How exactly do you do a partial water change?
1) do you use warm tap water or cold tap water?
2) do you leave it to stand overnight?
3) how do you "maintain" the same temp as in the tank?
4) does the pH flutuate when you add the water into the tank?
ADDITIONAL NOTES: warm, boiling water is said to destroy the oxygen molecules in water...leaving the water to stand overnight will be "cold" the next day.
Answers:
To do a partial water change you should use a syphon gravel vac, these can be bought at pet shops or you can even buy them online. Do you test your tank for PH and NITRITES OR AMMMONIA? If so and your ph is to your fishies liking already then you shouldn't need any ph up or down formula's, all you should need to do is take out 25% of your water volume using the gravel vac, tap water is normally ok, I use it here in tassie and our water is pretty bad for chlorine atm, I use a GOOD QUALITY tap conditioner in the water, I have never stood water overnight before and I keep alot of different types of fishy friends and they are fine. As long as you know what the quality of your water is (for this information you should be able to go to your local council website or make a phone call, ask around, does your water have a METALLIC SMELL OR TASTE, if so, chances are your water is treated with too much chlorine to just stand over-night anyway, I use twice the recommended dose for water conditioner as our water is heavily treated with chlorine and my tanks are healthy. Never just pour or squirt it in, everything you put in your tank should be measured properly.
If your nitrite and ammonia are very high you may need to do a water change of 25% every couple of days, but if everything is good then you should do this once to maybe twice a week, especially if you have alot of fish in the tank, how messy they are, etc. Hope that helps
Oh and...DO NOT BOIL THE WATER, you remove all the trace elements out of it, don't use bottled water either, same reason.
Tyr to judge the temp of the water you take out and get it the same (near enough as you can) before you put it in, add tap conditioner first before putting water back into the tank. Temp change of a couple of degrees doesn't really do anything to freshwater/tropical fish.
1) do you use warm tap water or cold tap water?
Cold after letting it run a few minutes to lower copper content.
2) do you leave it to stand overnight?
I let it stand 5 days in open distilled-water-bottles as the chlorine is bad here.
3) how do you "maintain" the same temp as in the tank?
Standing at room temperature it is the same temperature after 5 days.
4) does the pH flutuate when you add the water into the tank?
Yes, generally the ammonia levels will drop. (No problem for fresh water fish.)
http://www.kushaiah.com/fish/underwater/...
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_wate...
Second one is probably better
1) do you use warm tap water or cold tap water?
I pull the thermometer out of my tank and make the water about 2 degC warmer than the tank. (If I鈥檓 putting the water straight in, I match the temp exactly.)
2) do you leave it to stand overnight?
I put all my water treatments in (kH powder, gH crystals, and a water conditioner that neutralises chlorine and all the other crap in our water) then I let the water cool to the tank temperature while I siphon some water out of my tank.
(I use 5 litre buckets, so my chemical does is always the same. If I need, say, 7 litres, I mix 2 buckets of water up. It makes measuring all the treatments out much easier.)
3) how do you "maintain" the same temp as in the tank?
I test the tank water, then the fresh water, and adjust the fresh water accordingly.
4) does the pH flutuate when you add the water into the tank?
The only way to find this out is to check your tap water鈥檚 pH and your tank鈥檚 pH.
I鈥檓 lucky, our tap water鈥檚 pH is the same as what I need in my tank, so the only reason I use kH powder is to keep the water stable.
If your tank鈥檚 pH is different from your tap鈥檚 pH, treat the water to match the pH (preferably through kH powder, not the pH up/down drops) and test it to see if the pH matches before you put it in the tank.
not at all actually in my main tank.
in a sufficent large tank (300 liters and more) with excellent biological filtering, lots of plants and not too many fishes there is no need to change the water because all waste byproducts will be used by plants.
in my shrimp tank i do partial water changes (it is too small to be maintained without) i do water changes
1) i use cold tap water because copper from the pipes is easier washed out by warm water and copper would kill the shrimp.
2) i don't let it to stand overnight. it only makes sense when the water is chlorated but there are almost no places in germany where water is chlorated. also there is no added fluoride in german water.
3) there is no need to maintain the same temperature because in the nature there are always fluctuations in the water temperature, so adding cold water actually benefits the fishes because it emulates a real rain. a cold water change can even trigger the spawning for corys.
4) yes, a bit, but not much. again, slight pH fluctuations are okay.
1) Do you use warm tap water or cold tap water?
It doesn't matter what temperature your tap water starts out at. New water should never go straight from the tap to the tank. It should at least be treated with water conditioner. Before pouring the new water in to your tank, leave it to stand for about 20 minutes (depending on the volume of water). This will help equalize the temperature of the water in your tank to the water you are about to add.
2) Do you leave it to stand overnight?
You can, but this is optional. You still need to use a water conditioner to remove chloramine and trace metals; standing overnight only removes chlorine.
3) How do you "maintain" the same temp as in the tank?
Leave the new water to stand for about 20 minutes before adding it.
4) Does the pH fluctuate when you add the water into the tank?
No, not unless you have used chemicals like pH Up or pH Down on the water already in your tank. If you have, you should add these chemicals to your water before pouring it into your tank. Otherwise, as long as you are using water from the same tap as before, the pH should not fluctuate too much.
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