uprightandlocked

Hello All!

Aadyn James has been in his home a week now and its time for our very first water change together! He is still doing very well - his coloring is beautiful and he's still just as playful as he was the day I put him in the tank. We did have an issue with him and eating but he has finally adjusted to the food I am providing him (it was a battle of wills here and I turned out to be more stubborn than he is!)

Back to the water change, my question is this. I will be removing a small portion of water and replacing more than I take out. I'd say in the past week an inch of water has evaporated (is this a huge amount?) My concern is by adding new water the temperature in the tank will change - and I am not sure what it will change to or how to prevent it happening. Is this a big deal and how do you recommend going about this procedure? I am concentrating very hard on doing things the right way this time and feel terrible for my past attempts at fishkeeping where ignorance was bliss!

Thank you from both of us!

Shawnie

after time, you do get use to the finger test for temps...you just can feel and know its right..but prior to that, filling the bucket and letting a thermometer sit in it to see is best..trying to keep the same temps will keep his stress down ...goodluck!

prairielilly

I've always found (and read) that your hand is a pretty good indicator of average temperature. You want the water you add to the aquarium to be 'approximately' the same temperature as the water you took out. What I do is just fill up the bucket in the sink, then stick my finger in the tank then in the bucket -- about the same? yup? good. Then I dechlorinate with Prime, then slowly add the water to the tank. It's better to be a shade too warm than too cold, and try to keep it within two degrees Fahrenheit of the temperature in your tank (your tank thermometer will tell you the new temperature once you've added the water, the hand test usually works pretty well). Don't worry about being too 'exact' as in you absolutely must be at 78.65 degrees! not necessary.

So far as the evaporation, that does seem like a lot depending on your tank (what size is it, is it covered?) A good cover keeps the evaporation down. You'll also get a lot more evaporation if the humidity in your home is low. If it gets low enough during the week that it impacts your filter's performance, you may need to 'top it up' midweek. If not, it's no worry.

Edit: ok TEN gallon tank! sorry I missed that!

Lucy

I agree with Shawnie, you'll get used to it.
I lose about that amount to evaporation too, depending on the tank and where it's it.

Edit: And Marsh. lol

uprightandlocked

Hello again! My first water change is complete! I started by taking my water up to Petco where I get it tested and everything checked out perfect! One week in his new home and Aadyn James will have no problems from nitrates/nitrites or ammonia! I will be keeping my eye on the ammonia though because I am nervous having him in the tank and feeding him something could go wrong!

I bought a gravel siphon while I was there to clean the gravel with and in celebration of Aadyn James' one week anniversary I also bought him some freeze-dried bloodworms! These will be used sparingly as a treat only!

The water change is complete but when I added new water back to the tank (treated with Top Fin betta Water Conditioner) I noticed some flecks of "stuff" coming up off of the bottom of the tank! I guess I didn't clean as well as I could have (my mother would not be surprised!) Any tips for getting everything out of the gravel? I kind of just scooted the siphon across the bottom of the tank from back to front the entire length. Should I be digging around in the gravel?

Thanks, as always, for the help!

prairielilly

Glad all's going well I'd really recommend buying a freshwater test kit (the API dropper kits are wonderful and last a really long time) so you can find out your own numbers for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates, makes it so much easier to monitor. So far as gravel vacuuming, yes it wasn't inherently obvious to me either at first. Forum member capekate posted this nifty video, should help a lot:

1-2-3 easy aquarium siphon instructions - video

uprightandlocked

Thanks for the video! Thats kind of what I did - maybe I just didn't spend enough time on it. I was trying to get the entire aquarium floor cleaned before too much water was in my bucket. I was aiming to only do a 25% water change. I also forgot to mention the first time around that I nailed the temperature right on the head - the thermometer didn't change at all! Thank you to all for the "finger-test" advice!

prairielilly

Glad to hear all's well on the temperature front! Isn't it great to learn all sorts of new stuff here about keeping our pets healthy and happy? I love fishlore for that You'll find that very quickly a lot of this will become second nature too! Keep asking questions

Yes, you're supposed to get right in there and dig around in the gravel and yes, there's supposed to be a bunch of gunk stirred up. You'll never get ALL of it, that's ok, you just want to remove most of it (old fish food, fish poop, who knows what all) as it will rot and foul your water. If you removed it ALL (say by washing it) you'd mini-cycle your tank or worse, you don't want that! Stirring it up makes it accessible for your vac, just confine it to the area you're cleaning. What size gravel vac are you using? I use the 'mini' (smallest one made I think) on my 20g. Once I'm done vacuuming I still need to dip & pour with a cup to complete the water change (I could just use the siphon for that but it takes too long). The smaller it is, the less water it will suck, the more likely it will be you'll clean your gravel without emptying your tank in the process.

I had a lot of 'fun' learning to properly gravel vacuum, but honestly now it;s easy and my tank's nice and clean! Here's one of my threads from when I was learning too, maybe it'll help:

Silly newbie question about gravel

uprightandlocked

Thanks for the continued help and sources of info with the other threads and videos! Its great to be learning about this. I'm excited to clean my aquarium again! Now, the room it is sitting in is an entirely different story ;-)

Lucy

Is the bucket for the old tank water on the floor? I had the same problem with my vacuum and 10g. I found that it you raise the bucket, put it on a chair or something, it'll slow down the water flow and you can get more vacuuming done.

uprightandlocked

Oh, great advice, Lucy. I do place the bucket on the floor and the tank is on top of my dresser - so it is much lower. Next time I will place the bucket on a chair!

prairielilly

Exactly! because it works on a simple pressure difference (function of difference in height between the two ends of the siphon). Bucket at near same level as tank = low flow. Want to raise the flow (remove more water faster)? lower bucket.

uprightandlocked

Yikes. I was an English major in college so this was far from obvious to me :-P Haha ... it does make sense, though. The chair will put the bucket about halfway between the tank and where it was placed before (on the floor) so hopefully it will improve the effectiveness of my cleaning sessions!

Red1313

lol don't feel bad. I am a science major in university and never even considered this to slow down the water flow!
Rofl

prairielilly

Look at this way (I do): it's always amazing to find out that 1) the stuff they taught you in science class is actually true; 2) it's also actually valuable for some things in real life!

....once a science geek, always a science geek...

uprightandlocked

You just made my mother proud. She is a high school chemistry/biology teacher. It is NOT genetic!

And as for that stuff being true ... my high school calculus teacher told me I would need calculus to be a journalism major ... I'm still trying to figure out how it relates!

prairielilly

Gotta draw the line at calculus...still trying to figure that stuff out... Theorems are creative and journalism requires lots of creativity? yeah I'm reaching it's got me beat!

You have to admit you're doing your mother proud too though right? Without even realizing it! think about it, the nitrogen cycle is all chemistry and biology. That stuff on vacuum diameter and bucket placement is physics. (If we were to start talking particularly about gravel, well then the real geek in me would come out - I'm a geologist). Non-fishie picture attached applies to many things besides geology (but especially to all things math!)

*No, it isn't altered. No idea where it came from originally (it was on the wall in the geology department in university)

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uprightandlocked

That is priceless! Completely off-topic, I went from being a journalism major to an education major and after college became a flight attendant (which I still do full-time). So I told a friend of mine I was becoming a flight attendant and she was upset that I wasn't going to use my degree. Her exact quote was "Wow, way to apply yourself!"

To which I replied:

"Okay, Amanda. The next time your aircraft goes off of the end of a runway and you are trapped underneath of the seat in front of you surrounded by burning wreckage and choking on smoke - I'll be certain to tell your flight attendant not to come and rescue you because that would be applying him or herself and flight attendants just don't do that!"

She apologized very quickly

prairielilly

Well good for you! drives me nuts when ppl judge someone bc of what they did/didn't study or what they do/don't do for a living. As though it determines who they are! It doesn't matter how you get to a certain point so long as you get there and you're happy with what you do in life.

My little 'soapbox moment'...ok I'm done now Off topic!