armadillo

Ooooo, nice touch, the brine shrimp net to remove floating particles. Very nice idea. Needless to say that my normal fish net technique has not been successful so far.

sick-lid boy

I actually have different method for each tank.

For my 15 gallon, I siphon the water out into 5 gallon buckets (which also makes it easy to determine how much water I'm taking out and how much needs to go back in) with a 1/2 clear hose with a plastic piece from an old filter fitted on the end of the hose to make sure I don't suck up any small fish or gravel. I kind of swish it around in the gravel at the same time to clean up debris from the gravel at the same time. To get the fresh water back in the tank, I fill up a 5 gallon bucket with tap water, dechlorinre it, then use a pitcher to fill the tank so as not to disturb the decorations too badly... I have alot of plants in that tank that could get uprooted if I just dump the water in straight from the bucket.

For my 55 and 80 gallon tanks, I use the gravel vac that came with my Magnum filter to siphon the water out into 5 gallon buckets (it's kinda big to use on my 15 gallon), vacuuming the gravel at the same time. For both of those tanks, I just dump the dechlorinated tap water back into the tanks straight from the bucket. The 55 gallon just has rocks for decorations, and the 80 gallon is tall enough so the waterfall from the bucket barely reaches the bottom of the tank. Neither tank is disrupted by pouring water in from buckets.


On a related topic: I was thinking about buying a Discus fish from a fish store that had some really nice looking Discus. I was telling the owner about my Discus tank and how I changed the water. He told me I was nuts for filling the tank back up with buckets. He said I should just use straight hose water to re-fill my tank and THEN add the dechorinator. I decided NOT to buy any Discus from him right then and there. Was his advice as bad I as I thought it was or was he right? I always thought chlorine would instantly remove the beneficial bacteria.

armadillo

Thanks for that, Sick Lid Boy (oooo, only just got that Sick Lid = Cyclid). Yeah, that's kind of why I don't use buckets to pour it back in, because my depth is not big enough and it would disturb the gravel. If your tanks are big enough, I guess there's no reason.

About the putting unconditionned water in first, then condition it, I heard a lot of people on Fishlore do that. The ones that use a Python. So the guy might have been right. I don't do it out of, I don't know, superstition I guess. It just doesn't feel like the conditionner will be mixed properly with the new water if you condition after putting the water back in, but there are several accounts by experienced aquarists that say it works.

tan.b

eeewwwwwwwwwww!!!
so you wont be trying that extra "spice" next time then?!

tan.b

i may try it. i'd have to stand on a big chair or something as the top of the tank is at my chect height and i'd struggle to tip the watering can for that length of time. sounds perfect for the fish though! and less messy! i slopped water everywhere again this morn :

tan.b

some gets syphoned up for me, but some doesnt, and the remainder the fish love to eat as some of it must be algae wafer particles that sink through the gravel and prob some scraps of bbs too. the filter and fish feast clear it up in under an hour. having the water cloudy that long is prob not good as some of that debris is poo! especially if you have plecos!

tan.b

mmmm, i personally dont and wouldnt do that. why? because you add the chlorine to your tank, the chlorine kills the good bugs and lowers your fishes slime coat makes it prone to disease, then you add the dechlor...by then the chlorine/chloramine has touched and affected everything. to fish and bugs chlorine is like bleach. you wouldnt pour the bleach in you tank then add the dechlor would you? i am scientific by nature though so tend to over analyse, but i can see reasoning to declor the water before adding to tank. bit late dechloring it after its touhed the fish etc!!

Trpimp147

i agree i delcor before adding water. due to high amount of clorine in my water in the area and dis trust of water cleaning from my local plant... ya kno its to be the best in the area but i still dont do it the fish are already prone to any thing even if all water levels are set right. just a sudden change can kill just about any fish right? i just use a bucket and fill it declor it then let it sit till i need it.

tan.b

sounds like a good plan to me!!!

sick-lid boy

Hmmm.. interesting. I was sure I read somewhere that chlorine will almost instantly destroy any bacteria- including the beneficial bacteria. The top of my 80 gallon Discus tank is over 5 feet from the floor and I am only 5'5". Lifting 5 gallon buckets all the way up there to refill it is a chore to say the least. When I do my weekly water change, I change out six 5 gallon buckets worth of water. Using a hose to refill it would definitely be a LOT easier.

Any other thoughts on this?

For now, I think I'll just play it safe and do it the way I always have done it in the past. No need to go to gym using the bucket method...

armadillo

Wow, that's worrying. So there would be no directly ill-effects on the fish, but those members would get mini-cycles which they wouldn't immediately associate with the untreated water. Interesting indeed. And very possible. Thankfully I added gravel/filter pad from my cycled tank AFTER I'd put conditionner in. Pfeeew.

griffin

you can add a full load if you did fishless ammonia cycling

griffin

about adding the dechlor/water order. i would think that you should add the dechlor first (even if it's directly to your tank), and then water to tank. i think that's what most people with a python do.

sgould

I would think so too. Python people?

sick-lid boy

I was thinking about that... and wondering if it would work. I don't see why it wouldn't. I just hate to take chances with my Discus. Besides being ridiculously expensive, I really love those those guys and would hate to kill them all in one fell swoop. That would seriously suck.

armadillo

What's fishless ammonia cycling? Is it basically fishless cycling? Because I didn't think you could add a whole bunch of fish at once after fishless cycling. Is fishless ammonia cycling when you add increasing amounts of ammonia every time your ammonia levels go down?

Trpimp147

i see the 5 foot reach is great, an awsome work out haha. when adding water to my tank i use the bucket and add declor the day before to the bucket then add it while adding the rest because i only have one bucket.


i put my 3 cichlids in there new home from a 10gal tank to a 75gal they swam like crazy!!! one end to the other end like 30 times in 5 mins. i told them to slow down they will get tired. they didnt listen (jerks)haha.

griffin

yeah, it's basically fishless cycling, but instead of using flake or whatever else you would use to provide the ammonia, you would use pure ammonia. you can add the full load of fish immediately after a large water change because your fish will not produce nearly as much ammonia as you were putting in, so it won't cause a mini cycle.

musicman4567

So, if I were to get a python, do I condition the tank water then turn it on to fill the tank? Because they take water direct from the tap... I was tryin to figure out how that works...
Edit:
Heh, I just read the rest of the forum.. didn't see page 2. anyways, I don't think an answer ever came up though.

musicman4567

Ok. I'm now going to answer my own question. I just did some research on Pythons and products such as those. Supposedly the way the water flows into your tank from these products aerates it, eliminating the majority of the chlorine found in tap water. I can't find anything about chloramines, I'm assuming it is the same as the aged water answer: they aren't gotten rid of without chemicals. Python suggests that if you need to use a form of water treatment when filling, you add it to the stream of water. I'm not sure how you would measure the conditioner then... Perhaps do some computations to figure out the volume of a drop of conditioner and the volume of water you are replacing and use that... :P

tan.b

mmm, wish i had the answers for you! look forward to seeing someone else answer though!

armadillo

Hi Musicman. I've mused about this too, and other members helped out. The fishlore members that use Python that participated in that conversation said they conditioned the tank water directly in the tank before adding the tap water. They use the amount of conditionner corresponding to the amount of replaced/new water they are about to put in.

What I wonder about Python is: is the only advantage really that you don't need to go back and forth with buckets? I mean, it won't vaccuum for you, will it?

Luniyn

The Python is a vacuum yes. Its basically a powered siphon tube (powered in that the sink starts up the suction for you). And yes the benefit is that you don't have to deal with buckets. If you only have small tanks then it's not that big of a deal (at least it isn't for me and my 20 Gal as I just use a regular siphon tube). It's more suited to people with large tanks that don't want to haul 4 or 5 buckets of water per every water change. And yes as Armadillo stated, you add enough conditioner to treat the amount of water being replaced into the tank. The conditioner will only react with the untreated water and won't be wasted on the already treated water. And if it runs out of water to treat it will actually just sit in your tank waiting for the opportunity to treat the next batch of water that gets put in. So there really isn't anything to worry about as far as the conditioner goes and the Python.

Newtankdude

pour the water into the filter, it wont stirrup the tank and you can pour it pretty fast.

armadillo

I myself am sticking to my water can idea to pour water back in. I love it, and so do the fish! They all come to the surface as if it was raining.

choochiegirl

watering can?!?! what an awesome idea!!! I have a hard time with the bucket since my tank is in the basement and my taps and drain are upstairs so I get a good workout when I change water, but a watering can will help me splash less and will not knock over my plants. Still will need a bucket to drain but that's ok!

armadillo

Oh they love it. I got this 10L one, so it's exactly the same volume as my bucket and yes, I still need buckets for the emptying the water from the tank part. Honestly, water change has become party time. They all come at the surface to check what's going on. The fry love it too. And now I love doing it too because they clearly enjoy the fake rain! Great advantage: won't disturb your substrate at all.

Boy was I smug with that idea. I'd never thought you could be excited going to the hardware store to buy a 3 dollar watering can!

Trpimp147

haha sounds fun my fish love it when i dump the bucket in the tank. i also like when it stirs up the tank bottem gives the fish somthing diff looking to swim in or somthing for them to move back haha

armadillo

Oh, funny. Mine really hated the disturbance. It is fun, though. Of course, there's the couple of times when I am impatient so I pour half the water on the side because I just tilt it in one go, like an idiot. I'll learn, really, I'll learn.

jack11

For returning water to my tank i use a funnel and a length of hose and simply insert the funnel into the hose then put the other end of the hose into the tank and curl it upwards then pour the water into the funnel. this gives you complete control of where the water goes.

jack.