Water changes play an important role in successful fish keeping, which is why I will be writing about them today. It's a subject I have oft touched upon, but never really written about in any great detail (at least to my knowledge). Therefore, I thought it might provide a nice stopgap until I can put together some more 'fishy' related topics. In my fish room, water changes are done every 1-2 weeks. With each water change, I will remove about 2-5 litres, depending on the size of the tank. Even though none of my tanks are cycled, the abundance of live plants ensures ammonia always remains at 0ppm. Typically, the only reason I do water changes, is to 'freshen' up my tanks, and replenish any lost minerals and trace elements. As an added bonus, water changes (particularly those done with slightly cooler water) have a tendency to induce spawning. All the water I use in my established tanks, is water from the tap, which has been aged for at least 5-7 days. It's stored in a plastic container (shown in the photo above), which is kept heated and filtered. The introduction of water conditioners, and the presence of chloramine in many municipal water supplies, means aging water is no longer necessary or recommended. However, after the loss of a great many of my fish as a result of the oodinium parasite, I try to make certain the conditions in my tanks remain as stable as possible. Therefore, I hope that by aging my water beforehand, the parameters (particularly pH and temperature) will more closely match those of my tanks, than if I used water straight from the tap. During this process, I use a combination of peat moss, IALs, and rooibos tea to not only keep the pH and hardness low, but also to darken the water. Within a day or two, the water in the container will usually be the same colour as unmilked tea. This means, I won't be stripping the tannins from my tanks when it comes time to do water changes. Water is siphoned from my tanks using clear plastic tubing I picked up from the local hardware store. To refill my tanks, I use a couple of small, plastic watering cans. I personally find buckets too cumbersome when I only need to refill a few litres of water, or have to refill the tanks on my top shelf (which requires the use of a step ladder). The watering can is ideal because it's light, easy to hold onto, and doesn't create enough flow to disturb the substrate.
While Melbourne tap water is some of the highest quality in the world, I still use water conditioner. I know some fish keepers here that don't use it, or don't use it all the time, but it's not a risk I am personally willing to take. The brand of water conditioner I use, is Seachem Prime. It's most useful feature is its ammonia/nitrite detoxifying properties, and I find it extremely cost effective as only a small amount is needed to treat a large volume of water. I hope this has proved a useful read for at least someone out there. I know it's not a particularly exciting topic, but sometimes I feel like I've discussed every possible topic in the few years this blog has been going.
Tim
25/7/2015 12:05:38 pm
Any thought of adding some anti-oodinium chemical to each change?
Ashlea
25/7/2015 12:40:53 pm
I'm not really a fan of having my fish constantly exposed to chemicals/medications. A lot of the medications that deal with velvet are quite harsh, especially in a low pH, and I would be concerned about creating some sort of resistance. I think my main issue was the fact I was regularly importing wild-caught fish. They would go from the wild, to the seller in Indonesia, from Indonesia, to Bangkok, from Bangkok, to Queensland, and then finally from Queensland to Victoria. This is an undoubtedly stressful process and I'm sure some arrived either harbouring the parasite, or in such a compromised state that they were more susceptible to infection. Then all it takes is for me to accidentally cross-contaminate between tanks, and multiple fish are affected. I haven't had any velvet in my tanks for months now, and I believe it's because I haven't imported any new fish.
Ashlea
27/7/2015 06:48:31 pm
I actually pinched the idea from a parosphromenus forum. One of the posters used a watering can to refill their tanks. I use a bucket for large water changes or when filling up a new tank, but for my partial water changes, the watering can is great.
wildborneo
4/8/2015 11:19:49 am
how are your peat moss and tea added? did u put it in a cloth bag?
Ashlea
4/8/2015 12:17:16 pm
I use rooibos tea bags so I put 4-5 tea bags into the tub and remove them after a day or two. Comments are closed.
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AuthorLocated in Melbourne, Australia, I currently keep and breed a number of species from the coccina complex. Archives
November 2017
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