The Angel Fish Guide to Water Changes.

[Angel Fish]

This post is designed to help everyone that finds the idea of water changes a bit daunting. It’s not “gospelâ€

[David]

Like it!

[Superman]

For those of us who don't like to suck...
To start the flow of water, fully submerge the tube in the water to fill it up. Then up your finger over one end to hold the water in, point it to your bucket and remove your finger.

[David]

Never heard that Superman. Will have to try tomorrow.

[Suenami]

Thats really helpful Thanks Angel Fish

[moocowmoneybox]

For those of us who don't like to suck...
To start the flow of water, fully submerge the tube in the water to fill it up. Then up your finger over one end to hold the water in, point it to your bucket and remove your finger.

dont fancy submerging my 10 metre length into the fishtank

think i will stick to the tried and tested method of sucking!


btw some of the gravel syphons have a flap that stops backflow of the water into the tank, you submerge the wider part of the syphon and then 'shake' it up and down until you have enough in the pipe to turn it downwards and the syphon starts itself

[David]

That is what i use Adrian.(The shaky thing i mean)

[DemoUK]

REALLY GOOD Angel Fish, wish I read this when I first got into fish,but we learn from our mistakes.You wrote exactly what I do so im sure you will help alot of beginners!

Nice one!

[Angel Fish]

[free]

i syphon the water out of the bucket,(very good at syphoning and not getting a mouthful of water, stems from my youth when i syphoned petrol from my folks cars. ) less messy than a jug.

[Wolsey]

A tip i was told by someone on here is when the water is flowing, kink the tube so the flow rate decreases which gives you more time to stir up the gravel and clean a lot more mess out.

Thanks to whoever it was by the way.

[ou7shined]

Great guide. I do almost exactly the same thing myself except that I syphon the new water in as well. I think that this minimises stress too, also some of the bolder fish seem to get a kick out of jumping into the flow of water and jogging "upstream" on their own personal treadmill for a minute or two.

Also I have 2 buckets one marked IN and the other one marked (you guessed it) OUT. This way I don't unintentionally mix water from tank to another - handy if you've been treating etc.

[Mrs Tetra]

Thank you very much, thats exactly the kind of help and advice im looking for.
The'idiots guide to cleaning filter sponges', is it on this site somewhere? I want to try to know how to do everything before I fill tank for first time...

[Angel Fish]

I haven't had time to do the filter one yet (my bad ), but please post any questions you have and we'll do our best to help you

[Mrs Tetra]

thank you . when at my (now notorious!) lfs when buying the tank etc, he tlod me to squeeze the filter after a couple of days after filling tank up and getting it all up and running. he went into such detail i lost track of what it was all about. and after reading on here all the proper advice he SHOULD have given me, i am now more confident of listening to all your advice to me. sorry to sound so ignorant about the whole thing, but i really do need to start from basics. pretty please?