# How much time do you spend on water changes?



## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

*How much time do you spend on water changes?*​
Under an hour a month39.09%1-2 hours a month13.03%Under an hour a week412.12%1-2 hours a week1854.55%3-4 hours a week515.15%5+ hours a week26.06%


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

So how much time does everyone spend on water changes each week/month?

Please include:

-Number of tanks
-Sizes of tanks

If you want you can include some extras too:

-Percentage of water changed for each tank
-Frequency of water changes
-How you do your water changes(buckets, python, auto-water change system, etc...)
-How do you condition your water?(Dechlorinator, pH UP, pH DOWN, Baking Soda, Epsom Salt, R/O, etc...)
-Anything else you want to include


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

I guess I'll start.

I won't include fry tanks, because that varies alot.

I spend 3-4 hours a week on water changes. Generally split up between two days. Once midweek and once on the weekend.

I have 5 tanks. All get 70-80% water changes weekly.

1x 55g
1x 45g
1x 30g
2x 20g long

I change my water using a submersible pump to drain the tanks then fill the African tanks using a potable water hose, and use R/O to fill my SA tanks.

I treat the water in 25g plastic bins before pumping it into the tanks. For my africans I dechlorinate the water with ClorAm-X, and add baking soda and epsom salt. For my SA cichlids I use R/O water mixed with the R/O filter's waste water.


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## beccam (Nov 16, 2010)

My 235g is probably the fastest. I have only been doing them every two weeks on her, and with my aquavac it's at most 45 min to drain some water and top it off. but i feel like i am always filling my sump up!

on my breeding 20gallon (plecos not cichlids :thumb i put the most work into. water changes almost twice a week, and i do them by bucket.

my little ten i also do by bucket and do 25% once a week.

about two months ago i picked up an ebo quick vac. hands down the best purchase i have ever made for my tanks! it's like and underwater dust buster, fully submersible and works like a charm! i use it everyday on my pleco tank (i swear they poop more then birds!) and whenever i think of it on my big tank. if you have lots of poop in your tank and don't want to do a full water change, the best product out there!


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## beccam (Nov 16, 2010)

tokyo said:


> I treat the water in 25g plastic bins before pumping it into the tanks. For my africans I dechlorinate the water with ClorAm-X, and add baking soda and epsom salt. For my SA cichlids I use R/O water mixed with the R/O filter's waste water.


sorry if i come across uninformed, but what are you using the baking soda for?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

-Number of tanks=7
-Sizes of tanks=125, 75, 75, 38, 20, 10, 10
-Percentage of water changed for each tank=75%
-Frequency of water changes=weekly
-How you do your water changes(buckets, python, auto-water change system, etc...)=python
-How do you condition your water?(Dechlorinator, pH UP, pH DOWN, Baking Soda, Epsom Salt, R/O, etc...)=no additives, well water

Takes 2 hours. I siphon each tank, one after the other. While the next tank is draining I scrape the glass on the first. By the time the last one is drained I can start refilling.

Trying to eliminate a 10 and a 20 which are holding fish that need to go to LFS.

The remaining 10G is for hospital/quarantine and the 38G is a plant nursery with only a pleco, a single shellie and an escaped peacock fry.


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

Number of tanks = 8 atm.

Size= 170 gal, 140 gal, 66 gal, 2x 30 gal, 15 gal, 10 gal and 3 gal

I spend give or take 2-3 hours a week, the 170 and 140 get one or two 30% WC per week, the smaller tanks every 2 weeks i do a 30% water change. The 10 and 3 gal tank i do water changes something like twice a week, but they as soo small they hardly take up any time.


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Answered >5 hours a week. Not that that is all hands on time, have time for a drink during water changes and filling :wink: . Tanks are 200g, 200g, 125g, 75g, 75g, 75g, 55g, 55g, 29g, 29g, 29g and 20g 20g plus a few small tanks, in variuos rooms and the fish room. They all get a weekly waterchange varieing between 75% and 30% (but occationally once every 2 weeks but then no one is perfect :wink: ) depending on stocking and needs. Have done 90% weekly changes on some fry tanks but that is using pre tank ready water. Generaly for none overstocked tanks (but then I have few of these) 30% every two weeks is more than enough.
For sure know folk with tanks that only get 10% every two weeks and other folk with over 50 tanks who swear by twice weekly over 50% changes. Dunno quite what the question is aiming to get as you will get a scewed answer from most folk?

All the best James


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## 748johnd (Jun 30, 2007)

It takes me about two hours to do my 90g. That includes setting up and taking down the python, gravel vacuuming, scraping the front glass and pruning the plants. I change at least 50% of the water weekly. I'm not the fastest that's for sure. If I had all the tanks 24Tropheus does it would be a full time job for me.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

748johnd said:


> pruning the plants.


I omitted that task...that would double the time for sure. Add-on tanks take less time because the set-up and stowage of the python and other cleaning items is spread across multiple tanks.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

I have around 10 tanks right now, the biggest about 35 gals, smallest a 15, and about 6 are 30s, but if I push I can do a 50% water change in all of them in just over an hour. I drain one while one is filling and use larger siphon hoses on bigger tanks. I have a gooseneck with a tee on the end for refills so they can go quite fast if necessary.


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

beccam said:


> sorry if i come across uninformed, but what are you using the baking soda for?


The baking soda is to raise pH/KH.


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

A couple of years ago I attended a talk at one of my local fish clubs by one of the breeders in my area. The talk basically consisted of her going around the fish room in the basement of her private home with a video camera, filming different tanks, and talking about the fish. The talk went for well over one hour, and I could have sat there for two hours and not got bored. I think she had about 150 tanks and didn't show nearly all of them. After the talk somebody asked her how long it takes her to do water changes. She thought about it for a moment, and then responded:

"2-3 hours"

When the audience murmured incredulously, she added

"per day - 7 days per week, 365 days per year"

  

That's when I started thinking about automatic water change systems. I now have them on all tanks over 29G, and I will eventually ad them to smaller tanks as well. I still have to do filter maintenance and occasionally remove a bit of debris from the tanks, but I spend zero hours doing water changes.


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

fmueller said:


> A couple of years ago I attended a talk at one of my local fish clubs by one of the breeders in my area. The talk basically consisted of her going around the fish room in the basement of her private home with a video camera, filming different tanks, and talking about the fish. The talk went for well over one hour, and I could have sat there for two hours and not got bored. I think she had about 150 tanks and didn't show nearly all of them. After the talk somebody asked her how long it takes her to do water changes. She thought about it for a moment, and then responded:
> 
> "2-3 hours"
> 
> ...


Hehehehe funny storry, but thats just 150 tanks setup wrong.

It would just be a question about setting up the room right and have a few central filter setups, so you really only need to do one water changes per central filter and not do each tank sepretly.


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

But then you need a separate system for quarantining new stock or you could have one of the many diseases rip through your system. Unless you go to the expense of UV treating the water as it gets from one tank to another. Prefer to keep the tanks and water systems separate myself.
Seen too many folk go for joined up systems, rave about how good they are, then years later get in some dodgy WC or LFS cichlid and lose most of their stock.

Personally I have sever droughts about getting fish from anyone who keeps cichlids in multiple tank systems. Never know what they are carrying or been exposed to.


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## bigfry (Dec 3, 2010)

Before I have the discus tanks, I have been doing weekly WCs all in two hours.

Now with two added discus tanks. I am doing additional 30mins daily WCs.


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