How do you put back water in the tank?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
knifegill;4319506; said:
In theory, you check your city water report and dose according to the bottle. It states a certain quantity of Prime will remove a given amount of Chlorine / chloramine, but I don't know how reliable it all is, really. I did look it up a long time ago and "did the math" guesstimating. Now I just do two drops a gallon and call it good. And it's working.


Ok, since I have well water I never needed to look up what chloramine is, you made me look it up. It is in simple terms ammonia and chlorine, variants used and or found in municipal water treatments are monochloramine (NH2Cl), dichloromine (NHCl2), and trichloramine (NCl3). Note that the first 2 are changing your pH more significantly, however the later 2 are more toxic as to chlorine.


Fishkeepers would be well advised to know that water temperature is key as to the solubility/concentration that is possible of both chlorine and ammonia in water. The colder the water the more that can be held in solution, as temperature increases solubility decreases.


I would not trust water reports as to ppm concentrations as they are likely only target concentrations as to what they wish to discharge and they also have reason to report on the downside of reality. Even if they are honest they are reports after the fact of your water use. I do not wish to alarm anyone but some here might like to be exacting. I myself would greatly appreciate knowing the chemicals they have you put into your city water to remove the chlorine and if it even addresses the ammonia that is in the chloramine they use (I will skip the fluoride for now). Anyone that uses these products should be able to get an MSDS (material safety data sheet) on the product per Federal law.
 
lujor;4318732;4318732 said:
Yeah but still have to vacume detritus off bottom of tank. All the chunks of poo sit on the bottom and draining into a pump is literally just changing water- leaves a lot of the solids still in the tank. Helps but I like to gravel siphon personally.


I have powerheads positioned to keep particles & poo suspended so that my filtration picks it up.
 
You could buy a hang on the wall multi-stage filter system that will remove all the nasties.
I bought my seven stage R/O unit when I was keeping a reef tank. When I switched to freshwater, I removed the R/O portion and plumbed it as described earlier.
The only time I have to bucket water is when I acquire new fish and have them in a separate quarantine tank. Then I actually use the water from my display tank for the W/C's because it is so pristine.
 
lujor;4319095; said:
You attach a submersible pump to it how?

I cut a length of my pythons hose attached it to the outlet of submersible pump. Added a python female fitting to other end of hose. And that's it, screw it to the python hose,drain, unattach and refill. One thing I'd like to add is I think the biggest factor in adding dechlor directly to your tank and refilling. I am refilling 125 gallon and up tanks. Surely adding 15 to 20 gallons to big tanks severely dilutes any impurities in the water letting the dechlor do it's job before any harmful effects take place. If I was doing a 50% wc or changing water in a smaller tank I would do the 5 gallon bucket method and let the dechlor water set first. Just my 2 cents, not an expert by no means. My fish seem happy with this method been doing it for a few years this way.
 
mustang93svt;4321716; said:
I cut a length of my pythons hose attached it to the outlet of submersible pump. Added a python female fitting to other end of hose. And that's it, screw it to the python hose,drain, unattach and refill. One thing I'd like to add is I think the biggest factor in adding dechlor directly to your tank and refilling. I am refilling 125 gallon and up tanks. Surely adding 15 to 20 gallons to big tanks severely dilutes any impurities in the water letting the dechlor do it's job before any harmful effects take place. If I was doing a 50% wc or changing water in a smaller tank I would do the 5 gallon bucket method and let the dechlor water set first. Just my 2 cents, not an expert by no means. My fish seem happy with this method been doing it for a few years this way.


Wow that's awesome. I'm going to try that this weekend with my python.
 
The way I refill water is to first put Prime in the tank -- 1 cap for every 50 gallons that your tank can hold. I put an extra capful in to be safe. Then I put the garden hose in the tank with a spray adapter at the end to weigh it down. Then just wait for it to refill. It's easy now.

I used to refill by putting the water in 5g buckets and adding Prime, but it's too time consuming. Putting the hose in the tank and adding Prime to it is so much easier and saves wear and tear on my back.
 
Is everyone here just missing the fact that Prime either removes things by gassing them off (in the fish gills) or converting them to an elemental salt? I really wish to know what chemicals are being added that may even be more harmful to the fish and/or for the human consumption of said fish.
 
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