Water change temp drops

[Lukemitchell]

hi
When I do a water change I put in the right amount of prime for my tank and then fill it up with a hose but the temp drops from 28 to 28 degrees will that be ok for IT and tigs ?

 

[duanes]

A large temp drop can be fine for some fish (e.g. Uruguayan species) but stressful for species that live along the equator, or other temp stable environments.
When I lived in Wisconsin there could often be more than a 40'F difference between my tanks temp and the tap.
So in winter I always mixed heated water with the cold, so not stress out the more sensitive species.
If you are worried about the substances that build up in water heaters, (in the US at least) all water heaters have a spigot to near the bottom of the unit to drain out sludge into a container. If this is regularly done, no problem (I had none mixing hot with cold water)
Every so often I'd drain of that sludge until the water felt un-viscous. Even without fish to worry about is is good to drain out sludge a couple times per year (and is often suggested in the trouble shooting part of the water heaters instructions.

 

[Lukemitchell]

A large temp drop can be fine for some fish (e.g. Uruguayan species) but stressful for species that live along the equator, or other temp stable environments.
When I lived in Wisconsin there could often be more than a 40'F difference between my tanks temp and the tap.
So in winter I always mixed heated water with the cold, so not stress out the more sensitive species.
If you are worried about the substances that build up in water heaters, (in the US at least) all water heaters have a spigot to near the bottom of the unit to drain out sludge into a container. If this is regularly done, no problem (I had none mixing hot with cold water)
Every so often I'd drain of that sludge until the water felt un-viscous. Even without fish to worry about is is good to drain out sludge a couple times per year (and is often suggested in the trouble shooting part of the water heaters instructions.

Thanks for the info and so do you think a couple of dats and a tigrinus will be fine with the temp drop ? I think the tig will be fine with it as it spends most of its time in the deep but would like to know what everyone else thinks ?

 

[Drstrangelove]

hi
When I do a water change I put in the right amount of prime for my tank and then fill it up with a hose but the temp drops from 28 to 28 degrees will that be ok for IT and tigs ?

28 to 28 is not a drop.

 

[duanes]

As Drstrangelove pointed out, you might want to correct you typo, so we could see what the difference is your talking about. Dats come from fairly stable environments near coastal areas where the temps remain within about 10'F differential.
So if the difference in your tap and your tank is 20'F and drops the tank temp drastically you may want to hook up your hose to a hot/cold tap and adjust.

 

[Grinch]

Also worth pointing out that river fish are likely to be better at dealing with rapid changes in water parameters than lake fish... though fish adapted to very large rivers might not follow this pattern.

 

[robham777]

I always try to get the temp as close as possible during water changes. A species may have a wide range of tolerance, but may be sensitive to rapid changes or could have a narrower range but acclimate to a different temp more quickly. Without information from a well documented study for a particular species, I would err on the side of caution. In an open lake or river system there could be a vast difference in temperature at depth or in a current, but the fish would not be forced to stay in an uncomfortable range like they would be in an aquarium.