OMG! It is getting so hard to do water changes and put plants back in the gravel after the goldfish rooted around. The water is freezing! Well, it only 68-70 so its not freezing but its really cold. Shoulder deep in cold water is not fun.

Do any of you have the same "problem"?

lol, I've been leaving the plants that they dug up floating because I don't want to stick my hand in there everyday to put them back. lol. I will put them back when I do a water change on friday.

i bought one of those tank claw/tongs with interchangeable heads... i can make it so that it prunes the plants, or just picks up stuff around the tank...

here's a similar product
hope that helps!

I know what you mean Sushi! I was thinking of starting a thread about this myself! I have gotten to the point where I dread water changes! And I was one that always liked doing them as I found it all very relaxing! Now I find myself starting things around the house just to avoid having to work with my tanks as I know how freezing cold I'm going to get! The fish look at me as to say "Whats your problem, the water feels great"!

But I am glad you wrote this so I know its not just me!

another thing that i forgot to mention earlier... i bought one of those "self-starting" siphons with a squeeze pump for the water changes. it works great, and our contact with the "frigid" water is minimal!

hope that helps! i know water changes and tank arrangement can get nearly unbearable in the colder seasons, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

Just get a longer gravel vac for your hose and you'll barely have to touch the water. Plus 68F isn't that cold.

yeah, i have the same problem. but i usually get use to it. then ill clean my tropical tank and it will be nice and toasty

I was just thinking that today doing water changes as it was algea scrubbing day. Being shoulder deep in the water was COLD at first but my body got use to it after a few minutes.

I don't own a gravel vac or siphon. I wanted the phyton but my mom said no becuase I can't attach it to my bathroom sink because it doesn't have a screw on thing.

I have to do everything with buckets.

You can get adaptors to fit it to about any sink.

Here is my sink. Do you think I could find an adapter for this kind?

It looks like the middle part screws off of the faucet. Have you tried to unscrew just that piece?

Wow, it worked.




Ok. It has the screw part on the inside. Do you think I could get a phython to work on this?

I believe you will need an adaptor to work wth the python.

Sushi, you can take that piece you took of, and bring it to the pet store when you shop for a python. THen you can find the adapter easier that fits both together - your faucet and the vacuum...

If you wonna know about cold water - I had my arms in shoulder deep in 50 degrees cold water outside to get a ton of leaves away from the filter... Now, that was COLD!

Lol I know what you mean about cold water. Sometimes it's pretty chilly to be rooting around in there!! Makes me reluctant to fix plants too... Unless they're completely toppled over.

I had to get an adapter like the one you need, Sushi, for my countertop water filter, so I know they exist. If they don't have what you need at the pet store, you could probably bring the sink aerator and the python to your local hardware store and they could find you something. Worst case scenario, you'd have to unscrew the aerator to screw in the python. That sounds like it would be preferable to buckets, though.

Sushi- if you do not mind to take a little time - and are willing to buy a couple of valves - total cost of about $10- try this-
make sure the valves and fittings are all plastic- - place a barb fitting , to attcch on your intake line- the end that makes this barb closest to the tank side of the intake -on the end of one valve- and the other end to the straight thru end of a plastic "T".

So the placement is tank intake to soft hose- sogt hose to barb - barb to valve - valve to "T" joint screw in that is one of the direct pass thru ends-

On the side offshoot of the "T" screw another valve- plastic- we shall name that "B" and the first one "A". The remaining end of the "T' that is left open screw another barb attachment for the hose that you would be using for taking water from a bucket-.
the remaining thread end has a barb connection to reconnect the intake so as to continue the watrer path to the filter.

When this is placed on your intake line- a little physics occurs- . if you leave the end closest to the tank- valve "A" open and open the side valve on the "T" the turbulance in the "T" turns valve "B" into an outlet so you can remove water froim the tank.
If you close of Valve "A' causing a suction - as is you are cutting off the intake from the tank- and open the valve "B" - it reverts to an intake and sucks your bucket water from the bucket- taking it thru the filter and out into the tank with no shock to your fish- they dont know anything except notice clear clean water..

it savea a lot of shock and stress and helps the water temp not to changve so fast- and so on.
I use mine to add and remove water- and in the suction position- is a great way to take a inexpensive plastic tube that they sell for cleaniong and hook it up - removes the debris and cleans tyhe water that is being sucked up and returns it to the tank-
Eric

I don't think you should use really cold water to fill up the entire tank or have your tank water really cold cause i did that one time and my fish just sank to the bottom and didn't move so i took them out and but them in some warmer water.

What's nice with filling up your tank straight from the faucet is that it's very easy to match temperatures using the cold and hot valves. Too drastic a change can cause stress on the fish.

Between the freezing water and the tank being much larger I figured using the small attachment I'd either fall in the new tank, suck someone's eye out or worse.

This prompted me to get a 30 inch nozzle attachment for the new big tank...Its an inch longer then the depth of my tank which makes me & my hands very happy!

I was past my elbows in the half barrel pond outside this weekend. It was just over 50F.

That's pretty darn cold for a feeble old man like me. I could hardly keep a grip on my walker.

Gosh Daniel, your not that old, and thats because I'm not that old! Maybe a nice drink to warm you up before going outside will help!

While your beloved rosey aqua cheeks was eyeing you tetering on your balance loss; a hotflash of reality must have overcome him; what your loss of balance and subsequent visit - and its implications to its own health and wellbeing that is aquacheeks nervouisly pondering your unplanned hastey splashing visit into his domain. His revelation; the future, in his eyes, he will be needing more than a bubble powered custom made fishwalker.... lol