Water Top Off

[aclark]

I have my tank cycling right now so no water changes for me; however, without a glass top (coming soon) I'm suffering from water evaporation. I'd like top top it off but wanted to get input before I do. I have about an inch of evaporation which probably equates to a few gallons.

Should I:

1. Just top it off with tap water?
2. Top it off with dechlorinated tap water? (Ie 5 gallons treated with 5 gallons worth of dechlorinator)
3. Top it off and retreat the entire tanks worth of water? (75 gallons)

Note: I have Top Fin dechlorinator and Top Fin water conditioner that I got free when I bought the tank.

 

[coralbandit]

Always de chlorinate water.
Top off with de chlorinated water.
Good luck with cycling!

 

[brennae]

Oh so I'm glad you posted this here since I had no idea of the answer. I've only ever done fish in cycling. But may have a partial answer. When I use Prime I dose for the entire tank and just dump it in the tank and then I use a hose to fill it up. If I prepare water in a bucket I dose the bucket water for the amount of water in the bucket. I'm very curious to hear what everyone else does. I don't really have a reason for how I do it the way I do.

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[brennae]

Hopefully that made sense. To my understanding you always want to dechlorinate any water you add to the tank. Some even dechlorinate the water they add to frozen food cubes tp thaw and feed the fish.

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[TheresaM]

Hopefully that made sense. To my understanding you always want to dechlorinate any water you add to the tank. Some even dechlorinate the water they add to frozen food cubes tp thaw and feed the fish.

I do the same for adding water to my tanks. It's been a hot summer plus we've had numerous AC issues so lots of evaporation here.

I actually use tank water to thaw frozen cubes.

 

[aclark]

Oh so I'm glad you posted this here since I had no idea of the answer. I've only ever done fish in cycling. But may have a partial answer. When I use Prime I dose for the entire tank and just dump it in the tank and then I use a hose to fill it up. If I prepare water in a bucket I dose the bucket water for the amount of water in the bucket. I'm very curious to hear what everyone else does. I don't really have a reason for how I do it the way I do.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Made perfect sense. The main reason I asked is because I have seen people say that when you do a water change you should dose the whole volume of the tank when you refill. I was hoping I could just dose a 5 gallon bucket and top it off.

Thanks for the replies folks.

 

[Ricky 1]

I use a python so dechlore all the tank, If you have a friend with a tank please ask for a squeeze of filter medium,this will speed up your cycle over night, unless you want it to take weeks.......just a thought

 

[sinibotia]

Just treat the amount of water you add! Dechlorinated tap water is fine. And don't even worry about trying to match tank water. For a top-off you don't add enough water to significantly change anything.

 

[Echistas]

heres a link to a coll top-off. simple to build, yet very safe and effective. give it a shot!

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/simple-unique-auto-top-off-341556-2.html