Doing my first water change in my cycled 60 gallon cube. Was wondering what the best would be considering im using tap water, how to not kill the good bacteria in my canister filter by cycling chlorinated water through it. Should i shut down the filter when taking water out, refill and then immediatly treat with seachem prime and stress coat before plugging filter back in? Then add some biospira to bolster bacteria followed by cleaning the canister filter week later. Let me know hoq i should properly do it if this method isnt viable. Thank you in advance for the help?
60 Gallon Tank First water change
- Messages
- 4,478
This is just a personal preference, but I always shut down my filters during water changes.
I remove about 50%+ of the water every 5 or 6 days using a Python, dose Prime to the water left in the tank based on the tank’s total volume (not the amount of water being replaced) and then fill the tank up with clean water (again with Python). I use a digital thermometer to temperature match the water I’m adding. I restart the filters after the tank’s full.
IMO, using bottled bacteria on a fully cycled tank is unnecessary.
Advertisement
- Messages
- 21,388
Great advice from Dunk2 I do want to add. There is no need to add both prime and stress coat as both are water conditioners. Just add one or the other. Personally I use Prime but if you have no ammonia in your tank or tap water, stress coat should work just as well.
- Messages
- 716
Both, i use seachem prim for chlorine but stress coat to help the fish of anyone gets stressed during cleaning and to prevent any any damage to their slime coat? I use prime because my tap water is chlorinated. Though when i do tests on the plain tap water it shoes no results for ammonia. So i should be safe their
Though on examining the bottle stress coat also claims to remove chlorine.
- Messages
- 21,388
Seachem's product is stress guard. As far as I know it doesn't remove chlorine/chloramines. API's product is stress coat. It is a basic water conditioner with aloe added to make us think it will work better than the product sitting next to it that doesn't contain aloe.
Advertisement
- Messages
- 4,478
- Messages
- 21,388
As I said before. Both of these products are water conditioners that basically do the same thing. I always recommend using Prime when doing a fish in cycle because it detoxes low levels of ammonia. If you are not getting an ammonia reading or if you are doing a fishless cycle the stress coat will work as well as prime. Just use one or the other. There is no need to add both.
A
already cycled just doing maintinence water changes. My issue being is the water im refilling the tank with it tap and IS chlorinated so i could use EITHER brand chemical to help negate the destruction of my biological filter by the chlorinated water cycling through my cannister filter. That was really at the end of the day my inquiry so i didnt kill my good bacteria?
- Messages
- 21,388
Right, either one of them will remove the chlorine from your tap water. My main point was you don't need to add both of them since they both do the same thing. In my humble opinion the fewer things we add to our tanks the better it is. I choose to use Prime since it takes so little of it to do the job.
I see well the stress coat is almost gone so i will stick with the prime after i do appreciate the advice. Is their a better way to do the water change other then filling a large barrel and treat it with the prime. I know it can be a preferential between person to person what method should be used, im fairly new so i try and ask as many opinions as i can and go from their, thank you again for you help
- Messages
- 21,388
In my case I still do it the old fashioned way with buckets. To remove the water I siphon it into a 5 gallon bucket and use that water to water my indoor and outdoor plants. To refill I add Prime to each bucket of temp matched water as it is filling. By the time the bucket is full Prime has done its job and the water is ready to pour in the tank. Since the chlorine is already removed before pouring the water in the tank I don't have to turn off my filters.
Others use a python type system to do their water changes. First turn off the filters. When refilling add enough water conditioner to treat the full volume of the tank not just the amount of water you are replacing. Most if not all water conditioners almost instantly remove the chlorine so once the tank is filled it should be safe to restart the filter.