Brenton Posted June 27, 2013 Report Share Posted June 27, 2013 Hi all Up until recently, I've only had to do a single 7L water change a week on my display barrack. I've been using a single bucket, fill with water and treat it. Add small heater and viola! Come change day, water is treated, aged, and at the right temp. Now I have (or will soon have) multiple tanks needing a water change. Two of them should be a bit bigger than my bucket. So, do I buy multiple buckets to age water (requiring multiple heaters )? Get a big storage container to age a much bigger volume and just grab it from there as required? Or am I over thinking it and should just change the water with unheated water from the tap which has been treated but not aged? I have: the display barracks in the lounge (will be home to 3 males, currently two) - 7.5L change barracks on fish table (I dont have a room as such...yet) (will be home to 9 individuals) - 10.5L change Convict tank on fish table (home to breeding pair and currently 17(ish) fry) - 10L change two QT tanks (1 empty, 1 occupied) - 4L change combined. At some point I need to add a sorority tank, a grow out tank, and a spawn tank. Razzi has put me onto a neat little vac to help get the old water out (thanks, Raz), and I could stagger the water change days, but sooner rather than later, I'm going to be changing water every day to stick to my one heated bucket setup. I imagine that will get old very quickly. Suggestions? How do you manage your water changes, particularly the temperature and aging times? BT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted June 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 So, it seems a great many of you have more and bigger tanks than I do, but nobody seems to do water changes...or do I just rotate water changes over different days and stick to the heater in the bucket scenario? :confused:/> Cheers BT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zui Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Hi Brenton, Most will probably disagree but I don't pre heat my water. I aerate my water for at least 24 hrs with prime and do my water changes. I breed peps and angels so I am doing atleast 150-200 litres per week. My betta barracks is 27 litres and it gets a 20% w/c p/w. It runs a sump type system and the water that goes in isn't heated. HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afr3178 Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Same here, most will probably disagree with me but this works a treat for me. I don't age water, I use the hot and cold taps to get it the right temperature then once it's good (judged by being a human thermometer) I'll connect a hose and fill the tank up with it... I don't add conditioner but that's because Melbourne water is great and I don't have any problems. I wouldn't really recommend it in any other state though. If you can, I really want to invest in a large storage container. I think it would make my fish happier. Plus temperature will be the same, water will be free of chlorine and any other nasties that ages water doesn't have. Plus it will already be tanned from IAL and lower pH already too. IMO a storage tank is the way to go, I only have bettas and use quite a bit of water per week. So with the bigger setups I would definitely say its the best method- personal opinion. I know others will feel different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zui Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 I work on the principal if it works for you. Stick to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted June 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Cool - being in Adelaide, straight from the tap isn't going to work unfortunately...but thanks for sharing I suppose I need to know, should I be heating a bigger container, or just aging in a bigger container? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zui Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 I use 2 x 25 lt drums with an airstone for at least 24hrs (daily) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 I have a large storage container I use for aging water. I have a heater in it, and treat the water with water conditioner, salt and IAL within. Only need to refill it weekly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 Currently I'm only using a single 20 litre bucket for ageing water. I do have four of them though in case I need it. But I ... ahem... don't change water as much as I should. I can get all the bettas in beanie boxes in one go if I don't do 100%, the other tanks I just rotate. It really depends what's in the tank that I'm changing water for whether I worry too much about the temperature. Also depends how cold the water is. A drop of a few degrees won't really bother most fish. When I finally get my fishroom finished there will be two 200 litre food grade plastic containers that will be used for water ageing. They will sit at the top of one of the racks and will have airline, and possibly a carbon filter (haven't decided if I can't be bothered with carbon). The room is heated so the water will be the same temperature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melbournebetta Posted July 2, 2013 Report Share Posted July 2, 2013 It's an interesting conundrum, personally I do water changes from new water just adjusting heat with a boiled kettle (I don't like using the hot tap because of the copper content in the water) I always dechlorinate because I use water straight from the tap, I also have my tanks filtered so I want the Chlorine and Chloramine out of the water so it dosen't harm my bacteria. You could use both de-chlorinator and a liquid water-ager and work straight from the tap. When I had my breeding systems up at full-speed (and working full-time) I would do a 20 min routine once a day and take the weekends off, if you just put every tank on rotation, waterchange them on certain days or certain rotations. This way worked for me as opposed to getting overwhelmed on a Saturday that I had to change 400 lt of water at once. Goodluck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted July 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2013 Razzi - if I had a fish room being built, I too would look at doing some snazzy stuff, but as I don't... Sarah/Ness - I think I'll be doing a combination of what you both do. I'm eyeing off a couple of 25L containers with the inbuilt tap (purchased seperately, of course). I'll add a heater, conditioner, IAL, and AQ salt (I like that idea, Sarah), with a couple of cheap thermometers on/in them, and put the tanks on a rotation schedule. Now I've got the barracks sytem up and running (photos coming soon), I've only got three tanks to worry about. I can look at Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and then have the weekend off as Ness suggests (to probably go buy more tanks...). The QT, breeding, and grow out, are to be broken down when not in use, and easily maintained when they are in use. I've priced a jarring system based on the Bain-Marie model described by Ness in another post, and got that down to about $56 initial outlay and then only the cost of running the heater for an ongoin cost (and my time to do the water changes). Should give me room to house around 24 individuals on a temporary basis. If I end up with more than that, I'll firstly be amazed, and secondly, after I've reattached my jaw, I'll go spend another $56 bucks to duplicate. I'll be very selective as I go so it should never come to this (famous last words). That only leaves me with the sorority tank to sort out, and now the wife would like a big community tank in the lounge...something with lots of different fish...can everyone say minimum of five footer and fall over with me? Currently trying to talk her down to a 3 or 4 footer and not so many fish...and not so much work for me. Thanks for the input, guys and girls :bighug:/> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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