Water Changes

[wasklywabbit]

Another question for my learned friends... When it comes to water changes in winter, what is the thing to do? Is it okay to use water from the hot water tap - mixed with cold to the right temperature before put into aquarium - and then conditioned with double quantity of conditioner?

[RobbieG]

How many gallons of water will you be changing?

If you need a manageable amount of water you can just let it sit overnight near a radiator or heater. (I do this with about 50 gallons)

Otherwise you can mix it with hot - I am not sure why you would want to double up on the water conditioner though.

[SkarloeysMom]

What do you age your water in RobbieG? I think the answer to my Ph problem could be as simple as aging my water for a day.

[hungryhound]

Another question for my learned friends... When it comes to water changes in winter, what is the thing to do? Is it okay to use water from the hot water tap - mixed with cold to the right temperature before put into aquarium - and then conditioned with double quantity of conditioner?


i am a little confused about what you are doing now. what you describe is how you should do it every time. You should always use a mixture of hot and cold water to get the water temp close to your tanks temperature. It minimizes the stress and shock on your fish.

You can double up on the water conditioner, but you are just throwing more money in your tank. One of the best ways to add water conditioner is with a syringe. I personally add enough for what I changed plus one or two gallons. I agree that you want to add a little more, but at some point you are just wasting money.

[Sasquatch]

As long as you let the water run for several minutes to clear the pipes, you should be good to use hot tap water mixed with cold.

Otherwise you could buy a small aquarium heater (50W or so) and use that to adjust the water temperature.

Not sure why you'd want to double the conditioner dosage though.

[Lady Hobbs]

Waskly

Why not just get it from the tap the same temp as the water you removed? Use the same amount of dechlorinator. You change it the same winter or summer.

SkarloeyMon

You can leave your water in buckets for 24 hours to remove chlorine but I doubt it will reduce pH any. It doesn't reduce sitting in the tank so how would it reduce sitting in a bucket? I think if you really have a pH problem that running peat thru the filter will help. It wouldn't take much.

[RobbieG]

What do you age your water in RobbieG? I think the answer to my Ph problem could be as simple as aging my water for a day.

I used to use gallon jugs - believe it or not - but I went out and got some 92 liter heavy plastic bins. I move them around on 4 wheeled dollies. ($20 Walmart car creepers I siliconed them to)

Most people I know just used regular 5 gallon buckets though

I find it to be a lot easier and a lot less work to move the bins around

To add water I just fill the bin - push it over and bail (I'm going to get a powerhead this week so I can just pump it in)

To remove it I just siphon from the tank push the bin over to the tub and siphon it in.

A python would be easier - but I have to filter my tap water - in order to use the python I would have to keep 50 feet of hose strung through my apartment for about 8 hours.

[MeganL3985]

Should I be aging my water? lol I have not been....i've just been mixing the water to the temp of the tank and then using aquasafe to remove the chlorine and stuff out of the water.

[hungryhound]

Should I be aging my water? lol I have not been....i've just been mixing the water to the temp of the tank and then using aquasafe to remove the chlorine and stuff out of the water.

that is what I do with no problems. The point of aging the water is to let the chlorine remove itself, but adding dechlorinator takes care of it as well.

[MeganL3985]

ohhh okay, I was thinking "Oh great i'm still doin stuff wrong!" lol

[RobbieG]

I don't specifically do it to age the water - it just takes a lot of time to get water from my filter.

[SkarloeysMom]

I don't specifically do it to age the water - it just takes a lot of time to get water from my filter.

Right, I understand that for sure. If we tried to use our filter water it would take a couple weeks to get enough water to do a water change! HA!

What I'm thinking is I can use the tap water if the Ph will neutralize with 24 hours of aging. Then I can just use Amquel again instead of the phosphate buffer and possibly start using live plants some day when I'm feeling brave. But that's all for another day...I have to get things stable in my new tank and get a healthy community first.

[RobbieG]

It's worth a try - you could always stick some wood in the water overnight to give it some help also

[SkarloeysMom]

You can leave your water in buckets for 24 hours to remove chlorine but I doubt it will reduce pH any. It doesn't reduce sitting in the tank so how would it reduce sitting in a bucket? I think if you really have a pH problem that running peat thru the filter will help. It wouldn't take much.

My Ph did reduce from 8.8 to 7.0 after 24 hours of being in the 20g with 2 pieces of driftwood. So perhaps all I need to do is buy a couple more pieces of this wood I have and throw them in a bucket and age the water with them. Seems a lot easier and neater than peat and if it does the job I'm in business!

I checked the Ph again today after 4 days in the 20g and its still 7.0. I just stumbled on this solution so I'll have to keep experimenting to see if its gonna work.

[SkarloeysMom]

It's worth a try - you could always stick some wood in the water overnight to give it some help also


HAHA! Great minds think alike.:ezpi_wink1:

[wasklywabbit]

I had been told to double the conditioner in case of extra copper in the hot water and then someone else has said use water from the kettle. It's all so confusing. I suppose different things work for different folks! Thanks

[ChurchofAdam]

only makes sense if your conditioner removes copper. not if it's just a dechlorinator. I hadn't heard hot water carries more copper from the pipes but I guess it's possible. 'aging' water lets the chlorine degas but not the other chlorine compound, I forget what it's called. it also would change the pH but it'll do that just the same in the tank. unless you're doing very large wc or your tank pH is altered, it shouldn't matter.

[RobbieG]

Chloramine is the other thing - a lot of places also add ammonia / or use it instead of chlorine now.