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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Water Changes - New water pre- treatment...

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05 Aug 2010 02:03 #1 by dantheman (dantheman)
Hi,

I’m looking for some opinions on water treatment before water changes:

Normally I do 20% water changes about every 5 days. I fill a bucket with cold water from the tap and leave it aside for 24 hours. There are 2 reasons for this 1) to let the temperature of the water reach room temperature - to reduce shock for the fish, and 2) To allow the chlorine to evaporate - the water certainly tastes better after it's left out.

For years I have used this method and I had even stopped using a "stress coat + dechlorinator" and my fish thrived, however I have reconsidered this based on what I've read online and am now using a "stress coat + dechlorinator" but I'm now wondering:

1) I have a spare heater, should I heat the water to 25 C in the bucket before adding it to the tank?

2) Should I use an air-pump in the bucket if I'm heating the water (I don't use one in my tank but have one spare)

3) When using a "stress coat + dechlorinator" should I mix it when I fill the bucket from the tap or just before I addd the new water to the tank?

4) Do "stress coat + dechlorinator" products add other unwanted chemicals or create any unwanted bi-products?

5) Does anyone else do similar? I suppose my thinking is that the new water should be the same temp as the aquarium water, full of o2 and free of chemicals.

Thanks,

Dan.

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05 Aug 2010 02:52 #2 by Ma (mm mm)
Hi Dan

You should use the the treatment to use chlorine, using the dosage recommended, 5 ml for x amount of litres.

You dont need to use stress coat, I use it myself for all water changes both others like aqua safe work fine too. If it is handy, overnight does help in case there is a high C02 content too, the airstone will help in that respect and level out and C02 PH related issues. Same temp, good man.

Stress coat has some nice extra effects, I'd have a read of what some of the more popular dechlorinators do and pick the one that suits you best.



Mark

Location D.11

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05 Aug 2010 07:33 #3 by dar (darren curry)
1. yes
2. a very good idea but a lot of fish tanks sit for a week at this temp wit no air pump
3. put it in the bucket first it will get a good mix, although 24h is plenty of time
4. i doubt it, but it does more than dechlorinate, it gets rid of chloramines and nuetralises metals and helps out the fishes natural slime coat
5. i do none of the above, i boil the kettle dump it in the bucket run the cold tap add dechlorinater and pour away

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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05 Aug 2010 07:50 #4 by dyco619 (steve carmody)
5. i do none of the above, i boil the kettle dump it in the bucket run the cold tap add dechlorinater and pour away[/quote]

thats exactly the way i do it.. simple and quick! and never any problems.

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05 Aug 2010 08:26 #5 by doreilly (Donal O Reilly)
I use the same process as you dantheman. Put out water, treat it and leave overnight. Then before adding add a little boiling water to incease temp.

I use EasyLife Fluid Filter Medium.

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05 Aug 2010 09:52 #6 by tippstar (colm norris)
i do a 10% water change every week. i used to heat the water but now i my routine is that i fill up a drum. leave it in the room for a week and add a small bit of stress coat before adding it to the tank. i then fill it up again straight away so that its ready for the following week. i'm finding this the easiest way of doing it.

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05 Aug 2010 10:38 #7 by dar (darren curry)
tippstar wrote:

i do a 10% water change every week.


you should really double this

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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05 Aug 2010 13:11 #8 by Ma (mm mm)
Boiling the kettle, oh dear. Improvin one environment and damaging another with the one stroke:)

If water is added slowly enough the mix with a greater amount of warm water will heat it up with your heater for much less than the cost of boiling the kettle.

I use the hot tap, always excess warm water to be had with no extra heating cost. The apartment doesn't have copper plumbing so I am good to go with a bit of salt and stress:)


Mark

Location D.11

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05 Aug 2010 13:25 - 05 Aug 2010 13:38 #9 by dar (darren curry)
using cold water is fine ive often used it for a top up and it wont drop a degree, but if your changing 100 litres or 20% the temp can drop below 20c, i often used the hot tap myself but i noticed a higher mineral content, fill a bucket of cold and a bucket of hot and i can really see the difference even at a 5:1 ratio

sorry mark just re read your slowly point, how slowly are we talking wit adding percentage, say 5% every 20mins?

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic
Last edit: 05 Aug 2010 13:38 by dar (darren curry).

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06 Aug 2010 07:40 #10 by dantheman (dantheman)
Thanks for all the replys. I never thought to use kettle water to bring the water temp up nearer to the 25 C.

I think I'll try treating it from the tap, leaving it over night and heating it with a top up of boiled water. I'll pour the water into the tank so as to make plenty of bubles.

Thanks again,

Dan.

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