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Water Changes


brettc777

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Hey guys just wanted to know a few things about water changes.

Can you sit water in a tub in the shade for weeks and still use the water?

When you add new water does it have to be 27 degrees?

How long should you leave the water once the water conditioner has been added?

any other tips would be helpful :D

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it is preferable to have the water the same temperature, this reduces the sudden shock of adding something that's say 20 degrees to water that is 27 degrees. So whatever the temperature of the water your fishies currently live in is the temperature any new water added SHOULD be (unless you're lazy like me and don't really worry about it too much) Sudden temperature changes can play havoc with a Bettas immune system.

how long to leave water once it's been conditionned? as long as possible! the longer the better! but as a general rule I say no less than 3 days, preferably a week for the water to stabilize etc before you use it for water changes etc.

I don't know exactly about leaving it in the shade for weeks.... is it covered? If it is covered I would say no problemo if not i'd personally be worried about pollutants like dust, birds, people walking past with cigarettes etc, etc.

It is great if you have some big storage containers or tanks to keep water - that way you can age it weeks before using it. Another thing people do is have a large planted tank with no fish (or only a couple...I can't remember the details) in it and use that to WC with, just keep topping it up from time to time as it gets lower. That way you can have a pretty planted tank... or a multi purpose... ooh I can grow this plant to toss into my spawn tanks when all these other plants die + water for water changes lol :D

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I think it varies with the quality of tap water you have in your area. Not sure where Tweed Heads is but hopefully some of the Sydney folk might provide some insight.

With Melbourne tap water, I get it straight out of the cold water tap, triple dose with Prime, pour a kettle of hot water in to warm it, check the temperature, add more hot water if necessary, then I use it straight away. I have aged water for a few days in a bucket with a heater but I haven't found this to make all that much difference to the way my fish react to it or their health in general. But that said, I'm hardly scientific about it and my fish do die or become sick occasionally. I just haven't been able to point the finger at the way I change water yet.

Let me stress however that what I do in Chadstone, Melbourne is not necessarily going to work on the other side of town or in another state for that matter. You do need to figure out how best to deal with the water in your area. Talking to your local fish shop would be a good starting point.

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Thanks Guys,

I have added the little guy in anyway and he seems to love it... started eating straight away wasnt stressed at all.

I think he is loving being in a 2ft tank by himself... he just swims back and forth lol

Im going to add the girl soon... im putting her in a 1.5 ft tank. I havent had time to organize anything decent for them... so there is not plants yet.

The girl is good... she is a rosetail with big finnage... ill have a photo soon to show them to you. I went up the Brisbane and bought a BF HM Turq male and a royal blue RT female of someone on the weekend.

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Hey all,

I live in N.S.W. in the Blue Mountains just outside Sysney and I have found if I boil my tap water, age for at least a week (Shaking occasionally) and then add conditioner and anything else that's needed my fish do really well. With all the rain we've had recently I upped my aging time to two weeks for a little while but I've gone back to one week now and it's fine.

I don't know how people in other areas of Sydney do it but thats what works for me here. :P

HTH

Kat.

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All this begs the question of why waste water conditioner when you're only going to leave it sit around anyway? After all if you leave tap water for a few days most of the chemicals conditioner treats go anyway don't they?

If I ever get the chance I hope to show my efforts at creating good healthy stock off at shows. I don't want my guys to be weak and flaky so while I'm careful I'm not going to stick them water that's been aging for a month, filtered in three different ways, double conditioned and so on.

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I don't believe ageing water in a bucket without using a conditioner will remove ammonia or chloramine. Chlorine will probably dissipate. If you were ageing the water in a well-planted tank maybe you'd be able to get away with it. But again, it depends on the quality of the tap water in your area. Nobody is saying there are any hard and fast rules here. I'm going to stress the point I was trying to make before. The individual hobbyist needs to figure out what's going to work with their water. I personally don't want my guys to be weak and flaky just because I was trying to save on a few extra drops of water conditioner.

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