First water change is approaching.

[KFav93]

Hello everyone. I'm new to owning an aquarium. I just put 4 zebra danios in my 20 gallon tank yesterday for my first round of fish. I'm hoping to do a water change within the next week so I need some help. First, how should I go about it? I know you only change about 25% of the water. I know there is a vaccum, which I need to purchase, but how do I go about the steps and process of this? Also, I have to types of water I can use. I would like your opinions on which one I should use and if I need to treat said water.

The first one is spring water. I tested it and it gave me this:
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 25
Chlorine: 0
Alkalinity: 40
pH: 7.2

The second water is my tap water:
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 300
Chlorine: 0
Alkalinity: 300
pH: 8.4

Please feel free to walk me through the steps and inform me of anything that you think I should know. I'm a good listener, and I am willing to learn! [emoji1]

Also, thank you to everyone that has helped thus far. My Danios are happy!

 

[STLCroyards]

I would use whatever is closest in hardness and alkalinity to your current levels in your fish tank. That way you don't have to add any chemicals to adjust either water source.

If you have a big tank, something like a Python works great for water changes. Otherwise, you can get a gravel vacuum and a bucket.

Two really important things for water changes:

1. Make sure you use a dechlorinator. You can dose it directly in the tank after adding the water, or you can add it to the buckets of new water. I like to add a little bit of stress coat and a little bit of bacteria each time I do a water change.

2. Make sure the temperature of the water is within a half of a degree +/- to the current temp in your tank.

Best of luck, and if your tank is cycled, everything will be fine. Water changes are great for the tank, and nothing to fear!

 

[JoeMan]

Buy two 5 gallon buckets and drain 50% of the water by filling them both up. While you're doing this remember to turn off the filter and heater in your tank. Then dump the buckets and fill them back up with whatever source is closest to your current parameters. Dose the buckets with dechlorinator and pour the new water back into your tank. Its as simple as that. Do this weekly and if you have a gravel vac then vacuum the gravel while draining the tank.

 

[JoeMan]

I forgot to mention that the water needs to be within 5 degrees of your current tank temp. Danios can handle a bit of a temp swing so dont worry about getting it exact.

And just buy both buckets. Less trips is so much easier

 

[nirbhao]

Here's a great video about starting suction on a gravel vacuum.

https://youtu.be/mfEBbjKK5xQ

 

[NickNaylor]

If you have a smaller tank you could probably get away with a bucket and a generic siphon.

If you have a larger tank, I can't recommend the Python enough. It's a bit pricey, but I just did my first water change with it (rather than 2 gallon buckets that I was having to fill, walk to the kitchen to dump, refill, and repeat), and wow, what a game changer. It's so much easier and faster as well as way less messy. A 50% water change in my 30-gallon took about 15 minutes once I got everything set up. Using my 2-gallon-bucket system, that same change would take about 30-45 minutes.

As I said, it's pricey, but I think it's well worth the cost if you're going to have to lug buckets across the house multiple times. Amazon has them for ~$40, and you can buy extensions if the default 25 feet isn't long enough to reach a sink.