How do you perform water changes?

[LowCel]

I see a lot of people complaining about how difficult it is to do water changes. I'll admit that it isn't my favorite thing in the world to do but I really don't think it is all that difficult. Granted I only have three tanks (300, 210, 55) but I can do all three in under an hour.

Here's how I do mine and have never had a problem with it.

1) Use hose to drain water out of tank, every other water change sweep gravel.

2) Use second hose to replace water. Check temperature of water by hand to see if it is close to tank temperature. I start the replacing water after water level drops about five or six inches in the tank. I contine to drain water until the water level starts to get close to full (water is going in the tank faster than it is going out).

3) Remove drain hose, wind up, put back in five gallon bucket until next time.

4) When tank is full remove second hose.

5) Add Prime to tank.

6) Watch fish.

So, what does your water change routine look like?

 

[chefjamesscott]

I add prime to the tank first cap / 50g then I drain out 30% or there about, 1 time per month I do 50%. I match the temperature to the outgoing for the ingoing. Dose the tank with prime to condition the new water going in. I pre prime the tank to keep stress down and to take care of any stress related releasing of stuff from my fish ie)if they wet themselves

usually 1/ month I will put tank water in a bucket and use it to clean the sponge in and if needed I will take the entire filter body off the tank and give it a good clean

takes me about 3 hours to do my 9 tanks here

 

[MoxieDesignz]

1. Drain water and sweep gravel
2. Add prime
3. Use 2 buckets and alternate them from the bathroom tub to fish tank in bedroom
4. Fill up tank, and watch the fishes

This process sucks ass, the buckets I have are like 2 or 3 gallons, so i do multiple back and fourth runs. Since i live in an apartment, there are no hose hook ups, and I cant seem to find the right adapter to hook up a hose to my sinks. FML.....but anything for my fishes.

 

[fishman646]

all my tanks are in a basement without a drain.....I use a 2000gph sump pump put it in a tote sypon gravel and lead syphon to tote once gravel is clean i put pump in tank bring down 30 to 50 percent get all tanks down this faar and the hook a hose up to my sink adjust temp and let it flow! EASY

 

[polish]

Hook python to sink, walk to tank, place python in tank, walk back to sink and turn on.

Go sit down for a bit while it drains, depending on which tank can take a bit. Once it's down enough then I get back up.

Walk to sink, set temp of sink to match temp of water coming from the tank, flip python to fill, walk over to the tank and add prime, go sit back down.

Then once it's full I do that once more. Then I carry the python upstairs and do it a couple more times. Actual work time? 5 mins tops. Total time is less than an hour unless I do huge changes on my bigger tanks.

Not sure why anyone would call that hard.

 

[Juxtaroberto]

I haven't bought a python, so....

Syphon water and poop out of the tank and into 5 gallon bucket. I don't have gravel, I HATE vacuuming gravel!

Carry bucket to the bathroom, dump down the toilet. Or carry out to the yard and water the roses and other plants with nitrate rich water, which they love, but which is so tedious for me.

Repeat until tank is half empty.

Now, fill bucket with water from bathtub, making sure to get the temps as similar as possible. Add AmQuel and NovAqua. Dump into tank. Repeat until tanks are full.

It takes me longer because I have to lug buckets back and forth, sometimes all the way out to the garden. =/

I don't really want to buy a Python because I don't even know how it hooks up. I doubt I can hook it up to my kitchen faucet, and the thingy where the hose connects is FAR away.

 

[Wulfonce]

So, what does your water change routine look like?

Every week and a half:

1) crack open a beer
2) rinse off gravel vac
3) sweep the gravel until I've roughly taken out 1/3rd of the water
4) dump water down toilet
5) crack open another beer
6) add water conditioner to the 5g bucket
7) fill bucket checking water temp with hand (I can get it accurate to within 2 degrees fahrenheit nearly every time)
8) let water sit while cleaning the filter components
9) refill tank
10) check water temp and re-check after 15 min

Thats my routine.

 

[shelbyzman]

I use a python to do water changes. It a quite a distance to the sink to my tank so I went to Lowes and bought the same size clear hose and hooked it up to my existing python hose. This is much cheaper than buying the python with the longer hose. For those not sure how they hook up....you can hook them up to any type of sink since they have adapters. There is no way I would go back to using buckets....to much of a pain.

 

[knifegill]

I have two tanks, (75g, 55g) but I get meticulous so it takes me over an hour.
I siphon/vac into a 5g bucket.
Spend five minutes with a flashlight fishing out baby guppies. (On the 55g)
Take a fish net or clean sponge and scrub algae off of whatever I feel like scrubbing.
I rinse one of the three HOB filters in the old tank water. (Each tank has three filters)
Dump, repeat the draining process until tanks are down to between 30-50%,
Put bucket into bathtub, fill with same temp water, add prime.
Haul bucket after bucket back to tanks until full.
Observe fish, laugh at my silly Oscar, shake my fist at the retarded Green Terror who won't eat anything but earthworms, and turn everything back on.
-The heaters are sumberged low in the tanks and they stay on.
-The lights are on the same strip as the heaters, so they stay on.
-Occasionally add a little salt for kicks, as the debate rages on about its appropriateness.

 

[krichardson]

I use a gravel vac and buckets.I used to use a Python but I find that it is too wasteful.