Water Change....

[Wes910]

Can some please explaine the whole water change process to me?...also my tank is starting to lose water due to evperation. How do i add water do i need to mix some up with some stress coat and let sit than add...? Please fill me in im a complete newbie....

 

[snifflyfro]

You don't change all of the water, and in fact should not. Different people will have different thoughts on how much and how often to replace some of the water but here is the basic consensus:

Do a 15-25% water change every 1-2 weeks. Depending on your bio lab and type of fish you can refine these guidelines (if you list them it will help).

It's very important that you use a gravel vac, which can be picked up for pretty cheap at your LFS. This will pick up all of the excess food, fish poop and other various stuff that ends up in the gravel. If you don't do this the material will build up, look awful but more importantly will cause water quality problems.

As for the evaporated water, if you're water only contains chlorine and not chloramines you can just leave some water out for 24+ hours and then use it to top of the tank. You can also just treat the water like you would the other water.

I'm not sure what chemicals you're using, but many here would tell you (and I don't use) and stress coat chemicals or anything like that, but who knows? The only chemical that many people use is something to get the chlorine out.

 

[Menagerie]

I use a general water conditioner that gets rid of the chlorine. When I do a water change, I take about 25% out while vacuuming. When I replace the water, I make sure the temps are matched and in the new water goes, quickly followed by dechlor.

 

[Wes910]

the stuff the guy at pets mart gave me is called STRESS COAT it says on the bottle it has a dechlorineser.....i have 4 mollys

 

[Menagerie]

Stress Coat should be fine.

 

[hockeydude15]

I use jungle labs start right its a great product

 

[deli_conker]

Here's what I do...

Once per week I do a 10-20% water change.

I use a gravel vac to siphon the water out and vac the gravel on one half of the tank + any known "hot spots" where waste collects. I use an old plastic pitcher for my fish tank only and fill with same temperature water. I'll add some dechlorinator to the pitcher and pour it into the tank.

You can top off your tank with water treated the same way to cover anything that evaporates, but it is not a replacement for water changes.