Just Sharing my Fish List
OK just did my water change today, I am currently doing water change once a month for the tanks and FGTs that are already super stable and mature. For the big pond, I do not do any water change at all, as it has a huge filter with a sludge flush, I let mother nature help me with the water change. Every time it rains, I would flush out the sludge chamber. The newer tanks, once every two weeks. Again, that is if there are no problems with the fishes. When there is a need for medication, then water change will have to be more frequent. Water testing is done on a weekly basis, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH and salt are the main test that I do, although sometimes I would do water hardness, KH testing. One of the very first thing I would always take note of on water change days (usually on Saturday and Sunday) is the temperature and PH of the water both in the tank and coming out of the tap. Most of my setups have a chiller attached, thus water change for those are usually done early in the morning when the water is quite cool. As for PH, they do come between 7+ all the way to 9+ out of the tap, there are days where I do not do water change when I feel that the PH is too high or temperature is too cold (especially when it’s been raining through the night). I am not comfortable with shutting down my system, drain the water then top up. Even with the wool change, which I do once a week, I do it with the system running. I guess it’s a personal preference thing, because I use to turn the system off during water change. Two things I realized through the years, one is that when your filter is idle all the particles which are held down by the constant pressure get loose and suspend in the filter chambers and all flow out when you turn your system on, so your tank water is cloudy with lots of particles floating in your tank. Two, is that that’s when your propeller shaft in your pump snaps. I guess the most stressful point to the shaft is when it goes from zero to spinning at X times per second. So I usually do the one pipe in, one pipe out thingy, I would of course use anti chlorine and anti chloramines before I start the water change. I actually constructed my own siphon pipe using eheim pipe and stop valves. During water change, I would put the siphon pipe all the way up to the valve, make sure that the part that is in the tank is fill with water, turn the valve to lock in the water, bring the pipe back out and then turn the valve back to release water. I would usually control the valve and tap so that the water flow is roughly the same, and would just sit there to look at the filter water level and also the fish behavior. I always feel that water change, changes certain behavior to the fishes. For my more aggressive fishes, it bring out a bit of aggression, as for my rays, that’s when they all will start to shit. I usually do the water change for about half an hour for my six feet tanks. After every water change, I would put in bacteria and test again for PH and also do a salt test(0.5-0.8). Increase aeration after water change will help with bacteria buildup.
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