If you use a Python Water Change system, then I have a question for you..

[dogofwar]

I fill my tanks in my fish room with a garden hose and have chlorine in my tap water.

I first drain my tanks and then fill. Prior to filling I sprinkle a little ChloramX ($63 for 10lbs from kensfish.com: http://www.kensfish.com/moreinfo/cloram-x.html) into the tanks.

All of the anxiety about dechlor seems unwarranted...

Matt

 

[manafel]

Oops noticed an auto correct problem. I use a gravel vac* lol

I know a friend who has a 50gal trash can on wheels, its pretty nifty. The refilling would be a big pita, but if it saves prime, and allows you to better regulate your water going into the tank, it would be worth it.

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[ammerman19]

I hear you, but this is what I am concerned about, mostly I guess, my BB in my filters, will the de-chlor work fast enough and completely enough when dumped into the tank when I refill. Oh and I really don;'t want to treat the whole tank, just the water i'm changing really...

I turn my filters off and leave them full of water, prevents having to prime them again anyways. I let my new water and conditioner sit for about 45 minutes before turning them back on. I think it really only takes a few minutes for the chemicals to be nuetrilized but I let it go a longer for good measure. I have never seen a fish from not having moving water for 45 minutes. And your bacteria will be fine as well so long as it's not sitting there with no moisture on it. Make sense? It does to me but that may not be saying much

 

[nasomi]

I drain my tank half way, add dechlorinator, 2x the dose for what i'm adding(up to 5x is safe), and attach a 1/8" hose to the faucet and let it go. Once it gets high enough I put on the powerhead and let it top off, then turn off the water. It sits for 20-30min circulating, then I plug the pump in and it starts pumping. I do it like this with both of my tanks and have for years without any issues.

 

[Redearsunfish]

almost exactly what I do .. except I use aquasafe.. so I go threw it faster.. but I still spend way more on other aspects of the hobby then conditioner. I also "eyeball" it... It really depends in the end with what your working with to begin with.. if your source water is "horrible" you need to take more active stpes in conditioning it then if your say on a well and have to only worry about heavy metals or other "random" contaminents then chlorine... or chloromines. been useing python/syphons since undergravel filters and whispers where "the way to do it right".. hooking it up to the faucet was just genius imo. also if your concerned you can trickle it back into the tank and dose... or even fill the bucket right there and dose as you go so you don't have to lug buckets... I've done that a few times when mixing saltwater for my old tank. So they are extreamely multi-functional and imo more of a necessity then a want when dealing with multiple tanks or anything in the 50+ gallon range. easier water changes are the more your likely to do, so even if it adds one step easier imo it's worth its weight.

You can also purchase the tubeing ect from a hardware store and get the attachment for your local lfs if the hardware store doesn't have them for usually less then the "kit" costs... may nor "match" but pinches pennies. atm I have an old python hose ( got it when they first hit the shelves) the faucet attachment finally cracked on me this winter. ( my own fault left it outseide.. and then dropped it, and it pretty much shattered) so instead of spending the $ on a brand new one i just bought the faucet adapter for i think 10$.

I've lived in areas where our water was bad... even the local shops had issues on occasion because of just how un-fishy the water was. and other areas where it was a fish-keepers dream..

I generally shoot for a 50% wc so eyeball the dose for that amount of gallons, sometimes i'm sure i overdose.. and...well yeah i prolly just overshoot it.. But I would rather have to spend the extra 1$ or so because i go threw it faster then replace fish from being to stingy.

99% of the threads you see here with fish issues are results from

1. improper stocking
2. improper water changes
3. improper filtration

water changes can impact all of these issues.. and there is a reason when issues arise one of the first questions is what your water change regime is.. and your water test results are. imo i'll go stingy on other things before water changes..

My question is with all the benefits why wouldn't anyone have one? Most of us have spent way more on our stock,filtration,tank itself, food..

Reguardless.. just my 2cts...

This may be THE most complete and useful advice I have ever seen posted anywhere on the internet. Thanks.

 

[Redearsunfish]

my 55G is just a power head on foam, so that one stays on, the others are off. the fish in the 55G are wild caught blue spotted cories, going on 7 years for them.

that is one of zimmerman's louisianna longears. no photoshop other than cropping, just a on camera flash under 6500k-7000k LED's, then I cut out the fish to shrink the size of the photo.

Cool, i'll tell ya, that is one sexy fish. No weirdness intended.

 

[majorhavok]

I had some initial problems with valves on faucet end of my aqueon changer but I attribute that to my old method of keeping it outside when I did garden hose method. I replaced that and have had great results since switching to kitchen sink. My steps are as follows and I use API tap water conditioner which is 1ml (tsp) per 20 gallons. Bottle isnt expensive and contains 473ml so even dosing for a whole 200g tank its almost a year supply of weekly water changes.

1: hook up system to faucet and put gravel vac in tank.
2: turn on faucet until hose fills with water from aquarium.
3: turn off faucet to save water.. (siphon is started and will continue..)
4:clean tank and allow water to drain to desired level. I have started doing %50 w/c's lately.
5:this is tricky part.. i usually leave all valves open but break siphon by raising tank side out of water but still in the tank.
6: dose tank for full water volume
7: turn sink on (make sure the other end isnt still in water or it can restart suction!) and balance hot/cold to perfect tank temp. I measure with a digital thermal probe because its instant.
8:turn knob on faucet side to allow perfect temp water to go down hose into tank until fully filled.
9: done! turn off water and drain/put away hose usually without a drop spilled anywhere.

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[Inglorious]

Pics or it didn't happen! Lol.


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No pics, but I can prove it with math.
I bout a 250g jar from kensfish for $7.95.
1tsp treats 450G therefor I use 1/4tsp to treat 110G.
1/4tsp=1.25G.
Therefor it takes 100 weeks of waterchanges, almost two years worth to use half of the jar.
That means it costs me approx $2/year or $0.04/week to dechlorinate my water.
Yeah I think I'll just dose the entire volume instead of what I'm replacing.

 

[cambo01]

No pics, but I can prove it with math.
I bout a 250g jar from kensfish for $7.95.
1tsp treats 450G therefor I use 1/4tsp to treat 110G.
1/4tsp=1.25G.
Therefor it takes 100 weeks of waterchanges, almost two years worth to use half of the jar.
That means it costs me approx $2/year or $0.04/week to dechlorinate my water.
Yeah I think I'll just dose the entire volume instead of what I'm replacing.

Haha I'm buying me some of this
I will start doing 50% changes twice a day for that price! I might just dechlorinate my mains haha


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[aclockworkorange]

It still absolutely amazes me when people don't know what's in their tap water, or understand how to treat it, or how their tap water may differ from say, my tap water.

Water companies will generally use one of two treatments for tap water, chlorine or chloramines. The difference between the two is that chloramines consist of both chlorine and ammonia.

Why ammonia? Compared to chlorine, chloramines are more potent and much more stable. They don't "gas off." If you have low levels of chlorine in your tap water, by the time it hits your fish tank, it can practically be non existent.

What happens when you treat chloramine laced water with a basic dechlorinator? Look at the molecule above, the bond between the atoms gets broken and the chlorine is neutralized, but you're left with ammonia. This is why chloramine dechlorinators like Prime must also neutralize ammonia, they need to in order to treat chloramines fully.

Try coming over to my house and putting your fish in my heavily chloramine laced tap water without a conditioner and see what happens!

The reason Seachem recommends dosing for the entire tank volume with Prime is that levels of chlorine or chloramine are not consistent in most places. A couple times a year here we have algae outbreaks in our water collection point and the water gets a considerably bigger dose of chloramine. It's cheap insurance. It's not going to hurt your fish. Prime can be safely dosed at 5 times the normal dose in emergencies, and probably more than that.

In the end, take 10 minutes and look up what's in your tap water from your water company's website. Call them if you have any questions, they staff people whose sole job is to monitor water quality, and IME they are quite happy to chat about it (most people probably find their job boring and don't care to hear about it). You may be able to get away with sodium thiosulfate...

Screw it, googled it and here is some light reading:
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/chlorine-chloramine


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