Tony_P
I thought I might post a thingie on how I do my water changes. I have two 25 gallon tanks and do a 30% water change every week, one tank on Saturday and one on Sunday.
First off, I have two 5 gallon plastic buckets. I got these at Walmart. They are food grade and non-BPA. I fill both and add conditioner. I set them aside for a day. Plus I put a fixed temperature heater suitable for a 5 gallon tank in each to warm up the water.
I use a siphon that has a squeezy bulb on it to remove water into 4 gallon bucket I have for waste. I use it vacuum up gunk as needed. I take out 2 buckets. I turn off the filter also for this short time.
While the water is down, if needed, I remove and scrub any toys/ ornaments with a brush reserved for the purpose. I scrub and rinse them under tap water and dry them with paper towel before replacing them. I also scrub the tank walls of algae if needed.
I get one of the buckets of fresh conditioned water and I use a 2 litre Pyrex glass measure cup to scoop water over. This Pyrex cup is used only for the tanks. When the one bucket is empty, I then get the second to finish.
After the tank is filled suitably, I turn the filter back on. I then buckle everything back up. Oh -- If needed I do whatever I need to do with my filter media at this time.
Finally I do all my cleanup of my equipment, which takes about 10 minutes. After that I add my bacteria.
Not sure if my methods are fully by the book, but they seem to work for me.
If I need to do a higher water volume of change, I have an addition 3 gallon bucket to condition water as needed.
Tony
First off, I have two 5 gallon plastic buckets. I got these at Walmart. They are food grade and non-BPA. I fill both and add conditioner. I set them aside for a day. Plus I put a fixed temperature heater suitable for a 5 gallon tank in each to warm up the water.
I use a siphon that has a squeezy bulb on it to remove water into 4 gallon bucket I have for waste. I use it vacuum up gunk as needed. I take out 2 buckets. I turn off the filter also for this short time.
While the water is down, if needed, I remove and scrub any toys/ ornaments with a brush reserved for the purpose. I scrub and rinse them under tap water and dry them with paper towel before replacing them. I also scrub the tank walls of algae if needed.
I get one of the buckets of fresh conditioned water and I use a 2 litre Pyrex glass measure cup to scoop water over. This Pyrex cup is used only for the tanks. When the one bucket is empty, I then get the second to finish.
After the tank is filled suitably, I turn the filter back on. I then buckle everything back up. Oh -- If needed I do whatever I need to do with my filter media at this time.
Finally I do all my cleanup of my equipment, which takes about 10 minutes. After that I add my bacteria.
Not sure if my methods are fully by the book, but they seem to work for me.
If I need to do a higher water volume of change, I have an addition 3 gallon bucket to condition water as needed.
Tony