Water Changes

I have been changing about 25-45% of the water in my tropical freshwater aquarium every 2 weeks using the great bucket and siphon method. I was advised that the water needed to be heated before putting it in the tank, which I have been doing with the tank heater. The only problem with this is that it takes up to 45 mins to heat a 2 gallon bucket from 15 degrees c to 24. Is it really necessary to heat the water this much ?

I tried a little experiment yesterday to change the water faster, by filling 90% of a bucket with water, and heating the remaining 10% to boiling point, mixing it, and making sure the temp was around 23 deg.c, the fish seem fine, and all the plants are fine, but I would appreciate some advice on whether this is dangerous in any way ?

Right way. Another one is to mix cold and hot tap water.

I have had aquariums for some years now, and i have never heated the water. Just made sure that the water coming out of the water tap is not too cold / warm.

They way I've always done it.

Turn your tap on. Adjust the temp to what ever your tank is. I do it with a cooking thermometer. It's all I got.

And then add on like 5 degrees. In other words. Get the water hotter then what it is suppose to be, make it hotter 5 degrees.

Then prepare the water. with chlorine disapater or whatever and let it cool off to the right temp. It will cool off pretty quick.

Works for me. Should work for you...Oh and it's allot faster then bowling water.

Drew

It's OK to mix cold and hot tap water if the water heater is in your basement. Though in many places (and I suspect that this is your case, Sergey) water is heated in some centralized location and then delivered to individual houses or apartments by pipes. In that cases some chemicals are added to the water to inhibit rust/oxidation of pipes. I wouldn't drink hot tap water with inhibitors or add it to a fish tank.

Could I just add a query here? I always thought that it was inadvisable to use water from the hot water tank as the water 'stands' in the tank, cooling down and reheating time after time, therefore ideal conditions for bacteria to flourish? I used the boiling water in the kettle personally, until I set up a water butt (mainly because I now have three tanks on the go - gets addictive this aquarium keeping doesn't it?!!lol) Ann

If your place is anything like mine, the hot water tank gets a real good rinsing a few times a week when more than one person needs to take a shower at the same time. Besides, the amount of water actually coming from the hot water tap is small compared to the water from the cold water tap. I've been doing this for a year now, and I add my water directly to the tank using a python type apparatus. I never had spikes except once when I did a 50% change and rinsed all my filter media under hot tap water. Fortunately there was enough bacteria on the surface of the decoration and gravel to keep this a mini spike and it was over in 4 days.

I was told this practice could potentially kill everything in a SW tank though.

Never use hot tap water. Water tanks are a) made of copper and b) have you ever looked inside them - Yuck.

Bowling water - not surprised it takes a long time.

I change around 30 gallon of water in my tanks, it takes me one hour to clean them all including boiling the 5 gallons of water required to get the cold tap water up to temperature.

Never use hot tap water for fish. Just look inside your hot water tank to see why - if you think it's OK then drink some :-P

My tank is only 2 years old and I drink hot water every day. I also use hot water to cook. There is no debris and no taste. The old hot water tank made with steel pipes where troublesome, but not the new ones.

Oh come on. Does your toddler play in your aquarium(s)? If so that is a bigger concern than heating your water. If not then put the holding tank in as safe a place as the aquarium. I have a 2 year old so I know what you mean but I don't let him get near my 70 gallon holding tank for change water any more than I would let him get into my aquariums.

Dave

On Fri, 08 Sep 2000 11:49:33 -0700, calimari chaser

Some of the aquarium water conditioners will remove heavy metals as well as other harmful things. If you do a 50 percent water change, the replacement water can have a big effect on water temperature. On the other hand, if you do a weekly water change of 20 percent or less, you're less likely to affect aquarium temperature.

I've personally never heard of anyone that doesn't use the hot and cold mix of tap water to do water changes with.

It's ALL I use.

If I had to boil water or heat with aquarium heaters, It'd take me all week to do a weekly water change. I wouldn't get anything else done!