water change?

C

cole_schoolman

New member
What is the best way to do a water change? I have a 28 gallon bio cube and need to do a water change. Would it be better to take out the 5 gallons and then put 5 more in, or would it be better to take out a little bit and then add and repeat til done?
 
straight up 5 gallons is better. you take more bad stuff out if you do the full 5 gal instead of little bits at a time (where you just take out some of the clean water as well).
 
Definitely take out the 5, then add the new 5 back in. If you do it the other way, you risk taking out clean water with the dirty...
 
Make sure new water parameters like temp., ph, alk is as close as possible to your aquarium water. 5 gal. wc in your 28 gal. cube is about 18%. If parameters are off, you can easily stress your livestock.
 
1. blow the rocks and crevices using a turkey baster
2. use a siphon and suck off 5 gallons from the tank and all the dirt and debris you can
3. use a small pump or a tupper ware container slowly add back to the same level.

points to be considered

1. make sure the temp of water is not too off.
2. if you have sps make sure you are matching the alk and ph of the tank water and anew water (lps can care less about this IMO)
3. As your is a small AIO .. make sure you re not emptying the heater chamber and make sure your ato is turned off while doing this.


Good luck have fun :)
 
The water to put in would is at about 71, and the tank is at about 78. Is this to big of a difference and if so how would I be able to heat that up best?
 
cole_schoolman said:
The water to put in would is at about 71, and the tank is at about 78. Is this to big of a difference and if so how would I be able to heat that up best?
Click to expand...

yes

and an additional heater ( i normally leave a maxiject 1200 mixing the water and it normally ends up being at about 77 or so and my tank is at 79 )
 
Thank you, I acutally didn't have a spare heater, but some hot water in the bathtub worked quite nicely. But I will be purchasing an extra heater for water changes in the future. I have a pulsing xenia at the top of the tank, about 3 inches below the water lion. How long can that be out of the water during the water change without hurting it?
 
cole_schoolman said:
Thank you, I acutally didn't have a spare heater, but some hot water in the bathtub worked quite nicely. But I will be purchasing an extra heater for water changes in the future. I have a pulsing xenia at the top of the tank, about 3 inches below the water lion. How long can that be out of the water during the water change without hurting it?
Click to expand...

Just to confirm you did not add hot water to the bucket from the bathtub right? The coral being exposed will be fine while you do the wc. Also, dedicate a bucket used only for wc's. Make sure nobody in the house uses it for anything else (ie cleaning the floor). There are a lot of things that can contaminate the bucket and kill everything in your tank. Just washing the bucket out will not cut it.
 
No no haha, I put the bucket in the bathtub and ran hot water around the bucket. All of my buckets are already dedicated for pure water, saltwater, and so forth. Don't need to be confusing any buckets. Ok thank you, the xenia is huge about the size of a 16 in softball, don't want to lose it.
 
Xenia is very hardy, give it time and you'll be ripping it out by the handful and flushing it. It will be just fine exposed to the air for the 5-10 minutes it should take to remove the water and replace it.
 
How often do you do water changes? When I do a water change, I'm siphoning water out of the tank as I pump the new water into the sump. I do 25g w/c's on my 210 and my 60g the same way, The process takes about 5 minutes so I don't think I'm siphoning very much of the new water out. The siphon hose I use is about an inch ID so my waste container if full and there's approx. 15g left of the new water getting pumped into the sump. Also I use a small power head to blow the rock work prior to the water change. May not have to do that anymore in my 210 with this new Gyre pump running now.
Even in the 60g with a pair of clowns and my xxl clam, I don't check the water temp or params, and I'm pumping 25g out and adding 25g back without any stress to my livestock. So I don't think you need to be that careful. I used to do weekly changes but now every 2-3 weeks and don't see any difference or I'd be doing them more frequently. This is just how I do them but like many other things in this hobby, you have to find what works for you, no set rules.
 
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