hello,

i had a question about water changes. I used to change a 20 gallon tank by sucking out the water with a siphon and then filling a bucket of water up and treating it with prime. Now i have a 90 gallon tank and that is a lot of buckets to refill. Is it safe to siphon out the water and then siphon new water in and then put the prime in? or is there another way?


thanks

i think you could use a hose to fill and just treat the water, i have a 179 g, but i prefer to python out, into my kitchen sink, useing a long 15ft piece of tubing, then i refill with buckets, it takes about 2 hours this way, but i'm going to look into buying a safe rubber hose, to refill that way, lots quicker.

Hi
From this I am guessing you mean to add the new water incfirst .......then the prime???

If so the answer is NO

It is best to ad the prime or conditioner of your choice first before you put in the new water, that way as the water goes in it gets dechlorinated as you add it.

You see if you add a heap of water in a 90g tank with no dechlorinator, then add it later, by then the fish already felt it before you added it and will be
1. stressed out
2 die!!!!!!!!

so dump in the prime/dechlorinator in first and make sure the water you add has no chlorine first

Also make sure it is the same temp!! as anying above 2% diference in temp will also stress them too

Hope that helps

I've always wondered about dechlorinator.. and if you put a bigger dose in before you add more water does it stick around to dechlorinate the new water or does it loose its activeness.. if you get what i mean?

When I do water changes in my 55 gallon aquarium I use a python siphon. Since it has a long hose I put the end out the door and let the water run outside. The end of the python siphon also has an end that can be screwed onto a faucet.

In the basement I have a hot and cold faucet with the kind of end that you can screw a hose onto. So I have a hose that splits and can be screwed onto both the hot and cold faucet with an end a normal hose can be screwed onto. This way I can turn on a little bit of hot and a little bit of cold and put my thermometer under the running water to make sure its the right water tempature. Then screw my python siphon onto the hose and let the water run into the tank.

Be sure to put the water conditioner into the tank before adding water.

If your mixing water from 2 different faucets like I am. Keep monitoring the tempature because sometimes the water tempature will get hotter or colder.

To avoid getting a shower while trying to screw my python hose onto a hose with running water. I got splitter with shut off valves that I screwed onto the end of the python. This way I have the python screwed onto the hose while I'm adjusting the water tempature. I leave both valves open until I get the right tempature then I shut the valve that doesn't have the hose on it. Then the water runs into the aquarium.

I use stress coat conditioner and put in the amound recommend for stress which is more than what is recommended for conditioning.

I use the Python thing too and it is great! You can get them at SuperPet and they are sorta pricy but they are worth every penny!

I thought I heard somewher taht you can first put the water in and then dechlor.I've been doing that for a month or so now.I'm confused on what to do.If you add the de-chlor first,wont it dissipitate into the water?Also while the tank is filling I do put more than enough chlorinatot and then when it's done I put even more to make sure.
Can I still do it like that?Or could someone suggest a different way?I have a 55 gall btw.

I always put the chlorinator in before filling my 55 gallon tank. You want it to dissipitate into the water. Then it treats the water as it's being added.

If you put he water in first you risk killing your fish. It sounds like you've been lucky so far.

hi,

thanks for the replies. When you guys put in the dechlorinator do you just put in enough to cover the the amount of water added, or do you put enough dechlorinator for the whole tank?


thanks

I use "stress coat" and put in enough to dechlorinate the whole tank.

wow, okay i have been putting the dechlor in after i add the water for about 6 years...no ones died from that....(but now all those fishies are gone thnx to a power outage while i was gone)

The first time I saw one of the Python hoses I asked this exact question, and am glad it was brought up here because I will be going from a 20 gallon to a 55 or 75.

I was told back then that it was ok to add the water first as long as you put the dechlorinator in immediately after. Or you can add some as you start, a little in the middle and some at the end.

I have also heard several times that Stress Coat can be harmful to your fish, especially if they are sick, because it can coat their gills, especially if more than the recommended amount is used? Is there any truth to that? I have not used it personally, but I often see people mention it.

But I know if you are using a Python type hose to fill your tank you can't dechlorinate the water as it goes in, so you HAVE to add it afterwards, or during. So I can't imagine it would kill your fish? As long as you didn't wait an hour or something afterwards. Especially if you are doing a normal sized (like les than 25% change). If you were doing like a huge, like 90% change then it might be more of an issue, but then you could maybe just bucket in a few treated loads, then use the hose?

I am using all the ?'s because I am NOT an expert and am very new to this. I have read a lot though, especially here and am just going off what others have told me and stuff, so please, don't take my advice and listen to the experts on this site!

I have a Lee's Gravel Vac. Its a little cheaper than the Python. Only thing is you'll have to replace the faucet adaptor because he comes with a plastic one that looses its threading. I just purchased a new metal one for $4.99 at my LFS.
I take the water out then add Prime to the tank before adding the water back in. Everyone seems fine thus far!!

Here in Australia pythons dont exist (well not the plastic types anyway ). I have a 110g tank and have to use a hose to fill my tank, i've never found any way around it. Theres no way i can match the temperatures, living in queensland makes our COLD water about 120-140F and higher. But my fish dont seem to mind, and i dont think the amount of water i change is significant enough to cause a rise in temperature (my normal tank temp is around 90-100).

My tank is as tall as me and buckets would just be dangerous! I add my dechlorinator bit by bit, I will generally add maybe 1/3 at the beginning, then small bits until its all gone and i use heaps of it, just incase theres some extra chlorine floating around

My dresser is right next to the tank and is quite a bit higher than it, so i've taken to sitting the bucket up there and syphoning it down while i do something else!
That way i can dechlorinate the new water in the bucket

Great thread! I was just thinking about this last night while shopping via web for a Python. If you are doing a 20% change, you are adding the Amquel+ (or whatever) into the existing water WHILE adding the new from the sink?

Another question: I have always used filtered water from the PUR water filter that attaches to my faucett, anyone have any ideas on how to do that without using buckets? I was thinking about getting a larger filter for under the sink so that I can get filtered water directly out of my faucett.
Fishies have only had this filtered water which is 0 amm, 0 nitrIte, 0 nitrAte and hardly any chlorine and ph is always 7. I also use Amquel+ for any remaining nasties...

Thanks guys, this has been extremely helpful

S~

its always safer to add anti chlorine first before adding in tap water. another option is use aged water. Just store a nd aeraete the water for atleast 24 hours. what i do is straight from the faucet, Manila water isnt the cleanest so i use anti chlorine. I add it before I add the water. I either use a bucket or straight from the faucet through a hose, just depends on the tank im cleaning.

I have a Python (man, I WOULD NOT be without one now that I know how great they are!!)

I have always added some declorinater along as the water flows into the tank! I haven't experienced any problems. And my fish seem to like to "play" in the flow of water!!

But I think if you were REAL worried about it you COULD net your fish & place them in a "holding bucket", get all your water replace, declored & temp checked THEN replace the fish. But all that is a bit much to me. And even THAT might be more stressful.

I like my way!