Water Changes

[Sophia]

We had a discussion on adding cycle every water change a while back. Some think it's a complete waste of money, some people do it regardless. In the end it's up to you.

Amb44, if I do the water change with a stocking I usually end up pulling out as much of the water as I want to until I have as much gunk as I can get without leaving no water for the fish. Problem with a normal stocking is that the fine stuff still passes through so either you have to leave it to settle a bit first and leave a couple of litres in the bottom of the bucket, or just pour it back in anyway. I've also tried it with a bunched up chux cloth and that collects much of the fine stuff too. So in the end maybe you swap out a few litres but it's nowhere near as much as if you chucked out buckets at a time.

[amb44]

That's so cool, thanks Sophia! I didn't even click that I wasn't doing a water change as such, duh! Hopefully the finer bits will get taken up with regular water changes, if not I have some thick tights that are falling apart so might use those.

[sup42]

No need. Just use basic de chlorinator. You shoudnt be effecting the bacteria when water changing and the balance is already there so no need to add more.

100 % agree.

I use prime for this purpose. Reading Various websites while experiencing New Tank Syndrome Very few Products met the Standard for being Live Viable bacteria, the ones in Bottles on Shelves with no Oxygen and no Date stamp are a waste of Money since the Aerobic bacteria needed to Cycle a Tank needs to breath, or be in some suspended state that survives long enough to go from production to our LFS.

Two Products that had been shown to work (provided they hadn't passed there use by date ) were not available in New Zealand.

The rest were possibly able to provide conditions that would support Bacterial growth in an Aquarium.

Because I had Escalating Nitrite and Amonia Levels to Deal with ( as mentioned in My previous post ) I followed the advice of an expert who seemed to know what they were talking about and did aggressive Water Changes to ' Slow the negative impact of the Cycle down.

At the Same time introducing real live bacteria from another Tank is worth ten times any bottled Snake Oil and speeds the Cycle up Markedly in terms of reaching a balance.

I didn't Know anyone with a Cycled tank so instead of wasting Money on Bacteria in a Bottle I bought Potted Plants Galore from Animates MT Wellington ( because they keep a Pleco and A Dwarf Gourami in their planted tanks )

The Grow Wool In pots I dropped into my tank 'as is' to seed my tank with live bacteria and increase the bio mass of plants in there to absorb Amonia and out compete Alagae.

The Scound tank I set up has cycled Sponge media from the Big tank , I was thrilled we Cycled the Big tank in three weeks and amazed the Secound tank was instantly Cycled ( having said that i am doing daily water tests for two weeks to be sure ).

So Big Water changes might slow down the Bacteria in you tank but it is balanced by the Clean water you are putting in each time......its a ratio. Once you are fully Cycled provided you don't change all of the substrate and Bio Media in your filter , or over feed your fish , you can water change away merrily.

It's More important that you avoid PH swings and Temperature swings with Water changes.

[alanmin4304]

The grow wool on plants is inert and does nothing for your plants but restrict the root development.It is used as a holding media when growing with hydro You are right however with the fact that they may carry good bugs. How about a compromise and remove the wool and rinse it in water to be added to the tank.

[sup42]

The grow wool on plants is inert and does nothing for your plants but restrict the root development.It is used as a holding media when growing with hydro You are right however with the fact that they may carry good bugs. How about a compromise and remove the wool and rinse it in water to be added to the tank.

Yep.

I removed the Grow Wool and planted the Plants after the pots had been sitting in my tank for a few days ( I Didn't know if the bacteria would be disturbed / some lost by rinsing the Wool into the tank.

So put the potted plants near the filter uptake in the mean time.