What are my options?

[skjl47]

I am thinking doing 2 times a week but smaller amount of water change

Hello; this was my first thought.

Keep in mind these side effects that he displays during the water change quickly goes away after maybe 10-15 min once the WC

can i fill a trash can like that? I would think they will explode with the weight of all that water.

but people have been using Rubbermaid cans for stuff like this for quite a while.

Hello; I use five gallon buckets and have never had one burst but never tried a trash can. Fishhead has a decent suggestion.

hello; may not be a bad thing. The rapid breathing may be the need to move more thru the gills as the air bubbles make the water less dense for a short time???

 

[Davidiator]

Ok so first off you get a rubber maid trash can that’s fish safe and then when you do water changes you move a piece of furniture out of the way and place the trash can there. You empty the tank then fill the trash can. You treat the water then pump it into the tank.

MAJOR WARNING!!!

Do NOT buy the black and yellow ones from Costco!!!

I was using it and it ended up leaching some cr*p into the water and killed one of my BGKs

 

[RD.]

In Canada where the OP lives the water mains end up carrying a lot of gas in the winter months. I never noticed any issues with festae, but no longer keep H. temporalis for this reason. The concentration of gas from large water changes (I change out 70-90% typically) would cause the temporalis slime coat to peel off like snot. (even at 50% in winter months) I personally don't think this would an issue for a festae, (it's possible) but there could be something else going on with your local water supply.

What is your tap water treated with, chlorine, or chloramine? What are the typical disinfectant residual levels?
What size is the tank?
What water conditioner do you use, and how much?

If what you are describing is caused by gas, then your only work around is smaller more frequent water changes, or storing water, agitating and aging that water before using for WC, or getting a much larger tank to offset the volume of gas entering the tank during water changes.

If it chlorine/chloramine related, then additional info is required.

 

[RD.]

If you end up using a plastic container, make sure that it is listed for potable water use. Brand names such as Rubbermaid don't mean sheet.

 

[duanes]

If your water is saturated with gas, if you draw a glass, the water will be milky white, and clear from the bottom up. This was common in Milwaukee most of the year, Lake Michigan water temp averaged below 50"F.
I solved the problem by adding new water to sumps instead of directly to the tank, or aimed the hose at a rock pile, with an air stone pumping hard into the stream of new water.
I also did 30-40% water changes every other day, instead of one large one per week.