Guess who... Brooksie again!

Wanted to get clarification on another murky topic for me. When I do my water changes, what chemicals, if any, should I be adding? The beloved fish store told me to use the following:

Aquarium Salt - 2 tbsp per 10 gallon
Aqueon Water Conditioner
Tetra Aqua Water Clarifier

This is an established cycled 26 gal tank with 2 baby (3") oscars. And if you have kept up on my annoying posts, you know I'm setting up a 100 gal to start cycling. So please don't yell at me about that...

1. What should I be putting in with the water changes?
2. How soon after the changes should you be testing the water to get accurate readings?


You guys rock n roll on a daily basis! Thanks!

Brooksie

Brooksie2009 wrote:

if you have hard water, salt help to soften it and give comfort to the fishes.
but not needed when you don't have any issues about fish health. the conditioner
is needed when you have some chlorine or not stable tap water... while clarifier
help you to clear cloudy water.... but for establish tank, they are not needed
the store just need to make some sales to survive....


basically new water to replace what was removed earlier...
no kidding aside, if there is no issue with your tap, you should not be adding
anything in your tank. testing normally taken before water change and the following day to make sure your water change make wonder for your fishes.

Typical advice from a shop.

For a start, forget the salt, you don't need it, nor do you need to add any water clarifier, they are obviously just trying to make you spend more money with them. However, you do need a water conditioner, this is very important for two reasons. Firstly chlorine is poisonous to fish, although not instantaneously but it can cause problems if they come in contact with it too much. Secondly, chlorine will destroy your bacteria in your biological filter, basically chlorine is that to kill bacteria in your Water, so it'll do the same in your filter.

Most water conditions neutralize chlorine instantly. I tend to put you in just before I add the water. I would leave it a few hours, or test of the war that the next day. Just remember that very large water changes might alter your pH dramatically. For instance if you had an established aquarium that has a pH of 6.0, but your tap water is 7.0, a large water change will alter the pH. It shouldn't cause any problems but it's always something you should be aware of.

personally i dont use salt or clarifier on my oscar tanks. all i do is drain the water add the declorinator and refill. salt is useful when treating for stress but other than that i see no use for it. as for clarifier imho if you keep up on your vacumming and regular maintenance there really is no need for it.


just my 2 cents

Should I be putting anything else in? It sounds like I can nix a couple of items I listed. I'm going to keep using the water clarifier... is that the same ad the declorinator that necromancer4 mentions? Still learning the lingo!

necromancer4 wrote:


X2!!!

to help you fast track cycling the larger tank, you may consider this...
1) transfer all contents of your small tank to the larger tank including fish.
2) gradually add new water of the same volume while filter is running.

instantly, you have cycled large tank partially filled up. add new water
the following day to fill up the balance... you will be fine for a few days before
contaminants manifest in your tank. adding new water is basically similar to a
water change. you just dilute the existing water with new one like adding water
during water change

Note: in some forum, they do not accept this concept...i don't know why
but that is what i was told when i shared this approached.

Thought while we were chatting here.. I'd throw my numbers out at you:

Ph - 7.8
Nitrates - 5.0
Nitrites - 1.0
Ammonia - 0.5
Water temp - 78

Yesterday I did a 50% water change and had to replace the filter totally. I have one of those "here is your free filter w/tank purchase" type hanging filters. The cartridge was ripped.

Are these before or after water change numbers?

After... sorry I was a bad girl and didn't check before my water change.

Brooksie2009 wrote:

That's a bad start.
I took out the cartridges of my HOB and replaced them with my own choise of filtermedia.
Do you already have the filter you are gonna use for the big tank?
I suppose the HOB isn't the only filtration?

I have not purchased the filter I'm going to use. I have been gathering insight from this forum to determine what I want to purchase. I do have an UG filter but it has already been determined that I was given bad advice from the fish store :angry: . My tank is a bow front and there are not bow front UG filters out there. We purchased one that was supposed to be for a 10 gal to 30 gal tank... it only covers about 3/4 of the bottom of the tank. That has been in place for only a week. The tank itself has been set up for about 45 days with fish in it for 2 1/2 weeks - 2 babies. They get fed 2-3 times a day but as discussed in previous posts, they don't eat a lot during those times due to their eating habits. Eat a little, hide in the corner for 5 mins.