water change questions?

[The_Nuge]

2 part question part 1: I usually only keep native cold water northern fish so doing water changes is not a big deal temp wise. I now have a large clown loach (that im pissed my lfs sold me) so I dont want to just crank the cold water on and top it off after i drain 25% of the water from my 120 gal. what should I do?

part 2: I have a cold water line that comes off my main( pre water softener) that i usualy do changes with. now if im going to have to use my hot water to regulate the temp going in because of the loach I have to ask is soft water ok to use? is there any problems or needs that go along with soft water?

throw me a bone here this tank needs a water change!

 

[prober]

You need to get the water to within a couple degrees of the tank or you will shock the fish, any fish. I have a similar situation and I use 5 gallon jugs. I fill them a day or two before I need the water and let them come to room temp. I also run an airstone in each jug for a couple hours minimum. This does a couple things, it makes circulation which allows the water to come to room temp faster, off gases the chlorine and other gases in the water and oxygenates the water. Water in your pipes is under pressure and has very little oxygen making it hard for the fish to breathe.

That's hard to do in a larger aquarium but your options are limited. Straight cold water will be 30* colder than your tank and will not be good for the fish or for any bacteria. It will shock the whole system.

The other option is to use the softened water but that's not a great option either. Loaches don't really like salt and many catfish do not either.

 

[The_Nuge]

yeah 6 5 gal. jugs in my living room would make the wife crazy.. I dont know what im going to do here.. I may have to set up a drum with a pump in the basement. I have a hose run through my floor to the water line i added pre softener. i hooked up my python to that for ease of water changes. I guess i can still use it for drawing water out but ill have to set up a 30 gal drum with a pump to run water back up i guess.. oh the joys of fish keeping..

 

[bomber]

Sell your loach. 1 problem solved.

 

[Jc1119]

Most whole house systems soften water by swapping calcium and magnesium for sodium or potassium. Really depends on the resin used. If you test gh it ishould read 0, but tds( total dissolved solids) goes way up. It's because 2 ions of NA+ or K+ are swapped for every calcium or magnesium ion.

Typically softwater fish live in environments low in both gh and tds. So your system really doesn't create a true soft water aquatic environment. Only issue I see would be low calcium levels leading to development issues in your fish. Solution.... Add calcium back in your system(tank) or like bomber said...... sell your loach. Might be the easiest solution

 

[KaiserSousay]

You need to get the water to within a couple degrees of the tank or you will shock the fish, any fish.

Hmmm.
Glad my fish can`t read.
Never had any problems running "straight from the tap" water.
No buckets, no heaters, no buffers, no hassle.
Just a dash of Prime.

Now, if I could just get the mutts to stop splashing water all over at feeding time.

 

[The_Nuge]

I would love to sell the loach! anybody in minnesota want to buy a 6-7 inch loach??? 35 bucks! 5 bucks less than i payed! good deal! or make a reasonable offer!

so yeah once i figure out a way to rid of the monster loach ill just go back to pumping cool tap water into the tank.. to be honest it seems like my walleye loves it!

I picked up a master test kit the other day and everything was at 0 or very close to it.. but my PH is at 7.6 what do i want it at ? i cant recall what it should be. just at 7.0 ?