hi all, last night I did a 50% water change on my tank, cleaned some of the sponge filter medium in the built in filter, and also rinsed out the filter medium in my fluval 405 cannister filter, both in tank water of course..

I refilled the tank with water treated with stress coat as usual, nothing different at all, the temp of the tank never went down or anything..

anyway, once the tank was refilled my lad noticed one of the oscars laying at a 45 degree angle, all miserable and sad... on inspection, the other one was also doing similar, but not as bad... I quickly did a test and all was perfect, so no apparent spikes of any nature...

I had to go out but when I got back an hour later my little fellas were happy as usual, wanting food, so I dont know what happened..

maybe I should change less water, maybe 20-30%...

any thoughts..

T

Hi Tony, I have done 50% changes in the past but I got to admit i don't like changing that much unless something is wrong and I must. for me thats never the case now as I am not overstocked and have a pretty much stable setup. I would do 2 25% if i could. your problem was probably cos you messed with there home and went into there space.)))) I have heard fish can get upset even if you move things outside the tank.)))) as long as the tests came back ok and they settled down I won't worry.

yeah i think i will do that in future...

I'm going to try and design and build something that will save me having to fill the tank with buckets.. its quite a tall set-up and I use a big bucket, so far without incident, but I'm sure I could come up with something that would make things easier..

i have a mixer tap so I can get the water temp going into the tank pretty much perfect, be a lot less disturbance then using big buckets as well I think... I can add stress coat as the water goes in which would (I think) be ok..

any thoughts?

T

Get a python, for changing water... Or you can make one out of an empty soda bottle and a garden hose. Then you can vacuum the gravel and then attach the hose to the faucet to refill. NO MORE BUCKETS! LOL

I am glad your fish are better... I am sure it was just stress!!

every time i do a water change, i have a big oscar in a 55, i do atleast a 50% just due to the amount of fish in the tank. i guess my fish is used to that, ive always done it that way and it recovers right away!

any more tony, i dont use buckets, i siphon straight out the window, and refill thru the garden hose thru the same window, its so much easier! (except those two times the hose got out of the tank and flooded my floor haha)

yeah i take the hose out the window and down the sewer, but its coming in I struggle with.. thats when i use buckets so the water temp is near the tank temp when it goes in, plus this gives me the chance to add the stress coat...

I could use the garden hose but the water will be very cold, too cold I think... I have a mixer tap in the kitchen so could go straight from there at a good temp...

or would it be ok to put in very cold water?

I was thinking of getting a water pump, then i could use it to pump pre-treated water straight from my sink, at the right temperature... I could also use it to take water from the tank with a bit more suction, so cleaning the gravel better..

this is my thinking, probably a look of rubbish lol

T

Tony, the python will hook right up to your sink... Here is a link with pics to show you what I am talking about...

This way your water is still the right temp!

www.pythonproducts.com/aqprod.html

very cold water is no good

i used to do water changes just like that, syphon then with a bucket but well it turns out I can cram my hose up the bath tub tap fits perfect.. i get the temp matched perfect with my thermo

When i 1st started keeping tank fish i had a few problems with white spot as do alot of members. i used to put cold water into my tank and i am sure this was why I got the few whitespot. as soon as I matched the temp the problem went and never returned.

if you have room (garden/ garage)for a large water butt or container this is by far the best way. fill butt with warm water or heat it while it fills treat it and pump it into the tank with a powerhead.

back in highschool in my aquaculture class, they paid me to maintenance the tanks (there were like 40 of them lol and i volunteered for the job at $6/hr) and we had a 55 gallon trash can built on a rolling stand, with a car battery and a 12 volt pump for doing water changes. it worked quite well, altho i dont know if i personally can justify that expense for my tanks. i think the python is the way to go for now, ill be getting one of those just as soon as i get the chance to.

Win wrote:


LOL, A real business man, eh?
Volunteering.........at6$/Hr!
Very smart, Win!
When my fish were smaller the SD would pass out during WC and the O would lay down on it's side, looking bad...
I add water at the same temp as the tank, add primer and Kh+.
Nowadays the fish don't scare that easily anymore.

TonyT wrote:

you have just change water and it is night time... a very conducive time
to sleep. aren't we have a good rest after a good shower... so do fishes too.