to the
tank
and then fill with the hose from the tap??

Personally, I'm not very comfortable with idea. Dumping the
dechlorinator directly into the tank means that it will be diluted 10
times - 10% water change. That could mean it takes 10 times longer to
neutralise the chlorine doing damamge in the meantime. But that's purely
a guess.

Nikki

I must admit that the only thing I am comfortable with is removing the water
and then replacing it with water in buckets - already treated for
chlorine/chloramine and brought up to temp using boiled water - I don't
trust the water from the hot tap because the hot water tank is copper as is
all the piping.