Water Changes Query

Hi All,

I have a query with regard to my water changes. I have a Juwel Rio 180 running an Eheim Ecco Pro External.

Typically every week I remove all decor (mostly bogwood with plants attached), clean glass with algae cleaner, aggitate the sand and then run a gravel vac along the sand substrate.

I remove 30litres each week. Is this overkill? Could I get away with 18-20litres?

My second query relates to the Eheim external itself. Every fortnight I open the cannister and clean the inner parts of the external in current tank water I've removed from the tank. It literally turns the water completely brown. How often should I be cleaning the external?

Cheers

How are your fish doing from my experience this is how i judge exactly what changes i need to do if they are happy then do as you are doing, except if it were me i would leave the external filter a little longer.
jim

20ltrs. is perfect and i would only touch the external once a month and that would be only to change the filter floss or rinse out the first sponge on top that catches all the heavy crap in tank water that was taking out the other media i would only give it a quick dip in tank water every few mts. and never at the same time start from the bottom up cause from the middle to the top is usually fine and full of good stuff, i had a 125 planted tank and never touched the external for 6 mts. and my water was perfect and i only done a 10% water change every mt... but it worked and it was the cleanest tank i had

turn off your filter when you toss the sand, ye don't want any sand getting into your filter, and by washing your filter media that often is just washing the good bacteria out of it!! that gunk that turns the water completely brown is a home to bacteria that also cleans your water so its no harm on your sponges. ceverytime you wash a sponge the bacteria has to re-colonize on that sponge which is why its not recommended to wash all at once! my filter only needs to be maintained every couple of months and even at that its only the top filters that need to be cleaned that often. you can often tell by a fall in output pressure from your spraybar whether its time to check your filtration.

20 or 30 litres is fine. Ideally, the 30 litres would be best, but if having to change 30 litres becomes too much of chore compared to 20 litres then there is always the possibility that (because we are humans) it may become too much of a chore and get 'put-off' too often.
Hence, if you find 20 litres much more convenient (eg because the bucket you have is 20 litres etc)and not so much a chore then go with that as a routine.

Cleaning an external filter each week could also become a chore that get's to be a pain in the backside in time. But, a well set-up external (ie with a good choice of media) would not really need cleaning every week.

When cleaning an external filter, cleaning the plastic, intake holes, and motor parts would be often more of a priority than cleaning the media in some cases.

Also, with established filters there is a balance when cleaning.
Filters that have not been cleaned for a long-time need a more gentle washing of the filter media than ones that get regular cleaning (when I say cleaning, I mean in the tank water and not in tap water).

The reason for that is that over time the bacterial colonies (which are a reddy-brown colour) will build up to be so thick that only the very top layer is alive. The thickening of the colony will increase as the filter clogs and water movement is not so rapid.
That top layer on a very thick colony can easily slough off with the result of not only losing many of the bacteria you want but also releasing a big layer of gunky dead bacteria.

If you clean regularly, then the chances are that the colonies will not become so thick and will tolerate rougher physical handling.

ian

So wash media often but not too often, clear as mud. Is once a month a good guide or does it depend on the bio load?

Another question, is it ok to treat the tank with water conditioner and then top up the tank or is it better to treat the water that will go in the tank first?


Thx
Dec

Q_Comets wrote:

Another question, is it ok to treat the tank with water conditioner and then top up the tank or is it better to treat the water that will go in the tank first?
Thx
Dec

Just go by the instructions on the conditioner bottle. If you can treat the new water first, then only add conditioner for that amount of water. If you can't treat the new water first, then add conditioner in the tank for the whole amount of water the tank holds, not only for the new water.

If your using prime conditioner i was told its not the end of the world if you put too much in so on this logic i always put it in my bucket first based on my bucket size, however i dont know how long it takes to work and i always tip my bucket in straight away so i add a bit more than the reccomended dose. No problems so far in 2 years.

I have a question too.
Is it Ok to use water from the hot tap to take the edge off the cold tap. Particularly this time of year when the water is very cold.
Always thought hot tap and kettle were not good ?

Thanks for all the replies and info

Hi

I was using the kettle to take the edge off for the cold tank as I read that the hot tap was a bad idea due to copper from the tank. I hope the kettle is not as bad

Rgds
Dec