Chickybabe Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 What is the easiest way to do this for discus. I have just spent the most part of an hour doing it, and only changed 30% and most of that was on the floor! Can you use hot tap water or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 How are you doing it? Are you siphoning the water out because that shouldn't make much mess. There was a thread recently on different ways of changing water - I'll go see if I can find it Cheers Jude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 Found it http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=7765 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 I change about 30% twice a week and replace it with normal tap water. My fish and discus don't mind at all. No Aquaplus either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 I use a medium sized trash can ($20 at your local hardware shop) and a bit of hose (a hose from a gravel siphon works) to gravity flow/siphon the water out. When filling, I put in 2 buckets of cold and one bucket of hot (and de-chlorinator) into the bin and lift it on top of the tank and start the siphoning process back into the tank. For the discus tank I do 2 bins out and 2 bins in. Easy as. You might want to toss the water on your lawn if high in nitrates - fertilizer. If high in ammonia it'll kill the grass. But as for the correct combo of buckets for the right temp, it'll depend and you'll have to figure that out yourself. Just do your best to get as close to your tank temp as possible. Discus don't like temp changes too much. You also need to keep pH in mind as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickybabe Posted August 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 has anyone thought about using one of those new flo and go plastic containers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 what are they like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FindingNemo Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 I have a 95 gallon tank with 10 Discus. I syphon out about 12 - 15 gallons 2 to 3 times a week straight out the window. I replace with a bucket direct from the tap and take the chill of it with a little hot water in each bucket. As thats only 6 or 7 trips from the bathroom it dosnt take long. Less than 30 minutes from starting the syphoning till finished. I put a little Aqua plus in every second bucket just to be safe. Ive been doing this now for 3 months and havnt lost a Fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FindingNemo Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 I store my water in 5 200 ltr and 1 300 ltr barrel in my fish room with an airstone in each of them. The heat in the fishroom heat the water up to around 25 deg. I syphon 30 to 50% of the water out removing all the poo sitting on the bottom of the tank (bare bottom). Put a pond pump in the barrel with a 25mm clear tube long enough to reach all my tanks and the outlet is connected to 2 25mm bend that is glued together to form a U. Hang it on the tank and swith the pump on. While the tank is filling I'll be siphoning the next tank and so it go on and on and on till all tanks (45) are done. It usually take me 2 to 3 hrs. Longer if I'm wiping glass and cleaning filters. Oh, and I add 5ml of Prime to every 200 ltr water. Hard work but end of the day when you see nice big healthy Discus swimming around you know it's worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickybabe Posted August 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 Wow, see I thought you had to let it sit overnight in a container, then heat it to the correct temp, then siphon out the water from the tank, add the heated water to the tank, then add water ager. As I couldnt get the water from the bucket of aged water to the tank through siphoning it, I had to transfer it using buckets. So cold tap water is OK, with a little hot in it to take the chill off then add ager? It all seemed to take soooo long, and honestly it took longer to clean the floor up than it did to clean my daughters room! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiverJohn Posted August 11, 2005 Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 HI CB, Water all over the floor?? Strewth think your doing something wrong there! Out of all the time i have spent browsing this site, and all the "Technical" discussions on pumps and flow rates etc I have never seen any one describe the technique of starting a syphon without getting a mouth full of water... after some practice you should be able to do it easy, and not get a mouthful of water or wet carpet. So here's my thoughts on how to keep your carpet dry and do it the easy way... 1. You need a decent length of hose. clear stuff of at least 15mm diameter is best and costs about $3 per meter from hardware stores. get about 2 meters but that can vary, the piece i use is about 1 m long 2. Hold one end of the hose in the water, drap the other down towards you bucket.. 3. Take hold of the end in the bucket and STAND UP STRAIGHT. The end your going to suck on is ABOVE the water line. 4. Start sucking! you will see the water go up the tube and then towards your gob As the water aproaches the end your sucking on. Stop sucking. and quickly stick your thumb over the end. The water should stay in the tube and you shouldnt have a mothful of water!. 5. Lower the end BELOW the water line, aim into your bucket and let your thumb off the end. Hey presto! Gravity takes over, the water flows out the tube creating a vacum and sucking more water out of the tank. To stop the syphon lift the tube out of the tank . Once you have the technique "down pat" you will be able to get your syphon going really easy. & it is exactly the same when using a gravel vac. ( i feel this could best be described with a video :lol: ) HTH DJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickybabe Posted August 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2005 Hi DJ Its not that sucking the water in thats a problem, I have siphoned many containers of petrol (??), but the problem is refilling the tank, before I had discus in there I used to just grab the hose and fill it up then throw in some ager, but I am not soo sure about doing that nw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiverJohn Posted August 12, 2005 Report Share Posted August 12, 2005 Oh sorry :oops: I just used a 10l bucket, and trips back and forward to bathroom. But i suspect due to the PITA factor i was "under changing" my water. A rubbish bin & pond pump makes lfe so much easier. Just fill the bin the night before with cold water, drop in an air stone & heater, in the morning add 4 squirts of aqua plus. Then syphon 6 buckets out of tank, ( I reckon I loose about 1 bucket load a week to evaporation) . Turn the pump on and refill tank . If i am in a rush, this takes about 15 minutes. DJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted August 12, 2005 Report Share Posted August 12, 2005 I'm pretty sure you can carry on using your hose to fill up the tank.. I am only using normal tap water and doing 3 trips with 2 buckets. I'm only using cold water too. discus don't seem to mind either, in fact none of my fish mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DX Posted August 12, 2005 Report Share Posted August 12, 2005 I only have a 10 gallon tank so there is no too much hassle in water changing. Each time I siphon out a bucket of water and then pour in another bucket of fresh water which is aged for a couple of days.Then I fill up the empty bucket with cold tap water for next water changing a few days later. Before water chanign, I do mix some hot tap water in to try to get the temp right and also add a cupful of AquaPlus. My tank temp is normally 25C. After water chaning, temp sometimes goes up to 28C and sometimes drops to 22C, as it is a bit tricky to get the hot/cold ratio right. But fish seems OK to that anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caper Posted August 13, 2005 Report Share Posted August 13, 2005 I had a mess here last night doing my water changes :-? The 10 gallon, not too bad but when I did the other...messy, messy. Well, I can finally get the the water out of my tank without having it everywhere (most times anyway ). Dip vacuum in, hold finger over end of tube soon as I see water getting close to end, put vacuum back in fill again, then let go take finger off the end...and water comes from tank into bucket. Now...putting the water back in that's another story :roll: First of all...I have started using my tap water again. I have it in 10L plastic containers (from when I was buying the water). I too have a bad back and pooring the water in is awful but I haven't come up with any other way as yet. I do not add warm water...just room temp...that is all I have ever done as far as the temp of the water going back into the tank. As I have said before, the tap water here contains chlorine and chloramine so I have to add the remover. But I was adding the remover to the bottles which was making it difficult to measure. Would it be just as effective to add the remover to the tank then just add the water...or would that be asking for trouble because the water going in would still have chlorine/chloramine in it????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted August 13, 2005 Report Share Posted August 13, 2005 I add water from the hose straight into the tap and I put in the water ager first. I've done a rough calculation that tells me how much water ager I need per inch of water but I confess the method is a bit rough and ready. Because its a big tank and I do smallish changes the temp doesn't drop enough to bother the fish. Cheers Judy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caper Posted August 13, 2005 Report Share Posted August 13, 2005 I add water from the hose straight into the tap and I put in the water ager first Okay then...so I can put the ager (chlorine/chloramine remover) in the tank first...then add the water which will still have these things in it???? If so, then I can measure the ager much easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted August 14, 2005 Report Share Posted August 14, 2005 Hi Caper, what type of water ager are you using? What do the instruction on the bottle says? If it is 5ml/40tlr water you can get a syringe from a chemist and just add 1 ml ager to your 10ltr bucket. fill it with tap water and pour it into tank.HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy family Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 Ii bought a really cool siphon hose from field days. it has a marble in it and you shake it up and down and it self starts otherwise I get the kids to suck on the hose but like the standing up higher than waterlevel idea. We use buckets from the bathroom with warm water and water ager in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heather Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 I keep meaning to buy that two way thingee that attaches to your kitchen tap. Put a siphon on the end of the hose and the water goes straight down the sink then turn the valve and you can put the warm water into your tank from the hose. See them on trademe occasionally and have also seen it at Jansens. Anybody got one? Would it fit on any tap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickybabe Posted August 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Yep I wondered about them, but not sure what taps they would fit on.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 They fit on the dual taps - the ones where the hot and cold come out the same slim bit. They do not fit all taps. My tap has an end that unsrews so I can put different ends on it to adjust the way the water comes out so I just unscrew that bit and screw the python on instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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