pwc

[timwag2001]

i do my pwc's with 5 gallon buckets. i was wondering if i can take 5 gallons out and then put 5 gallons of clean water in. and repeat the process.
the reason i want to do it like this is because when my water level gets too low and i start to dump water back in i stir up a bunch of debris and some of my plants (baby tears) uproot no matter how carefull i am

now if i can do it like that i'm assuming i would have to change more water, right?

 

[new2betas]

I am confused what the exact question is....to keep from uprooting plants I pour water onto a plate or tupperware lid to keep from disturbing plants and/or fish.

 

[timwag2001]

my question is if i could change 5 gallons at a time instead of my full 25%

 

[new2betas]

I guess I am still confused...not enough info...what size tank is it? If you are doing weekly water changes I would recommend 50% or if that is too much at once do smaller 25% changes several times during the week. Hope that helps, since I am not sure I got all the details needed to answer properly.

 

[timwag2001]

lol. sorry.

instead of taking 25% of the water out and then putting 25% more water back in.

can i take out 5 gallons and then put 5 gallons back into the tank. and repeat that process untill i've changed out 25% worth of the water

 

[new2betas]

What size tank do you have, first of all?

 

[timwag2001]

its a 55 but thats irrelevant.

 

[new2betas]

Well, it's relevant in knowing how much water you are trying to change out. Like I said earlier, if you are doing weekly water changes, I would recommend changing out 50%, not just 25%, no matter what method you are using. I would change out 50% all at one time and use the method I suggested to keep from uprooting plants. It has worked for me very nicely. By pouring water onto another object (plate, plastic lid) you keep from disturbing your substrate, which is what you were trying to avoid, correct? I am just a firm believer in water changes and I think 50% per week is good, or 2-3 smaller changes during the week.

 

[Bigfoot1030]

Yes you can pull a 5 gallon out and replace. Ihave done this in the past and it works fine.

 

[jsoong]

I think I got what he is asking:

The question is: If he was to do 5 gal water changes, how many times will he need to do that to equal a single 25% pwc?

Tank size is relevant in this case. With the 1st 5 gal change, you are changing 9% of the water, but with the 2nd 5 gal change, you are removing only 4.5 gal of old water (with 0.5 gal of "new" water) or 8%. So you need to change out more water doing it this way.

If you do the 5 gal pwc 3x, you would have done an equivalent of a 24% pwc. (And you would have changed out 15 gal of water, whereas a single 13 gal pwc would have achieved the same result.>

<BTW - another way to avoid disturbing the substrate is to put the water in slowly. I often use a 1/4" hose to siphon water from a bucket into the small tank. If you leave the bucket not too much higher than the tank, the water will flow slowly. It might take 1/2 hr to fill, but you don't have to be there to watch it..... This is also my way of doing a drip acclimatization.>

 

[Roberz00]

get a python or similar product. Then you could do the entire change at once and still refill and be be able to directly control the water flow coming back in. works for me.

 

[timwag2001]

you got it jsoong. thats exactly what i was asking.
i didnt wash my flourite barely at all before i put it in my tank and now i have a **** load of dust that kicks up no matter how slow i pour.
and thanks for the dish idea but i ended up building a tower of buckets on my coffee table and siphoning them one by one.

a python is on my list. i think i saw one at a lfs for like $90. is that right?

 

[new2betas]

$90?? that sounds a bit high. You can order them online for 30.00-40.00 depending on what size you need. The 25 footer can be bought at big als online (I believe) for like 32 bucks.

 

[jsoong]

If you ONLY want to fill your tank, you can DIY a connecting hose for much less.

For regular garden tap or washer/dryer tap you can use a standard potable water hose (for RV) for ~ $15-20 depending on length.

Other taps you will need:
1. A connector for your faucet - You might be able to find a water bed filling connector for a kitchen tap ... but I just use a short length of vinyl hose of the appropriate diameter for a friction fit (1" ID for my tap). <Alternative - use a "water thief" for RV, that will connect any tap to your RV hose.>
2. A length of 1/2" or so vinyl hose that will reach from your tap to your tank. <You can use a long hose that will fit over your tap, but that gets expensive.>
3. A barb connector to connect the 2 (I find one in the irrigation section.)

I made mine for well under $10.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

i do my pwc's with 5 gallon buckets. i was wondering if i can take 5 gallons out and then put 5 gallons of clean water in. and repeat the process.
the reason i want to do it like this is because when my water level gets too low and i start to dump water back in i stir up a bunch of debris and some of my plants (baby tears) uproot no matter how carefull i am

now if i can do it like that i'm assuming i would have to change more water, right?

I used an excel spreadsheet to figure this out for my own purposes. HERE is the answer to your question.

When using 5 gallon buckets, I used a 1 gal milk container to mark lines for each gallon. A 5g bucket has to be full to within 1/2" of the top to actually contain 5 gallons. Since this is a b@#ch to lift up to the edge, typically I don't fill to more than 4 gallons, but here's how it works if you actually siphon out 5 gallons and put back in 5 gallons. This is assuming that you have effectively 50 gallons of water and 5 gallons worth of substrate and other materials displacing that volume of water

After first 5 gallon change:

45 gallons original
5 gallons new (10% change)

After second change:

40.5 gallons original
9.5 new (19% change)

After third change:

36.45 g original
13.55 g new (27.1% change)

Fourth

32.81 original
17.2 new (34.4% change)

Fifth

29.52 original
20.48 new (41%)

Sixth

26.57 original
23.43 new (46.9%)

Seventh

23.91 original
26.09 new (52.2%)

Each time you have to figure out your new gallons/old gallons, then if you take 5 out, you have taken out proportionally the same amount of old/new water.

Hope this answers your question

If you do 4 gallons at a time your percentages work like this:

1: 8%
2: 15.4%
3: 22.1%
4: 28.4%
5: 34.1%
6: 39.4%
7: 44.2%
8: 48.7%
9: 52.8%

I don't use a python because I can't justify $90 for it, or even $40 for the cheaper version with less hose. Just a regular gravel vac, $10-15. Plus the fact that how are you supposed to dechlorinate and detoxify your water before dumping it into the tank with a python, by IV drip? Ok for removing water, not so much for adding IMHO, but many other swear by them.

As for me, I do 2 4.5g buckets worth every other day, 3g goes into my 10g and the other 6 in the 55, if you add that up using the above calculation method, I am effectively changing between 30 and 40% of the water in my 55g every week, and no need for sucking out 20 gallons at once each week.

Of course, my municipal water sucks bad, so it's not really that safe to do major water changes on my tanks unless it's completely necessary.

 

[Roberz00]

***<snip>***

I don't use a python because I can't justify $90 for it, or even $40 for the cheaper version with less hose. Just a regular gravel vac, $10-15. Plus the fact that how are you supposed to dechlorinate and detoxify your water before dumping it into the tank with a python, by IV drip? Ok for removing water, not so much for adding IMHO, but many other swear by them.

***<snip>***


I must have either a chinese knock or some othe imitation pythn cuz mine was like around 15-20 bux at my local Wally World(Wal-Mart) and i bought the 25 footer. hmmm weird

 

[fort384]

agreed with the 1/4 hose siphon method. No worry about disturbing plants, if there are any temp differences in the water it is minimized, and you do not have to monitor it. It takes about 20 minutes for me to empty a 5 gal into the tank using this method, but again, you do not have to monitor it. Just start the siphon and let it go.

 

[JWALK2828]

<BTW - another way to avoid disturbing the substrate is to put the water in slowly. I often use a 1/4" hose to siphon water from a bucket into the small tank. If you leave the bucket not too much higher than the tank, the water will flow slowly. It might take 1/2 hr to fill, but you don't have to be there to watch it..... This is also my way of doing a drip acclimatization.>[/quote]

great advice.