# water change



## smiithy1 (Nov 24, 2008)

hi all whats the best way to do a water change i mean say i do a 30% water change i syphon the 30% water out the how do i put the water back in do i just put the hose in and put the 30% back in the add the dechlorine stuff in as i havent a clue how to do it also how do you heat the water befor you put it back in


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

Depends on your fish.

For our new world cichlids, once a week I gravel vac and siphon 40 gallons out of each 75g tank (I measured and marked the tanks a while back). Then I add enough water conditioner (Tetra AquaSafe) for 40 gallons of water. Then I pump water (at tank temperature) from the sink to the tanks via a long piece of tubing. Once the tanks are full, I plug the heater and filters back in.

If you have African cichlids, you'll want to to pay more attention to the pH, water hardness, etc. For these guys, folks recommend more frequent but less drastic water changes.

-Ryan


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## remarkosmoc (Oct 19, 2005)

Well said Ryan.

On my new world tank I do a 25% change, toss in some prime and turn the hose on.

On my African tank, I Have a 40 gallon rubbermaid. I get the parameters right first. Then I remove water and lastly pump the rubbermaid's contents into the main tank.


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## smiithy1 (Nov 24, 2008)

hi guy thats what i thought fill the bath with water condition it and get it to temp then syphon it back in to the tank


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## naegling23 (Jan 4, 2008)

I siphon ~20% of the water from my tank, trying to clean up as much of the dead leaf litter and other junk from the top of gravel (I alternate sides of the tank, one change its the left, the next the right). I siphon the water into one of those big 10 gallon gatorade buckets. I then dispence the water through the tap to water all of my houseplants for the week. I keep my water in the 50ppm hardness range, so if its too high, I add pure RO water (I know that pure RO will bring me down about 10ppm per change), if its at 50 or below, I add some aged tap water to the mix (you can premix, but the fish really dont care about moderate hardness changes). Since im using RO water taken from buckets (I dont have an RO unit yet, so I get it from the lab I work at), I just siphon the water from the buckets into the tank (The tank backs up to my staircase, so I just put the bucket at the top, and let it fall into the tank). All this gets topped of with a few cupfuls of homemade blackwater extract to get the color right.

I honestly think that most people do water changes based on the size buckets that they have, and not some scientific theory.


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## alicem (Jul 26, 2007)

smiithy1 said:


> hi guy thats what i thought fill the bath with water condition it and get it to temp then syphon it back in to the tank


 :-? 
Please pardon me if I misunderstand...
I hope you don't mean "bath tub" in your above statement. 
That would not be advisable because of soap residue inevitably left in a bath tub.

You should use a separate "fish use only" tub or bucket for prepping replacement water.
hth
Alicem


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## smiithy1 (Nov 24, 2008)

no i have got a very big tub what fits into the bath and it just means i can fill it with warm water to get it to the right temp to put into the tank sorry if you thought i ment bath tub lol


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## alicem (Jul 26, 2007)

You had me wondering.


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

I must do everything the hard way.

I have two 50 gallon tanks, see sig at bottom of post. Pleco tank gets two 50% water changes per week, while community tank gets one 50% water change per week.

I have a 50 gallon water drum that I age my water in. It has a small eheim aquaball in it with venturi to keep the water turning over. I also have a couple of bags of peat in the bottom of the drum, and also soak driftwood in it. Lots of tannins :wink: good for SA fish. Each time I top up or refill the drum I add 5ml of SeaChem's Prime to it. Also during water changes I add 5ml of Prime to tank before pumping new water in. If i've done a filter clean and maintenance as well, I also add 15ml of SeaChem's Stabilty, and then 5ml for the next 3 days.

Anyway I have a 12.5 gallon plastic bin I siphon into and carry it outside to dump on garden and lawn (funny how I have the best lawn on the block, must be all the pleco poop). I have a small pump I use to pump water from the drum to the tanks.


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## StillaZilla (Aug 22, 2008)

12.5 gallons weighs almost 125 lbs. You must be a monster to cart that back and forth. 

I have a 25 liter pail that I fill to the 20 liter mark and carry to the sink and dump it, that weighs about 45 lbs a carry. I top the tanks back up by carrying water from the tap in the same buckets, but only half full, because it is hard to lift it up to the top of my tanks when it is full. On lazy days I get out my fish-tank only hose and hook it up to the taps in the laundry room, run it to get the temperature right, and stick it in the aquarium. 
I have well water, so no chlorine etc to worry about, and the ph is 6.8. All my tanks are New World cichlids and I have never had a water problem. 
I do this every Thursday, about a 35% water change.


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

StillaZilla said:


> 12.5 gallons weighs almost 125 lbs. You must be a monster to cart that back and forth.
> 
> I have a 25 liter pail that I fill to the 20 liter mark and carry to the sink and dump it, that weighs about 45 lbs a carry.


12.5 gallons = 50 liters. 125lbs = 50kgs. 20 liters = 20kgs.

I'm not that big mate. However I manage a pub, and each week I put away around 30 kegs of beer. A keg of beer is 49.5 liters and wieghs about 50kgs. Not to mention another 30 cartons of stubbies and bottles of wine. I'm generally a lazy [email protected], so these are my workouts. :lol:


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## smiithy1 (Nov 24, 2008)

hi all not to worry as im into body building i have been doing it 4 times a week since i was 16 im now 23naily and look like arnie so that isint a problem for me i might spill a bit thought lol


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## StillaZilla (Aug 22, 2008)

20kgs = 44 lbs

Plenty enough for me. :lol: 
Its Thursday and I just finished the weekly changes.


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## TrashmanNYC (Dec 10, 2007)

i try to do %50 a week........


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## natalie559 (Dec 6, 2007)

RyanR said:


> I gravel vac and siphon 40 gallons out of each 75g tank Then I add enough water conditioner (Tetra AquaSafe) for 40 gallons of water. Then I pump water (at tank temperature) from the sink to the tanks via a long piece of tubing


I just wanted to add that when you refill directly back into the tank from the sink that you should add enough dechlorinator for the *entire* tank volume, not just the amount you are replacing.

"If adding directly to aquarium, base dose on aquarium volume"

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product ... Prime.html


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## TrashmanNYC (Dec 10, 2007)

natalie559 said:


> RyanR said:
> 
> 
> > I gravel vac and siphon 40 gallons out of each 75g tank Then I add enough water conditioner (Tetra AquaSafe) for 40 gallons of water. Then I pump water (at tank temperature) from the sink to the tanks via a long piece of tubing
> ...


thanks, i didnt know that........ 8)


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

natalie559 said:


> I just wanted to add that when you refill directly back into the tank from the sink that you should add enough dechlorinator for the *entire* tank volume, not just the amount you are replacing.
> 
> "If adding directly to aquarium, base dose on aquarium volume"
> 
> http://www.seachem.com/Products/product ... Prime.html


Interesting...

I guess it depends on the conditioner that you use. Prime likely says to dose the entire aquarium volume because of its ammonia and nitrate locking capabilities. The stuff I've been using just does chlorines and chloramines along with heavy metals, so once you dose, it's not coming back. Our tanks are pretty well filtered and cycled, so I'm not too worried about ammonia, but keeping nitrates down is always fun. I'll have to look into Prime...

Thanks!
-Ryan


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

It's to do with concentration - the dechlorinator will be too diluted to effectively remove chlorine/chloramines throughout the tank. Although it would probably be ok (one could argue x amount of chlorine is going in, so dosing for this quantity should do it) but dosing for the full volume ensures that all chlorine/chloramines are dealt with.

I personally prefer treating the water beforehand, using a 20 odd gallon bin I fill up with temp matched/parameter matched water, dechlorinate, lug that (used to carry the bugger upstairs when I had a tank up there, never again!) to the tank, drop the pump in, job done.


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