About Doing Water Changes- Questions

[mrgreen]

Since I've been doing these so often lately, I wondered:

What do you do while doing water changes? And, how long does it take you? If you have MTS, do you have a schedule? A regular time, even?

I watch tv while changing the water in my two tanks. The 30-long takes me about an hour start to finish. The 5-gallon hex takes 15 minutes- if that. My schedule right now is every other day for the 30-gallon (because I am treating for ich) and once a week for the 5. ONce I'm done treating the ich, it will be once a week, too. No schedule, really. Just once a week. Most often at night- around 10 or 11 to start.

[Pazuzu]

I try to do all of the maintenance on my aquariums and terrariums on the weekend. My 20 gallon long takes me about 45 minutes to do a good clean including cleaning the filter tube and removing any excess algae from the decor. However when I had my 29 gallon brackish it could easily take me a good hour and a half or longer because I had to mix up the salt in 5 gallon buckets and test the salinity. Plus with that tank I had a Rena XP series canister filter which was took a while to maintain. I have a 5 gallon hex that takes me 15 minutes tops to do a 1 to 2 gallon water change on.

If I had any more tanks though I would probably have to keep a calendar because I don't know if I could dedicate a whole afternoon/evening just to cleaning tanks.

[Troender]

I usually start my tank work when I should have gone to bed. It's like "Aaah, time to go to bed. Oh no! I was supposed to do x number of tanks today. Well, better start working...". I probably don't need to explain that I always go to bed awfully late.
Earlier I used to do other things at the same time as doing water changes. But I've had to cut down on that, as I've flooded my floor way to many times. Besides, I use to work at several tanks at the same time, so now I don't have time to do other things at the same time. I had problems remembering plugging in filters and heaters earlier too, but that's changed, or rather mostly changed. When I change water in the tanks that are in racks, it's easy to remember. I have some kind of rythm in the work: unplug, take out water, fill water, plug in filter and heater again. The plugs are in two rows, with each tank on its usual place, so it's easy to remember which plugs belong to which tanks. And when it's time to unplug the next tank, the first tank is beside it, and easier to remember to replug again. But there are a few tanks I do forget, and it's the same tanks over and over again (they stand alone tanks - not in a rack). It's tanks where I have external filters. In those tanks I only need to unplug the heater. And when it's only the heater, I don't remember it afterwards (I guess I remember because of the filter in the other tanks). Luckily this is mostly cory tanks, and they are not so vulnerable to cold water as puffers. Actually, giving cories a cold water change is a way of trigging them to start breeding. But every time I say: "Oh no! Not AGAIN!" I guess there's another reason why I forget those tanks. In some of the cory tanks, I keep the heaters unplugged all summer. I have a pretty hot house, so I don't need heaters during that season. This makes it far easier to forget to replug them after water changes in the winter. I've gotten used to not needing to unplug or replug anything.

[Troender]

BTW, the time is now 2:45 a.m. and I just started today's water changes.

[Pufferpunk]

Every Tuesday, I take the day off for WC. Every other Tuesday at 10:30am I get a massage. Get home around noon & hook up the Hotline I work until 6pm. I start draining my 90g discus tank while eating lunch. After a 90% water change, it gets filled while I post here. Next, the 29g BW F8 tank & 20g modestus tanks get drained by 50%--more internet. After they are filled, the 125g gets drained 75%, while I get ready to go out for the evening. I'm usually done aorund 4pm. 1x/month the 90g reef tank gets the sump drained & on a different Tuesday, I do WC on my 15g frag tank & the 40g reef. I'm out the door at 6pm for a 6:30 water aerobics class & then a weekly NA meeting from 8-9:30, followed by fellowshipping & dinner. Usually home by 11pm. I usually clean filters on the weekends, 1x/month.

More info than you guys probably needed...

[Jivenjune]

Since I've been doing these so often lately, I wondered:

What do you do while doing water changes? And, how long does it take you? If you have MTS, do you have a schedule? A regular time, even?

I watch tv while changing the water in my two tanks. The 30-long takes me about an hour start to finish. The 5-gallon hex takes 15 minutes- if that. My schedule right now is every other day for the 30-gallon (because I am treating for ich) and once a week for the 5. ONce I'm done treating the ich, it will be once a week, too. No schedule, really. Just once a week. Most often at night- around 10 or 11 to start.

It takes me about an hour and a half I suppose. I change roughly four tanks; three of them are easy, but one is particularly difficult.

I do this weekly to keep water quality up to par. I do about 50 percent per change. The most difficult is the ninety gallon cichlid community tank that I maintain for my parents. I don't have a Python, so I use a hose outside to fill up a five gallon bottle of water with dechlorinator. I prefer not to just dump tap water into the tank using the hose, so I take a somewhat long approach. I fill the tank up repeatedly by filling up five gallons at a time until the water level is at its original placement. I find that the fish stress out much less when I do changes this way. I do this usually on Fridays.

[pufferpuggirl]

Because I chose to inundate my house with fish tanks, that means I have to basically do water changes all during the week, or I could devote 2 days and do them all at once. I prefer stretching them out and doing them all during the week though. I now have 18 tanks, so it's a pretty intense job (good thing I don't work because doing water changes and maintenance is too much like a real job!). I try to get 3-4 done each day, but it doesn't always work like that and there's many times that I'm doing water changes on what's supposed to be my days off (the weekend). But it's my own fault, and with the extra big tank that I've just got, that's more work now!

But it's all good fun and I feel good when I look at my tanks and know that I've achieved all this on my own (No, the husband does not help, it's all down to me!) and I see how happy my puffers seem to be!

[diverchic]

We have three tanks and I do the cleaning and maintenance on them... I do it on the weekends right now as I'm not allowed to dive so am spending most weekends at home. Once I get the all clear to dive I'll either do them on the weekend (after diving) or one at a time on weeknights. It'll be pretty tiring though as I leave my house at 6.30am and don't get back until 8 or 9pm depending on if I have BMF after work or not.

I'm going away for two and a half weeks in October and am very much looking forward to hearing the other half's comments as he doesn't do any tank maintenance at all and only feeds the fish (cos that's fun) when I get back. Hopefully he'll realise that it's actually work.

I use the magnetic algae scrubbers on the tanks first and then vacuum, drain and fill each one individually. I also don't put the hose into the tank so use a bucket to carry treated (dechorinated) water from the kitchen sink.

[LilGreenPuffer]

I have two small tanks, 10g and 5g. I check nitrates once or twice a week with a dip strip. I do a water change when they're getting too close to 20 for my taste. I'm not very exact. The puffers get 80%, and the betta gets 30%.

[Myaj]

When all i had was freshwater, it was a lot quicker and easier. Just start the siphon draining down a sink or out a window, go do something else.. I learned to not put the siphon too deep into the tank and risk draining it dry, and of course, you dont' want to burn out your filter so I'd usually turn those off. But since I generally would do 50-90%, I'd just let it go as long as I felt I had time for. Then move the siphon to the next tank, and continue down the line. Eventually, I got a second phyton set up and would start refilling the first tanks while the next ones were emptying, which really sped things up.

Now that I have one freshwater and one saltwater, and do everything by buckets it takes longer. I still drain with a phython (just for the long hose, I don't use the sink for pressure), but I have 4 or 5 5 gallon buckets that I premix my saltwater in.. the bathroom is quite an interesting place during a change on Paris's 75 gallon tank. I don't have room here to premix a big garbage can full and pump it up into the tank.. just not enough storage space.

Bubba is relatively easy and quick, a 29 freshwater.

[Pufferpunk]

I don't have a Python, so I use a hose outside to fill up a five gallon bottle of water with dechlorinator. I prefer not to just dump tap water into the tank using the hose, so I take a somewhat long approach. I fill the tank up repeatedly by filling up five gallons at a time until the water level is at its original placement.

Why no Python? At least be assured--I have been filling my tank with a hose (temp adjusted) for 30+ years, by adding the dechlor directly into the tank before filling.

[S&FW_FishyFriend]

Why no Python? At least be assured--I have been filling my tank with a hose (temp adjusted) for 30+ years, by adding the dechlor directly into the tank before filling.

So that works? I've often wondered about doing that, but have been scared to try... I once lost a fish to chlorinated water- my pleco- he was the victim of a distracted water change in the early days of my aquarium hobby... after he died I figured out that I had forgotten the dechlorinator and I felt awful... I vowed never again would I let that happen! So, do you add the exact amount to the water in the tank or a little more, just to be sure?

[Jivenjune]

I don't have a Python, so I use a hose outside to fill up a five gallon bottle of water with dechlorinator. I prefer not to just dump tap water into the tank using the hose, so I take a somewhat long approach. I fill the tank up repeatedly by filling up five gallons at a time until the water level is at its original placement.

Why no Python? At least be assured--I have been filling my tank with a hose (temp adjusted) for 30+ years, by adding the dechlor directly into the tank before filling.

I don't get paid until the 20th. I can't afford a Python until then. Receiving a monthly paycheck sucks, but I work at local city college and they employ a fairly large bodied staff, so I suppose this cannot be helped. Also, I don't really mind not having a Python. While I admit that it would be nice and likely much more convenient, the 50 foot tube line I use to siphon water with is also used to water my parents garden outside. I find this easier and less expensive than to double up on water by filling the tank and watering the plants.

Aside from that, I notice significant signs of stress whenever I put tap water directly into the tank even with dechlorinator being added preemptively. Generally, the cichlids' colors will change significantly if I add tap water to the tank directly. Perhaps my city has more chlorine in its water than the average city? I'm not sure, but I do notice significant discoloration when I directly fill the tank. The yellow labs will begin to develop gray marks around their face, the blood parrots become pale, and many of the other fish lose significant coloration for a few days to a week. I never seen to have any discoloration when I do it the five gallon method. I've never had this issue with my puffers since I mix the salt water and dechlorinator (Amquel) with a powerhead and a heater in the tub.

[mrgreen]

What is a python and how long is the hose? My tank is FAIRLY close to the bathroom....

[Lil' Swimz$]

I do water changes every Saturday late afternoon. Usually takes me an hour for my 3 tanks.