How do you do your water changes?

[ryanjcalifornia]

Hi everyone!

I have a 10 gallon community tank, and I was wondering how everyone does their water changes.  The way i've been doing it is change 20 percent out every week to two weeks, and put clean treated water back in.  

So my question is...which ways do you put water back in your tank after you've removed it?  Everytime I do, I stir up some dust from the gravel and it floats around the tank for an hour.  Is there a cleaner way that you guys have found to make less dust for the fishies to swim through?  

Thanks for your help!

-Ryan  

 

[luvfishies]

If I stir up that much goo I know I haven't vacced thoroughly enough, and do another gravel vac/waterchange the next day.

I'm a firm believer in gravel vaccing with each and every waterchange. I dig right down and get as much of the nasty stuff out as I can. I also go easy on refilling, so as to not create too much current.

All of my tanks get at least one waterchange/vac a week; some get 2 or more.

 

[Gnome]

With 10 gallon tank, it is easy....just use a little bucket or a big jug and pour the water slowy....w/ bigger tank use medium tube connected to the faucet and adjust the water flow....or have the big bucket full of water sit on higher position than the tank and use the tube and point the end of the tube horizontally so it wont create too much current on the gravel also you need to suck the tube to get the water flow to the tank, lower position. I only do Vaccum when necessary ( 2-3 months usually)....

 

[Somonas]

I agree with Luvfishine and Gnome

by the way nice tag line!

 

[Vyache]

I've read that you should only vacuum half of your gravel at a time since you will otherwise remove too much bacteria from the gravel. I'm not to sure about this though because it seens to me like the bacteria are adheared onto the gavel surfaces. I just don't try to do a total job all in one day. I vac the easy to reach places but don't move any decorations around for my regular cleanings. I vacuum small tanks with a short siphon tube into a bucket, then refill the tank by putting the bucket of fresh water on top of the tank and using the same short tube to siphon from the bucket back into the tank. I don't add any dechlorinators of other chemicals, just straight tap water of about the same temperature.

 

[kittyfyinc]

I heard it is good to pour the return water either off the sides of the tank or on a decorative figure in the tank. This way the force is lessened when it hits the gravel.

 

[mpg]

i actually like to stir up a little bit of "dust" from the gravel when i'm adding the water. (within reason) i think it helps keep the gravel cleaner than vacuuming alone. the filter has usually cleared the water again in about 10 minutes. if it takes an hour you may have poured too vigorously.

 

[aznpanther98]

well i do what was said above but i justuse a onegal jar and my tanks on the shelf in the middle so what i do is use a jar and put it on th top shelf and use a tubeing a bit thicker than airlinetubeing and take another jar and fill it up when the level in the oth jar gets low

 

[ryanjcalifornia]

Thanks Ya'll! Lots of good tips and tricks and personal favorite things!

Maybe I was exaggerating about the "1 hour" thing, maybe it was more like 1/2 hour or 20 minutes, but, it seemed all clear after that point.

Thanks again!

 

[qaffle]

in my 10 gallon

To do easy water changes I bought 2 of those 2.5 gallon water jugs from the store. Somehow empty them out, drink em, use them in a water change, etc. Then get 2 around 5' (~1.5m) strands of 1/2" (~1cm) inner diameter silicon tubing (if you use a gravel vac you'll only need one strand) drain into one jug with one of the lengths of tubing (or your gravel vac) then use the other jug to refill by putting the other length of tubing in there and siphoning into the tank.

The reason for the two tubes is to keep all the crappy water out, you don't want anything that's stuck in the tube going back in your tank now do ya?

The jugs are nice cause they stand by themselves, can be sealed (That REMINDS me, don't forget to take the lids off the jugs and DO NOT puncture the jug like it says to, you don't need to when using tubes)

 

[RedTurquoise]

Sheesh! Jugs and containers! Ever try changing water on a 90G tank with 5G pail! *crazysmil
I did it once and then I bought a python. Never again will I go back! I change around 25G daily and in total for a week is around 210G. Python all the way. Can you imagine lugging 2 5G pails 21x?

 

[Vyache]

Python is definately the way to go for a large tank but I don't mind lugging one or two 5 gallon buckets when I change water in my 20 and 10 gallons. Its actually more of a pain to set up the python in these cases. I have a little spray nozzle on the sink that I have to take off to install the python, and holding the tube up to get all the water out so I can stow the hose without growing mold is sometimes a pain.