Changing Water: which is more efficient/effective?

[thecoolguy]

ok, so here are your two options to chime in on...

1) standard way - python water out, python new water in

2) way i am thinking - as water is being pulled out - python water in at the same rate, and let this go for like an hour.....


main reason is i don't really fully understand if option 2 will be effective/more effective than option 1 -- because you can't really stop the "new" water from being pulled out - but at the same time, you are definitely dilluting the old water and removing nitrates....so.....

thanks!

 

[Wolf3101]

Either way works but personally I'd remove the old water first to be sure of maximizing the amount of fresh water.

 

[pdbrady]

 

[itzacraze]

you could do your wall cleaning and gravel vac first and then go for your method i think a dilluting method would simply take longer to get there than out and in..... say a water change nocks you down to 65 percent old water a dilluting method would take a long time to knock it down because you would be pulling a lot of new water in... its hard to keep a good temp and you would probably do more harm with temp fluctuation and if theres chloring you would prob. kill all your bio filter.... imo the best way to change water is to treat and store with a heater and do your water change the next day... same temp no chlorine

 

[ShadowBass]

What is the point of option 2?

 

[benzjamin13]

Option 1 just sound easier to me. Less prep and break down times.

 

[twk1]

I would stick with option 1. if you use option 2, too much diluting can remove too much of the BB needed, to addition of that... too much of newly freshwater can shock your fish and cause stress that can result in a loss.

 

[Opiate]

i'd stick with option 1!

 

[Lupin]

Does your tap contain chlorine and chloramine?

 

[laura65536]

we do water changes to remove nitrates, you would use much less water using option 1 to do this. Removing nitrates is like a math equation, say you have 40ppm and you do a 50% w/c you'll fill it back up and your tank will still have 20ppm in it. If you were constantly diluting it #1 you'd have no idea how long to keep running the water without testing several times and #2 you'd be wasting water with something that could have been done much faster the other way.

Also, if you have chlorine or metals or anything bad in your tap you probably use some sort of water conditioner. You would have to treat the water coming into the tank and I don't know exactly how that would work. When I do a w/c I just dose the tank with prime for the full amount of water in my tank, no matter how much of a water change I did. So you would have no idea how much water was going into your tank to dose for, and you would have no idea if you had removed the prime or not, and if you did it could cause harm to your fish.