1st water change help....

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
hakkadeimos;4102631; said:
just a heads up .. most people will say (and i agree too) that the carbon is unnessary unless your cleaning out a medication .. also do you have a test kit to test the water paramaters cause if not id recommend one. and finnally with cichlids you should look in to doing water changes at least once a week of 20-40% ish , but that percentage also depends on what your test kit shows
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^^^ I agree with this. You need to keep up on your waterchanges or you will start to experience problems. Its better to keep up with it than it is to try and fix it later.
 
I dont know if you mean 1st water change for this one tank or your first water change ever. It is is your first water change ever make sure that you scrape the insides of the tank walls for any algae growth, whether or not you see it. furthermore make sure that you agitate the water, move around all of the decorations a little bit to get the settled debris floating in the water. then go ahead and siphon it out, 40% is good. when siphoning out the water, try to agitate whatever substrate you have to get the air pockets out and any trapped debris there... your fish might be stressed out at first but they'll settle down quickly.
 
For a tank that large, I would like to share how I change my water for a quickie. I attach a decent size pvc pipe to long enough piece clear rubber tubing from any hardware store. I basically use the pvc as a want to siphon out poo at the bottom of the tank without getting wet. To start the siphone, you could suck or stick that pvc pipe around a powerhead. Voila.
 
Yeah I decided to not go with a water change just yet... The fish are only 2-3 in and I cleaned out my sock and rechecked all my levels and they are good, so I will wait two more weeks till I change the water...Maybe waiting will give the wood more time bleed out some more....

But when I am ready I think I got an idea on what to do now...I will only change 30% and use prime.....

thanks for all the great help!!!
 
every time i have ever gotten drift wood sand or stone i have always washed them out well. just water in a bucket. put it in the bucket and fill up til it is overflowing. then move your hands through the items and bang them around until the water comes out clean.
 
Great tank for our P's. I soaked my driftwood in a bath tub for a month draining the tube every other day and most of the tannins leaked out for me but some wood is stubborn.

Some like that tannin look.
 
Yeah I soaked my wood in a sink with hot water for 5 days and the water looked a little brown after a week... I figured it would be okay, until it went into the tank....It's not too bad but but I guess in time it will go away...

@Bomber thanks for the props...
 
That dark water your wood is creating is actually good for your Piranhas. Make em feel right at home. Id get rid of that sock with the carbon in it. Your bio load needs to feed on the stuff the carbon is eliminating. This will cause your bio filter to mature much slower if not at all. Anyway carbon is uselees after a couple of weeks, and after a while starts leaking waste back into your tank creating a spike when you're doing everything right. Get a fluidized bed and loose the carbon. Zero maintenance on that!
 
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