The Great White Hand Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 Hi I've been doing 30% WC every 2 days in a 215 ltr tank (AR980 extensively planted and with 5 Discus and some small fishes). I've been taking the water from a bucket to the tank in a 1ltr jug and am getting a bit sick of it! I need one of those things that fits on the taps, maybe! Any ideas or devices (including brands) recommended? Regards, TGWH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaNs Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 Just grab some pipe from your local plastic shop that fits over the tap Or just chuck the hose in the tank from the outside. The 2nd one is what ill be doing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 ChCh water might be too cold (not because of the weather) as its from wells, check with some of the locals first. I fill a bucket with cold from the hose and then add a little boiling water if the weather is cold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 Why are you taking it from the bucket to the tank in a jug? Just pour it straight in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 i use a hose, so much easier! hardest part is getting my some to run down stairs & turn the tap on & off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cichlid7 Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 it is best to use water the same Temp as your tank. I have a tank setup with a heater Air stone Pond pump I have a long clear hose which i got from Bunnings then got a U shaped hose connection thing and fixed it on one end of the hose When i need to refill my tanks all i do is put the normal end of the hose on the pond pump and put the u shaped end over the side of the tank. then plug the pond pump in Then unplug the heater. then move it to the next tank and so on.... When i have finished i just put the garden hose through the window and refill the water tank then plug the heater back in. EASY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 I have made up a connection which goes on the kitchen fawcett and the garden hose snaps onto it. Siphon the water out with the garden hose then snap the hose onto the connection and fill with water blended to the right temperature. If you have a kitchen fawcett pm me and come and have a look as the bits are from various sources. It is based on gadget found on trademe but I found the plastic fittings didn't last (very fine threads)so I made one from metal. The connection replaces the filter on the fawcett spout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 Hey GWH, i was having the same dilemma with the cold chch water down here. My partner bought me one of the tap filling devices for my birthday so i could do water changes on my discus tank. (he's very aware of my fish obsession). You can either buy them via trademe or the guy that sells them on trademe actually has a shop in town, called something like mike's fishing ( i will check later if you like). It comes with the faucet adaptors and tap but doesn't come with any hose. I found i needed to replace the plastic thread adaptor for the kitchen tap as the plastic one didn't thread very well and leaked. I have used it to fill my tank and it has worked very well. I had thought that i may have problems with the tank being higher than the kitchen sink and the water not being able to be pushed upwards but it was no problem at all. I haven't yet used it to drain the tank as the hose i bought is not the same diameter as my gravel vac hose :oops: so i may end up changing the hose type ( i also didn't buy a long enough hose to reach my other tank). Even just the filling the tank via this method has saved a lot of time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 Just checked and its called Mike's Fishing Store Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 I bought one of those pumps from Mike's fishing and it is great. I have used it to gravel vac as well as refill and it takes so much less time now. I had to get a metal adaptor as the plastic one didn't quite fit properly to my kitchen tap, but he had those in stock anyway. I just bought a length of hose and some adaptors from bunnings and I also got a valve so I can stop it sucking without running to the tap and attached it all together It used to take me about and hour or so to do water changes in my 4 foot tank and it now takes me about 30 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 I do ~30-50% water changes, and even in winter filling it up with the hose from outside I've never seen the temp drop by more than 4-5 degrees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 DavidR our water is alot colder down here, I notice you are in Auckland. There is another reason I find this pump brilliant and that is that the suction is good enough to do a good gravel vac without having to worry if the hose goes up over things and back down again and with the stop valve I have added along the hose I can stop and start the suction easily. All you do to start it siphoning is connect the pump to the tap and turn on the cold tap with the pump set to empty and it will keep pumping out water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great White Hand Posted June 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 Hi Guys Thank you! I really appreciate the prompt and valuable advice from members of the forum. I know Mike from my fishing days so will stop in and see what his set-up is like. At the moment my planted Discus tank is on its 4th day without a WC, and so far the "sky hasn't fallen" (he touches wood). The up side with the jug method is my 3 year old can count to 60, the number of jugs required to do a 30% change Alan, really keen to look at your set-up sometime the Echinodorus tenellus you sold me is growing well, do you anticipate having anymore available in the near future? Jolliolli, good to hear your discus tank is going well. They are such characters and so animated, but a heck of a responsibility! Regards Guy (TGWH) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richms Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 I undo the shower and got an adapter to take the thread up to normal garden hose tap size, then run a hose from the bathroom to the tank, after setting the mixer to about tank temperature. cant turn the hose off at the end because that ends up sending cold water back into the hot and out the overpressure valve, so I just carry the hose thru in a bucket till I'm at the tank, and then carry it back in the bucket. Biggest problem is that the flatmates always want to use the loo when I am doing this and the door wont close. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 DavidR our water is alot colder down here, I notice you are in Auckland. Really, how much colder can water get? You don't fill your tank up with ice do you? I usually do my water changes in the morning before work, so in the middle of winter I doubt if our water is much over 5C, meaning you could only get a few degrees colder without it freezing. A 3C reduction in temperature for a 30% waterchange is hardly going to make a huge difference. Do you also adjust the pH to perfectly match your tank before adding it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 Seriously, the ChCh water is way colder than Aucklands! Sort of off topic but when people take horses to the Canterbury A&P Show from out of Christchurch they usually take their own water in tanks as the horses get colic (no I'm not joking - from personal experience). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 Seriously, the ChCh water is way colder than Aucklands! Did you measure that with a thermometer of fingerometer? :roll: Just for an interesting comparrison, I'll go outside on the next cold morning we get and measure the water from the garden hose and see how cold it is. Hopefully someone from Christchurch can do the same so we can see the difference. I used to do the same thing when I lived in hamilton [which is a lot colder than auckland] and still didn't notice a huge drop in temperature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 Just for my own curiousity I just checked the temp of my tapwater, let it run for a minute or two first. It's 8.1C according to my thermometer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loopy Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 1 Liter of water straight from the outside tap that i always do my water changes from at 11am this morning measured 10.2*C. Only time i ever warm the water up for a water change is if it is for very newly hatched fry of any sort. My whiptail fry which are about 2 weeks old are getting 1L of cold water every 2 days in a 8ish Liter tank. No problems. We find our fish seem to love the cold water. The angel fish kids complain a bit if they have a 60% change with cold water but they handle it and also get over it. No-one dies or get sick from us doing cold water changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great White Hand Posted June 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Hi I'm probably showing my innumeracy, but a 1/3 WC at 10C, when the current tank temp is 30C (say for Discus) would bring the tank to approx 23C. I would have thought that was too great of a drop for fish to feel comfortable i.e it would be stressful. Anyone do say 30+% WC for Discus with cold water? Regards, TGWH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 i will check our water temperature tomorrow morning and let you know how cold it is, but there is a fair difference between getting down to 8 degrees at night and that being the high for the day! So I would expect our water to be colder anyway and further south to be even colder than ours, especially in central otago. I have noticed this difference in temperature of water, because whenever I am up in the north island I end up running the tap for about 5 mins before I realise it isn't going to get any colder before I have a drink of water. and i agree with TGWH that a drop of around 7 degrees in a tank is quite alot, it also means your heaters have to work harder to get the temperature back up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Some fish cope better than others. I did 50% changes on my Malawi tank with temp differences of around 10C and a pH change of 7.4 - 7.0 and it never bothered them. I had a trigger gun on the end of the hose and the fish would play in the current as the water blasted back into the tank under pressure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 I do 50 - 60% water changes about weekly but blend the water so it is about the same as the tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 1 Liter of water straight from the outside tap that i always do my water changes from at 11am this morning measured 10.2*C. I just checked mine now as I was doing a water change, 14C after a fairly mild day. I'll be interested to see how much colder it gets as the temperature drops. I did around a 40% change, temp dropped from 25C to 21-22C. Fish don't seem to be bothered either, maybe with something really delicate like discus or rays I'd be a little more concerned, but I've never had a problem with it keeping uarus, eels, loaches, black aro, etc. Pre-heating the water would be the best option, but if you're doing a weekly water change of around 50% on anything bigger than a couple of hundred litres and you're going to need a lot of containers and heaters [or one big one]. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loopy Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 1L at 8am measured 7.2*C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.