Water Changes

hi everyone

Here comes what feels like a really stupid question... but what ius the correct way for me to replace the water i take out at water change times.

with my old BIG fish, i just filled the tank with the hose, put in anti-chlorine, bactertia and bobs your uncle...

But now with my new "little" fishies (neons, clown loaches ) etc they seem to not like it this way.
I know the clowns acclimatise badly... and neons are fairly sensitive, but i loose +- 2 clowns after each water change..

I need to do one today - any suggestions...
:redface:

 

Only thing that I can think of is a big sudden change in temperature - if that is relevant.

 

I prepare the water now as i also had this problem.
I full a bucket of water, add the chemicals needed. I do this atleast 2 days before my water change.

Then when its time to do the water change i drain some out my window and slowly add the new water to insure there is no spike of a sudden temp change

 

That is the ideal way... but what happens if a 10% water change is 200litres of water. I don't thing many of uss have 200litre drums lying around to prepare water beforehand.

 

Got a fire truck?

 

what i have done is. you get 250l JoJo water tank or whatever brand name u want. It is a nice small little tank and fits nicely into a corner of a garden. Its not that expencive , about R300 for the tank . The plastic is safe and wont leach nasty stuff into the water and you know there have been no funny chemicals in it. This way i always have 250l of prepared water on hand , if i use 50L i just top it up. I think we are lucky in PE because our water isnt bad and i dont need to add any prep chemicals to it , just let it stand for a few days. What i did do though to mine is added a pump just to keep the water circulating .

 

My water changes is about 450 to 500 litres of water a week. There is no way I can prep that amount of water weekly so I dechlorinate and in the tanks while slowly filling the tank not to cause temp shock.

 

Im so lucky with regards to this as i use borehole water i can just add from tap to tank i helped my girlfriend set up her first betta tank(HEHE got her hooked) and i didnt even know how to use decholrinator for city water. So in my case i just siphon water off and add the new water in

 

thanks all
seems like there is no real solution

i think the biggest challenge is temperature...!

Guess i should fill up in small amounts, so that water can heat up.

 

i think that may be the best idea

 

Obviously there is a solution, get a 100-200L container where you can heat the water and aerate. Use a powerhead with venturi to aerate and use the same powerhead with some silicone tubing to pump water from the container to the tank.

 

I just use mild water from my geyser,geyser is 2000+Litre so i just mix warm and cold water until the water is mild.

 

ahhh water temp was a first assumption ... I'd do an experiment to confirm that assumption - Julie do what you usually do but this time take the temperature 3 time before you start the water change 10 minute intervals - do the water change - now take the temperature for the next hour every 10 minutes or until the temperature reaches the same average for over a period for 30 minutes as you had before you did the water change - capture all of this on a peace paper and post back ... then we can confirm that this is indeed the issue.

 

just a thought...

if you need to change 10L of water... remove 5... put into a bucket. then add 10L of "clean" water. Mix... This way you will have 15L of water with some bacteria from the tank. you will also have water closer to the temp of the tank water...

this is just a thought...

sharp

 

or u can add a percentage of hot water to the tap water is what i do here in jhb,just make sure theres no fish swimming under the kettle lol

 

I've heard that you shouldn't use water from the geyser because it leaches metal particles into the water.. particularily if you have an older geyser. Not too sure on this claim... or the truth behind it.

 

nah i'm sure its fine,then again depends what fish u have

 

You can also "float" the new water in a bag, and later release it slower.(in small nano)
The best is to prepare the new water at least the day before, by airating it in a large bucket or container with a spare heater.
Just remember to switch the heater of 5 min before using the water!