Water Changing . Straight from the cold tap or warm it up

[keriboi]

When doing a water change on your tropical tanks do you refill your tank straight from the hose with cold water or do you mix it with warm water to get it as close as your tank water?

I see some people are using straight cold water?

[TM]

Would depend on how much you change.

[lmsmith]

I do all my water changes with cold water, even 50% changes. The only exception is fry tanks, then if the fry tend to be sensitive, I use water from their parents tank.

I figure that it rains in the wild, and there are slips and floods etc, so what's the big deal about clean, fresh water?

[suphew]

cold water is a trigger to spawn for some fish, guess it means the rains are coming.

I used to do water changes by putting the hose into my tanks, never had any problems.

[StarFish]

Hmm.. weve ALWAYS warmed the water a little in the winter, but in the summer its sweet

[Aaron-Betta]

I use 8L buckets to do water changes and always add about 1L of boiling water to it to take the chill off and get it near tank temp. Call me paranoid, but I always do it like that. :-?

[alanmin4304]

Rapid changes in temperature, hardness or pH stress fish and are often the cause of outbreaks of diseases like white spot. I have a set up where I blend hot and cold to about the same in the tank and can then often do very big water changes. Temperature is however only one of the factors it is best not to change too rapidly so the size of the water change usually equates to the frequency. If I have been a bit slack with water changes I usually do a number of smaller changes to catch up.

[MarkLB]

I use cold water from the tap. I've been doing it this way for ages and have never noticed any detriment from it.

I do warm the water for my fry tanks though.

[David R]

I have used cold water in the past with no problems, and during summer when its not that cold I will use it straight out of the tap. In winter I tend to add some warm water to help make it closer to the tank temperature. For my new 5' I'm going to invest in a 300L plastic drum so I can leave the water to sit instead of using dechlorinator, and I'll put a heater in there to help get it up to temperature too.

[paekakboyz]

I used to warm it up a bit but that required using a bucket (don't have a mixer on a hose). Tried doing smaller (10%) water changes with cold water straight outta the hose and the fish seemed to love it.

Now I do up to 40% changes with cold water - has triggered several spawnings for my cory's' and lemon tetras and I haven't had any issues with whitespot or stress related illnesses.

[keriboi]

how interesting. I will try cold water, i do %20 water changes once a week on a 250lt tank

[Adrienne]

Straight from the tap except for my discus and young fry tanks.

[Insect Direct]

its better to be on the cold side than to warm so ive never worried about heating and never had any problem - not much that dont breed around here :lol:

if doing a realy big wc i normally turn the hose down so it only trickles into sumps or whatever (in theory the slower its added the more time fish have to adjust =less shock)

fry tanks, take some water out if nd be then i just go get a bucket/jug from a trough outside then syphon that through abit of airtube (sometimes with tap on the end to reduce flow) into the tank. livefood + greenwater and a wc all in 1 :lol:

[Caryl]

I warm up the water for my tropicals only because it is more comfortable for me when I stick my hand in it (to stop the flow disturbing the gravel)!

The Africans got 50% water changes straight from the hose and loved it, always playing in the current.

[evil_elmo]

how are you guys warming up the water?

boiling a jug or straight from your hot water cylinder ?

the only reason i ask is i have heard of people using water from the hot water cylinder but i always believe the hot water isnt safe due to corrosion and bacteria living in the cylinder

[Dixon1990]

Corrosion only occurs in the cylinder when the PH is acidic (below 7) doesnt it? i use it from the cylinder

[Caryl]

If it's good enough for you, it should be good enough for your fish. I think it isn't corrosion that is the problem for some but copper pipes in older houses.

[kiwipete]

I use a 20L nappy bucket. Put it in the sink, turn on both taps full boor and it comes out at a nice consistent 26 deg. The tank is heated to 27.5 deg so the temp difference is not really noticeable.

[Catfish]

I've said it before and I'll say it again even though some disagree. I ALWAYS add water the same temp as the tank. I use a digital thermometer for this. Some say their fine just with cold, but to each their own really. The only fish I had that got straight cold was my pond fish. Everyone has their own methods and mine is warm water.

[TM]

how are you guys warming up the water?

boiling a jug or straight from your hot water cylinder ?

the only reason i ask is i have heard of people using water from the hot water cylinder but i always believe the hot water isnt safe due to corrosion and bacteria living in the cylinder

I wouldn't have thought the bacterial levels would be a problem from the cylinder.

Some older houses have copper pipes and copper in their cylinder however i think these levels would be so low it would not cause a problem.

Personally i have used water from my cylinder for my marine tank with no problems, you would see problems with the corals before fish but never had an issue.

[alanmin4304]

Copper forms an amalgum with iron in the first 6 weeks of the life of the cylinder and pipes and this is more resistant to corrosion. The problem is that there is less iron in plumbing systems these days as the galvanised iron water mains and reticulation has been replaced with other materials. Everyone had a cast iron wet back once as well. This is why Local authorities are careul to keep the water slightly alkaline. If the copper was going into solution the hot water cylinder in our house would have alredy dissolved because it is the original from when the house was built in 1945.

[Catfish]

I did a water test on my hot and cold water taps before using them in the tanks to make sure it would be safe to use, otherwise I would have used boiled water.

[evil_elmo]

cool, i wont have any worries from using hot water from the tap

[skaffen]

How long does tap water have to stand to be chlorine-free enough for tropical fish?

I'm sick of doing 13 bucket changes for my 440 l. I've got a plastic barrel, and a pump should be arriving on Tues. I figure if I let the barrel stand for a day or so, I won't need chlorine neutraliser?

I plan on using a heater in the barrel, although I probably won't need one in summer, as the house gets up to 30 deg when closed up during the day.

[alanmin4304]

Standing gets rid of the free available chlorine but not the chloramines which are almost as bad. Monochloramine is used in the USA to sanitize drinking water rather than chlorine. The more you let your chlorinated water sit the more the chloramines will move from trichloramine through dichloramine to monochloramine. Monochloramine is what makes your eyes sore in an under chlorinated swimming pool and as a disinfectant in USA for drinking water so it can't be good for your fish.