WATER CHANGE QUESTION!!!

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vaine111

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jan 7, 2009
3,468
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Metro-Detroit
Yesterday I did a 40% WC on my 120 gallon and today I tested the water for my first time in 10 years. The nitrates were 80ppm ok did another 40% WC. Now it is at 40ppm. Tuesday I will do another 40%.

Makes me wonder what it was at before the first 40% change I did...

Does anyone here have a phobia about using their tap water to do WC's?

I feel like putting some distilled water in there. Like 50 gallons. I just want to see if it's clearer(not that it's not clear already), but I just feel it might be more healthy for the fish and less cloudiness from chemicals. That way I figure I won't have to use chemicals to declor it(take into account I live near one of the filthiest cities in the world, IMO). Any thoughts on that?
 
What you do to the water before you put it in the tank depends on what fish you have in there although everyone should use a product like "Prime" etc. to pretreat water for chlorine and chloramine. Some people take it a step further. For instance, I keep Tanganyikan Cichlids and they enjoy a PH way up around 9, a KH of 11 or more, and as low of nitrate as possible so I perform %20 - %30 water changes weekly and for every 5 gallons I add my prime to de-chlorinate etc. and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, 1 teaspoon buffer (a 50-50 mix of baking soda and epsom salt usually), and a few drops of trace elements. IMO this duplicates their natural habitat as best as possible. You should first fill a 5 gallon bucket with regular tap water, let it sit for 30 minutes, and then test it with nothing added to get a good reading on just how filthy your tap water is. Prime or any pre-treatment product should neutralize just about any tap water unless it's radioactive or something (j/k). Then find out what your fish enjoy in the wild and try and duplicate that if it's convenient and possible. Hope this helps
 
Yes, I use tap water in my tanks. I use 300 to 400 gallons weekly.
 
BioG;2819593; said:
What you do to the water before you put it in the tank depends on what fish you have in there although everyone should use a product like "Prime" etc. to pretreat water for chlorine and chloramine. Some people take it a step further. For instance, I keep Tanganyikan Cichlids and they enjoy a PH way up around 9, a KH of 11 or more, and as low of nitrate as possible so I perform %20 - %30 water changes weekly and for every 5 gallons I add my prime to de-chlorinate etc. and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, 1 teaspoon buffer (a 50-50 mix of baking soda and epsom salt usually), and a few drops of trace elements. IMO this duplicates their natural habitat as best as possible. You should first fill a 5 gallon bucket with regular tap water, let it sit for 30 minutes, and then test it with nothing added to get a good reading on just how filthy your tap water is. Prime or any pre-treatment product should neutralize just about any tap water unless it's radioactive or something (j/k). Then find out what your fish enjoy in the wild and try and duplicate that if it's convenient and possible. Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Ok with that said this is copied from a different thread that went
<----that direction instead of----> that way.
Was wondering what I could do to get my nitrate and hardness down and pH up to about 7.4.
Or are these good results for a tank with datnoids, birchirs, JD's, jardini and plecos?
 
vaine111;2819768; said:
Ok with that said this is copied from a different thread that went
<----that direction instead of----> that way.
Was wondering what I could do to get my nitrate and hardness down and pH up to about 7.4.
Or are these good results for a tank with datnoids, birchirs, JD's, jardini and plecos?
Click to expand...

More info would be needed. Lowering nitrates is easy, more frequent or larger volume W/Cs. General hardness will require removing minerals. A target PH may be the hardest but it is usually best to just match the tank to the Ph of the tap water because stablity is the best.
 
well i did another WC and i really like the results besides the pH. I moved stuff around in the tank also to see if i could get my female dempsey to calm down a lil bit. now she isn't chasing the datnoid around as much. the jardini is not staying at the top no more now he's weaving through all the driftwood about mid height in the tank which is really cool.
 
Hardness, minerals etc. Baking soda (Sodium bi-carbonate) will bring it up so...
PH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline the water is. Let's say your tap is Ph 8.0 and you need to bring it down to 6.5. You can use chemicals like "PH down" but it's difficult to keep it consistent which is key. No fish I've heard of likes the PH swinging all the time. You would actually be better off leaving it at 8.0 than allowing it to fluctuate. That being said peat moss (in the filter, near the return or intake will soften the water. But again you'll have the problem of whenever you do a water change you'll buff up the ph. Though if your tap is 7.2 and you need 6.8 than I would go ahead and use peat moss and not worry about it, just watch out for huge swings of .5 or more. You could use distilled or R/O water but isn't that why we keep freshies instead of marine fish? so we don't have to micro-manage our setups? (I would probably keep cichlids anyway)
 
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