How do you perform water changes?

[kurtsshotgun]

I'm gonna have to change my water changing routine LOL. My bucket's handle snapped yesterday while it was full of water. Thankfully only a little was spilled.

That happened to me when I was washing a fairly big rock in a bucket, it hit the ground hard and shot water into the air.

Anyway, at the moment my routine is simple

Drain water into buckets
Empty and refill buckets
Prime
Profit

Now that I've got the 120g though I'm working on a new way of doing things, thinking about getting a powerhead and a hose to do it easier.

I've always thought adding tap water straight to my tank was a bad idea, how does it go for you guys?

 

[darkblueraindrops]

Everyone here has massive tanks. So, I don't know if these routine will work for me when I get my mini tank for my small set up.

 

[j-lor]

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

How is it wasteful? All you do is hook it up to the sink turn on the water get the suction going, turn off the water and the water will still run without the faucet running. Also i just found out if theres not enough pressure when its connected to the sink due to it be level to you water you can get the pressure going then cover the hose with your finger to hold the pressure then take it to something lower like your toilet or tube and let it run into it instead.

 

[lighthouse39183]

Well I don't have the strength to be lugging around 5 gallon buckets of water so I use the Lee's gravel vac. ( same as python) I hook up to the faucet, drag 50ft of hose to the tanks, attach my extra long siphon tube, vaccum the gravel or sweep the sand, continue to drain tank to whatever percentage water change I'm doing that day, go back to sink and set the water temp rinsing the hose completely of all water that I just vaccumed out of tank, add prime, fill the tank, then add aqua safe after tank is full again. I turn the filters off once the water level gets too low for them to run so I give the aqua safe 2 mins to do it's job and turn the filters back on. I always dose the tank for the full volume in the tank not just what I'm replacing because you can smell the chlorine in my tap water. I've never had a problem with my fish or my filters losing the BB.

 

[nigaharu]

With the Python water change is alot easier!

 

[Cichla dude]

The simple way for me: use gravel vaccum/syphon and clean the barebottom tanks. When I work over at the fish store I use the python. I am in charge of cleaning tanks, feeding, bagging fish, and taking trade ins.