Question about Changing Water

Dan White wrote:

Hi. I had a 55 gallon tank many years ago set up for marine fish. I
recently took it out of the garage and got it ready for tropical fish. I've
been reading up all the great info in newsgroups and the net in general, but
there is one thing about changing water that I don't see addressed.

I'm seeing that approximately 20% of the water should be changed every, say,
2 weeks. For me, this means about 10 gallons each time. This seems awfully
difficult to achieve without killing anything in the process. How do you
handle this volume of water? There is a bathroom about 15 feet from the
tank, and I could see siphoning the water out without much problem, but
getting the fresh water back in is more of a problem. The issues I am not
sure about are 1) 10 gallons is a lot of buckets to mess with, is there a
better way? 2) the room temperature is much lower than the tank water, which
is about 77F, 3) do most people dechlorinate chemically rather than letting
it stand for a day? If I let the water stand, then it will be too cold. If
I use chemical treatment, can I use hot and cold water to adjust the temp?

Also, it seems like these large water changes are a little excessive. When
I was a teenager I did minimal (very minimal) and the fish lived for years.
My angles grew very large in their 29 gallon tank, ate well, and even layed
eggs. It didn't seem like they were stressed. Maybe I just had ultra hardy
fish, but I did have live plants, so maybe that helped.

Thanks for any suggestions,
dwhite



I plan to do 20% every week in my new 55.

Given the rock work I'll have in the tank, two 5 gallon buckets should
handle the incoming water (will actually be more than 20%), the outgoing
water will siphon to the water drain in my basement where the tank is
located.

I plan to purchase two cheapie Wal-Mart or whatever smallest heaters I
can find. I will plug those up, set the right temp, drop the cheapest
powerhead I can find into each one, treat with Amquel, raise pH, and let
them sit a week till the next water change keeping warm and circulating.
The water will then be pre-treated, warm, and damned well oxygenated.

Then, those cheapie powerheads will pump the buckets into the tank with
the little bit left being poured in. Temp won't be a problem. I have
to do it this way since I live in MN and tap water gets danged cold all
the time. I also have a whole house water softener so I have to get my
water from either outside or the kitchen sink cold tap....those are the
unsoftened outlets. Outside in MN in the winter is out of the question
so I have to get cold from inside...and it's REALLLY cold in January ;-)
The two cheapie heaters will be required.

That's my plan, and my 2c.

-Keith

"Keith Hatfull" wrote in message
...
Dan White wrote:

Hi. I had a 55 gallon tank many years ago set up for marine fish. I
recently took it out of the garage and got it ready for tropical
fish. I've
been reading up all the great info in newsgroups and the net in
general, but
there is one thing about changing water that I don't see addressed.

I'm seeing that approximately 20% of the water should be changed
every, say,
2 weeks. For me, this means about 10 gallons each time. This seems
awfully
difficult to achieve without killing anything in the process. How do
you
handle this volume of water? There is a bathroom about 15 feet from
the
tank, and I could see siphoning the water out without much problem,
but
getting the fresh water back in is more of a problem. The issues I
am not
sure about are 1) 10 gallons is a lot of buckets to mess with, is
there a
better way? 2) the room temperature is much lower than the tank
water, which
is about 77F, 3) do most people dechlorinate chemically rather than
letting
it stand for a day? If I let the water stand, then it will be too
cold. If
I use chemical treatment, can I use hot and cold water to adjust the
temp?

Also, it seems like these large water changes are a little excessive.
When
I was a teenager I did minimal (very minimal) and the fish lived for
years.
My angles grew very large in their 29 gallon tank, ate well, and even
layed
eggs. It didn't seem like they were stressed. Maybe I just had
ultra hardy
fish, but I did have live plants, so maybe that helped.

Thanks for any suggestions,
dwhite



I plan to do 20% every week in my new 55.

Given the rock work I'll have in the tank, two 5 gallon buckets should
handle the incoming water (will actually be more than 20%), the
outgoing
water will siphon to the water drain in my basement where the tank is
located.

I plan to purchase two cheapie Wal-Mart or whatever smallest heaters I
can find. I will plug those up, set the right temp, drop the cheapest
powerhead I can find into each one, treat with Amquel, raise pH, and
let
them sit a week till the next water change keeping warm and
circulating.
The water will then be pre-treated, warm, and damned well oxygenated.

Then, those cheapie powerheads will pump the buckets into the tank with
the little bit left being poured in. Temp won't be a problem. I have
to do it this way since I live in MN and tap water gets danged cold all
the time. I also have a whole house water softener so I have to get my
water from either outside or the kitchen sink cold tap....those are the
unsoftened outlets. Outside in MN in the winter is out of the question
so I have to get cold from inside...and it's REALLLY cold in January
;-)
The two cheapie heaters will be required.

That's my plan, and my 2c.

-Keith

I also worry about my well water being too cold and having dissolved
gases in it. What has been working for me is to keep to smaller changes
done more often, and keeping live plants. I find that I can do a 15%
change without any trouble (Canadian winter ice cold water from before
the softener).
--
www.NetMax.tk

On Thu, 05 Aug 2004 22:31:01 GMT, "Dan White"
wrote:

Hi. I had a 55 gallon tank many years ago set up for marine fish. I
recently took it out of the garage and got it ready for tropical fish. I've
been reading up all the great info in newsgroups and the net in general, but
there is one thing about changing water that I don't see addressed.

I'm seeing that approximately 20% of the water should be changed every, say,
2 weeks. For me, this means about 10 gallons each time. This seems awfully
difficult to achieve without killing anything in the process. How do you
handle this volume of water? There is a bathroom about 15 feet from the
tank, and I could see siphoning the water out without much problem, but
getting the fresh water back in is more of a problem. The issues I am not
sure about are 1) 10 gallons is a lot of buckets to mess with, is there a
better way? 2) the room temperature is much lower than the tank water, which
is about 77F, 3) do most people dechlorinate chemically rather than letting
it stand for a day? If I let the water stand, then it will be too cold. If
I use chemical treatment, can I use hot and cold water to adjust the temp?

Also, it seems like these large water changes are a little excessive. When
I was a teenager I did minimal (very minimal) and the fish lived for years.
My angles grew very large in their 29 gallon tank, ate well, and even layed
eggs. It didn't seem like they were stressed. Maybe I just had ultra hardy
fish, but I did have live plants, so maybe that helped.

Thanks for any suggestions,
dwhite


I have been using a Python for about 18 months. I have 5 tanks the
largest being 75 gallons. All have live plants. I don't add
chemicals to my tanks. I recently had a few Black Mollies exhibit
ich. I moved them to a quarantine tank and they responded very
quickly to treatment. However, this taught me ich can remain
undetected in my tanks and water quality is important. Note it had
been more than a year since I had added new fish or plants, thus I am
sure the ich had been in the tanks during that time. Mollies are like
the canary in the mines, next sensitive would be my Clown Loaches, but
none of them developed white spots.

I was doing 20% weekly water changes, but now do the changes twice
weekly. What ever was the problem, the more frequent changes seems to
have solved. I ran some tests, but did not have any test out of the
healthy range.


What works for me may not work for you. Community water qualities
varies from place to place. Lucky you if you can take tap water
directly for your water changes.

"Dick" wrote in message
...

snip

I was doing 20% weekly water changes, but now do the changes twice
weekly. What ever was the problem, the more frequent changes seems to
have solved. I ran some tests, but did not have any test out of the
healthy range.


What works for me may not work for you. Community water qualities
varies from place to place. Lucky you if you can take tap water
directly for your water changes.

Thanks, Dick. I'll keep it in mind that more frequent changes can help
eliminate a water quality problem.

dwhite

I do weekly water changes of about 20% (20 gallons for my 120 gallon fancy
goldfish tank). I just siphon the water out the front door to my flower beds
(man the just love this), then I made a fitting that connects directly to my
shower head, and run a 50', drinking water safe, hose to the tank. By using
the water from my shower head I can adjust the temperature so it matches the
tanks temperature with great accuracy.

It's not a hassle and I'm done in under 30 minutes.

"Dan White" wrote in message
. net...
"Dick" wrote in message
...

snip

I was doing 20% weekly water changes, but now do the changes twice
weekly. What ever was the problem, the more frequent changes seems to
have solved. I ran some tests, but did not have any test out of the
healthy range.


What works for me may not work for you. Community water qualities
varies from place to place. Lucky you if you can take tap water
directly for your water changes.

Thanks, Dick. I'll keep it in mind that more frequent changes can help
eliminate a water quality problem.

dwhite

no one has exactly explained what a Python is? is it a motorized
siphon?? don't think i'm stupid, i'm just new at all of this... i
just set up a 32g tank and am thinking about water changes myself, and
what a hassel they will be! (compared to my 10g)

"Danya" wrote in message
om...
no one has exactly explained what a Python is? is it a motorized
siphon?? don't think i'm stupid, i'm just new at all of this... i
just set up a 32g tank and am thinking about water changes myself, and
what a hassel they will be! (compared to my 10g)

Danya, here's their web page http://www.pythonproducts.com/nospill.htm,
although they don't show any good pictures. The Python consists of a valve
(venturi pump) that connects to your faucet and sucks water from your tank
using the water pressure from the tap (no electricity). You can also turn
off the valve (venturi pump) and use the Python to send water back to your
tank. It also comes with X feet of hose to run from your faucet to your
tank. There is an on/off valve at the tank to control the flow, as well as a
large acrylic tube for cleaning gravel/transferring water.