Water Change help

[datkidkevin]

i ran out of tap water conditioner (nutrafin agua plus) and i got to do a water change 2day i do have nutrafin cycle shud i use that for a replacement untill i get a new tap water conditioner?? or is there any other thoughts?

 

[mfdrookie516]

no, you'll be better off waiting to do your water change until you get conditioner... that cycle junk isnt going to do anything for chlorine, and generally nothing period... get some prime and you wont run out so quick

 

[DragonFish71]

+1

A bottle of Prime lasts me forever and we have 11 tanks.

 

[7Enigma]

Here's another vote for waiting on the water change. Do you know if you have ammonia in your tap water? As in from chloramine or just chlorine? Chlorine can be evaporated pretty quickly with agitation (splashing), but chloramine will need to be treated with a proper dechlor (another vote for Prime).

The only instance I would NOT wait is if you are cycling and have high ammonia/nitrIte levels. In that case the lesser of two evils is to do a water change. In this case I would fill up your container with HOT tap water. Then sit there and slosh it around until it gets to your tank temperature. You want to get as many bubbles as possible in the water (a cleaned wisk like you'd use to make scrambled eggs works great for aerating, but make sure there is NO detergent on it). Don't skimp on the mixing!

Then unplug your filter when you do the water change. Let the water sit with the filter off for 30-60 minutes before turning it back on. If you do these steps you will have little chance of killing off the beneficial bacteria in your filter.

But again, only if you are having ammonia/nitrIte issues!

HTH

 

[Mark Hewitt]

i ran out of tap water conditioner (nutrafin agua plus) and i got to do a water change 2day i do have nutrafin cycle shud i use that for a replacement untill i get a new tap water conditioner?? or is there any other thoughts?

How long will it take you to get to the shop?

If you are certain your water contains only chorine and not choramine you can leave a bucket to stand for 24 hours, but easier just to go to the shop!

 

[datkidkevin]

tanx guys i went out and bought prime

 

[mfdrookie516]

good deal You wont regret it... just make sure you dont add too much, its so hard being used to dosing 5ml per 10g then going to prime and only using 5ml for 50g lol.

 

[datkidkevin]

yea it is..lol i thought i read it rong when i looked at it

 

[7Enigma]

I finally ran out of prime at work (it's taken almost 2 years for a 10 gallon tank with frequent 50% water changes for my puffer!) and when I got my new bottle I tried something different. I used a paper clip to pop a small hole in the top of the seal and can get single drops by gently squeezing. It normally takes ~15-20 drops to equal 1ml of liquid (you can measure if you really want) and so for my 2.5-5gallon water changes I just use 5-10 drops.

Much more accurate (and less wasteful) then trying to use the threads of the cap to measure.

I almost bought one of the really small bottles of Prime because they have the dropper top that works just like this but couldn't stomach spending so much more per oz. than the big bottle!

 

[cabezon]

can you dilute the prime to an easier to measure level? if you put 1 oz in to 10oz that would make it 5ml to 5 gallons.

and to OP, in a pinch RO water would work too, just not often.

 

[mfdrookie516]

i would think if you dilluted it, it would mess with the dechlorinating ability of it... or maybe not... i would be scared to, but you bring up a good point. may have to email seachem and find out

 

[7Enigma]

That's a question I've thrown around ever since I started back in the hobby and never been comfortable doing it. My guess is if you used the same bottle (dunno if the plastic is special) and used distilled water to dilute you probably would be fine. But I'm comfortable using the drip method now.