cleaning your tanks query?

[Jammos]

Hi

a have always been led to beleive that when you clean your tanks that you must add chemicals (ie stresscoat & stresszyme) that i have always done it that way.

but now I have been told that you can buy a filter to go onto on the end of your hose and thats all you have to do when filling the tank.

Does everyone just use chemicals or do you do it other ways.

all comments welcome!

[Warren]

It depends on your water quality.

If you have very good water from a well (no chlorine) then it can usually go straight into the tank.

In Palmy, the water is chlorinated.

You have three options:

1. Use chemicals to de-chlorinae the water.

2. Put the water in a seperate container and bubble air through it for a couple of days before using it.

3. Buy a water filter to remove the chlorine.

The second method is better as not chemicals are added but it's not nearly as convenient.

Be wary of units that attach to the end of your hose. They may not remove enough chlorine. If you can smell it there's too much. Water should pass through the filter quite slowly so it can do it's job. If the filter is a very small thing attached directly to the end of the hose and the water comes out at pretty much full pressure and speed then it will be doing very little.

[Jammos]

hi thanks for that.

the second option is too hard sorry as i would need more than my biggest spare tank to do a water change.

the filter is quite big(alot bigger than one than plugs on the end a a tap for drinking) but i do not know what they are like. The lfs is selling them but $170 is a lot of money to take a risk on.

not too many people do it that way obviously(ie filtering)

[Caryl]

Where I live I can just aim the garden hose in the tank and turn it on. I don't even match temperatures. The fish love playing in the current. I do not add anything to my tank at all and have never done so.

[Warren]

Neither do I. I filter all my water but not because of chlorine. It's only to remove the 6-8ppm phosphate. You say it's not practical to do water changes using method 2...

I do 500-600L water changes every week. I have 2400L of water storage. This allows me to fill the whole tank twice or do 4 water changes if the filter stops going. I've got at least a month of water on hand.

It doesn't take much to setup a container to degas the chlorine out of the water. It's the cheapest option too.

[kim]

we have a water filter on our tape at work, it is so much better and if you work out the cost of stresscoat & stresszyme or aqua plus and cycle, you will save money over the years, stresszyme or cycle only are needed in the first set up stages of setting up a tank (8 weeks) and if your fish get sick its good to use for the 6 weeks after using meds .

[suphew]

I have a low pressure hot water system with a couple of huge header tanks. My bath room also has low pressure cold fed from the same header tank. With my high pressure cold I can smell the chlorine but not the low, so if your on low pressure water and have a header tank...

But in saying that for my main fresh water tank I use hot water from the bath room to warm it, and the rest 50/50 rain water and chlorinated water from the hose. I change about 50% of my water at a time. So that equates to about 20% chlorinated water.

I have never used chemicals or filters to remove chlorine in any of my tanks, I have only once had a problem and that was due to leaving the hose running in my goldfish pond over night cause I forgot it, don't know if it was the chlorine that killed the fish but don't really know what else it would have been. The water was pretty clear afterwards through!!

[Shelley]

Wow Caryl....I am impressed! You just turn the hose on? don't worry about temps or currents or anything? Holy cow there has got to be something wrong with our water as my fish ALWAYS go into sulk mode after a water change....

I have found though that aqua plus is a God send. I am holding off my usual 25% water change as I have the stuff being sent to me now from Auckland (a wonderful little store that I found online that can't do enough to help www.hippo.co.nz/ ) since using aquaplus I have not had fish deaths after a water change I still have some sulk a bit but they seem to recover quicker. I don't age my water (although I added some water ager today to my new tanks) as we don't have chlorine (water direct from a well). I would like to get our house water checked as I suspect that copper content might be an issue.

When I change water i use the siphon thing to siphon it out and also to siphon it back in thinking that the siphon hose is less invasive than tipping water in from a container....i add the aquaplus to the bucket i am siphoning from...and keep topping that bucket up with similar temperature water to flush it through. We are gradually getting smoother faster better and less messy at this ;-)

Always interesting to hear how others cope.

[Joze]

I think it all depends on your water supply, from what I have heard Palmerston North water isnt very fish friendly. For my own water changes I do a 50% change on the main tank which is about 500-600 litres. I use the garden hose and just stick it in. If I used any of the snake oil potions on the market to treat the water I would be looking at an extremely expensive water change. The fish dont sulk and the oscars love to swim up and grab the hose. A good indicator with mine about the tank getting cold is lethargic fish, if they start sitting on the bottom its time to turn off the hose and top it up the next day. I try not to add hot water as its something of a logistical nightmare, connecting the hose to the hotwater tap in the laundry running it downstairs and into the tank. One day when I win lotto (thats if I remember to buy a ticket)I will have the basement converted into a real fishroom with its own hot and cold water supply and drainage. For now the pool pump and vaccum and the hose suffice.

[Jammos]

everyone else makesit sound so easy! i might get a filter as it would make things easier.

Its nice to hear from everyone but i think its odd that no one from palmy has added anything.

might ask everone at the AGM this week.

[Pegasus]

I'm on tank water, and after siphoning any rubbish out I just remove the shower head from the shower, then connect the garden hose.. run it for a while to set the temp... then fill em up

Never had a prob using this method.

I never add "anything" in the way of chemicals to my tanks, and the only test I have done over the past three years was for pH.. (maybe twice in that time).. but have no other test kits, and never have probs with ammonia/nitrate/nitrite/hardness.. etc.

I think people tend to worry too much about these things and make a peaceful pastime a stressful one

Bill.

[guppylover2]

i do a 30-50% water change on my tanks with a "python" in one tank (attaches to your faucet, uses water pressure to suck water out of tank and down sink, then you turn the knob and it pumps water directly into the tank mixing hot and cold to get the proper temperature) and just add a dechlorinator (only need about 20 drops) to the water going into the tank - probably more homeopathic than anything. for my catfish tank, it is smaller and the suction with the python is not as good as with my syphon (just one of the ones you suck to get started), so i use the syphon as those big cat poos are heavy and need good suction. i then tip that water out in the garden, and fill up from the python. again, i just add some dechlorinator. long ago i stopped buying the liquid bacteria stuff. i think it's a waste of money, coz it's so expensive. my fish don't seem to have a problem with water changes, in fact they look healthier.

however coz i'm so lazy what i really want is a reservoir tank which i can subject to a uv sterilizer to kill bugs and do one water change from there. i guess i would still need to suction to get rid of the catfish poos. the other tank i'm planning to turn into a planted tank, so your fish waste gets used by the plants (hopefully). my water changes take about 2 hours in total, and i do them weekly.