newbiefishgirl Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 This will be my first water change and I have a 10 gal. I want to change out about 2 gals. I have the bottled water all mixed with my salt and it will set for about 2 days. How do I do this smoothly without hurting anything or causing stress. ??? Link to comment
Dennis_said Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 You can siphon it.... slow and painless Or you can just cup it out and slowly pour in the water... just make sure that the temp and sg are alligned w/ that of the tanks, and you should be fine... I think Link to comment
seabass Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 I siphon the old water out then siphon the new water in (this disrupts the tank much less than pouring water in). btw - instead of just letting your new water sit, consider putting a power head in it for a day. Link to comment
SeaMountain Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Hey there newbie... I use a small length of air hose and siphon off detrius from around my LR, etc without too much disruption of the sand bed. Then I slowly pour the new water into the tank on top of one of the powerheads. This disperses the water at the upper levels rather than it flowing stright down and stirring up too much current. Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted June 23, 2003 Author Share Posted June 23, 2003 When you guys say siphon it how do you mean??? Stick a tube in the water and then what? Sorry if this sounds dumb... I am just clueless... I wish someone could demo this for me haha Powerhead... how much do they cost for a 10 gal tank>????? Link to comment
SeaMountain Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 I'm thinking you need to do a bit more reading here before investing your babysitting money into a nano. P.S. "When you guys say siphon it how do you mean Stick a tube in the water and then what?" Say.... Just how old are you? Link to comment
seabass Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Becky, most gravel vacuums have instructions, but basically you just fill the tubing with water, hold you thumb over one of the ends, put the other end in your tank, hold the end that you have your thumb on in a bucket lower than your tank, and release your thumb. Water will start flowing out your tank into the bucket (you can pinch the tube to control the flow). A Micro•Jet powerhead costs about $15. I also like to put a spare heater in the water while it's mixing to get the temperature of the new water the same as my tank's water temperature. However, make sure the heater isn't touching the plastic containter (it could melt). Also, unplug the heater a few minutes before you take it out of the water. Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted June 23, 2003 Author Share Posted June 23, 2003 I think that is pretty bad when someone comes to this site for help and then someone else makes fun of them for it. I do thank sea bass for his reply and now I DO understand better what sipon process is! Thank you Link to comment
PufferGuy Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Originally posted by newbiefishgirl I think that is pretty bad when someone comes to this site for help and then someone else makes fun of them for it. I do thank sea bass for his reply and now I DO understand better what sipon process is! Thank you I agree, that was really rude and uncalled for. Link to comment
Korbin Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 You could siphon it, or you could just scoop it out. I think an important thing to consider is the temperature of the water you are putting back in. It will cause less disruption if it is the same temp as the tank. Also, let your freshly mixed salt water sit for a day or two before adding it to the tank. You could siphon the way I do: 1. stick one end of the hose in the tank 2. suck on the other end 3. rinse out mouth with Listerine 4. Repeat step 3. Don't worry, there's no stupid questions. Especially in the beginner forum. Thats what its here for. Link to comment
Soto1220 Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 MAKE SURE that the heater doesnt touch anything, because once i took the heater out of the water and put it on top of my wallet and it completely melted it in a cupple of hours Link to comment
SeaMountain Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Yeah yeah yeah... I've seen worse. 3 people including myself give her assistance on how we do a simple WC. Exc-u-u-u-u-u-u-s-e me for not mentioning how to start the siphon itself! Just make sure you get the proper end in the water. Otherwise you'll be blowing bubbles! LOL Just be glad ESPI wasn't around to blast in on the how do you siphon post. And welcome aboard! Link to comment
Quash Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 OMFG, dude soto, that is hilarious:D the heater melted his wallet people, omg rofl. That has to be the funniest thing I have heard in a while MAKE SURE that the heater doesnt touch anything, because once i took the heater out of the water and put it on top of my wallet and it completely melted it in a cupple of hours Link to comment
SeaMountain Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Originally posted by Quash OMFG, dude soto, that is hilarious:D the heater melted his wallet people, omg rofl. That has to be the funniest thing I have heard in a while Yeah well how about this... I mixed up my saltwater and went to put it into the tank... It went ALL OVER MY FLOOR!!!! Guess I should have read the directions on tank - and put the open side UP!!!! Wish I had asked that here before I got my corals and 20 fish for my 10g!!! ROFLMAO!!!! Link to comment
Korbin Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Originally posted by Quash OMFG, dude soto, that is hilarious:D the heater melted his wallet people, omg rofl. That has to be the funniest thing I have heard in a while My reef tank destroyed my wallet too. But that's a different story... Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted June 23, 2003 Author Share Posted June 23, 2003 Thanks guys. I can see we have all had some bad experiences with things... Link to comment
Ike Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Becky, Please don't take this the wrong way, because I'm not trying to be a prick about this, but Sea has a point. I kind of got worried when you said that you were "just clueless". That's a REALLY bad way to go about this hobby. I know that it's tempting to quickly set-up a tank & fill it with all kinds of beautiful things, but you should really know what you're doing first because the things you put in there are alive and that lays a pretty heavy burden of responsibility on your shoulders. So before you go any further PLEASE tell us exactly everything you can about your 10g. If you think some little detail is too unimportant tell us anyway, it might not be unimportant at all. When you tell us we can provide you with lots more help. Now, that being said, I'll tell you about water changes. If anyone tells you that they are a simple, no muss/no fuss affair that will take you 30 seconds a week they are lying to you. It makes a mess every time, although not to bad once you get the hang of it, and requires AT LEAST a days time to prep the water before hand. Not a full day of work, you just need to let the water circulate for 24 hours prior. Now you said that you want to change 2 gallons? And that you have your bottled water & salt mixed & sitting right. OK, since you don't have a powerhead yet & you want to change it do a few things first. Get a big plastic kitchen spoon & give it a good vigerous stir once in a while that will help get some oxygen in there & help disolve all the salt. Second, run out to the store and buy a hydrometer, a thermometer, airline hose and another heater. You're going to need them everytime you do this. Also if you plan on changing 2 gallons make 3, you're going to spill some, etc. It's always better to have more & not need it than to need it & not have it. Also think about a powerhead with a venturi. It will mix the water & inject air into it all in one shot. Just throw it in there & let it do it's thing. OK where was I? Put your water in a food-grade container. Ask restraurants for one they'll usually give you onne for free. It's just a big plastic bucket that food comes in, ie. pickles. Now put your heater & powerhead in the water & bring the temp to 80 degrees F. Put in your salt, there really isn't a set number of cups, well, there probably IS but I don't know it right now, and let it mix a while. Check it with your hydrometer. Add salt or fresh water as needed to attain a reading of @34ppm. Let it circulate like this for a day. Now, take your airline tubing and an empty 1 gallon water bottle over to your tank. Put a towel on the floor under the bottle. Put one end of the tube in the tank. Suck on it gently. When you see the tank water flow into the tube stop sucking. Lower the end you just had in your mouth into the open bottle on the floor. That will start a siphon. Let the water drain from the tank until the bottle is full. You can even poke around the rocks for detritus, etc. Now, when the bottle is full put the tip of a finger over the end of the tube that was in the bottle. You can do one of 2 things now. One: raise the end of the tube you have capped with your finger above the top of the tank and let the water drain out or Two: pull the other end out of the tank carefully. Make sure both ends are pointing at the ceiling and at the same level. Put a finger over both of them. This will keep the tube full for the next siphon so you don't have to suck again. Take the bottle that you just filled to the sink & dump it. Bring it back to the tank. Put it on the floor again. Take the tube that is full of water and put one end back in the tank. Keep you finger over the other end. Lower it back down into the bottle. Fill the bottle exactly the same way as before and empty it the same way. Now, empty out the tube and rinse out the empty bottle with clen fresh water. Fill it with your new salt water the same way you siphoned from the tank. Take that over to your tank. Making sure prior to starting this that the temp & salinity are the same as what's in your tank to begin with. At this point you can again do one of two things. One: VERY SLOWLY pour in the new water. Two: Use the tubing/siphon method to siphon the new water into the tank. Hint: A siphon only works if the container the water is coming FROM is higher the the container the water is going TO. Check to make sure that you've replaced the same ammount of water in the tank that you originally siphoned off. Wipe up any spillage and you're done. Finally, read as much as you can from this board. Also check out www.reefcentral.com. Ask all the questions you want. But most important DON'T RUSH ANYTHING. Research everything you do before you do it. Finally, getting into this will be joyous, annoying, educational, frustrating, ridiculously expensive but rewarding in the end if you are patient and try to do it the right way from the start. Sorry about the spelling & disjointed thought. It's late & I'm typing this at work as I'm trying to get out of here. Seriously though, give us all the stats you have on your tank & maybe we can help more. Ike Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 First of all I know a little more than you might think I do. I had a tank a few yrs ago before I moved, but I did not do water changes myself... so that is why it is new to me. I have a 10 gal 170 Penguine no heater at the time because I live in an upstairs apt and it stays at 78-79 degrees. I will be getting a heater as it gets colder. 10 lbs of LR 3 blue leg hermets 1 sail 1 coral banded shrimp ammona 0 nitrites0 nitrates0 ph 8.4 Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 And Ike... sorry.. I wasn't tring to be snippy.. just wanted to say that I do know some things and have researched everything I have done so far. So far all is well in my tank, but I think that weekly the water is to be changed and its getting close to a week since I added inverts Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 IKE, DID YOU LOOK AT MY STATS ON THE TANK?? WHAT DO YOU THINK. I HAVE ANOTHER QUESTION FOR YOU, SINCE YOU SEEM VERY HELPFUL CAN STARS GO IN SMALL TANKS LIKE NANOS?? IF THEY CAN WHICH ONES ARE THE BEST CHOICE?? SHOULD IT BE ADDED BEFORE A FISH OR AFTER? THANKS Link to comment
Vincerama Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Hey, since most people don't run protein skimmers, (or run them without surface skimming attachements) you should be aware that a lot of crud is at the surface of the water... When you change your water out, if you use a siphon, you will not get that layer BUT you can use the siphone to vacuum dead crap off your rocks. If you want to get some of that waste from the surface, then consider scooping water out with a cup, and dip it slowly so that you can change out some of the surface water! Don't worry about not knowing what "siphon/syphon" meant, it just means you buy your gasoline like an honest person! Vince Link to comment
Ike Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Hey Becky, Unfortunately I know next to nothing about stars. What I have heard is mixed. I've heard that some, brittle stars, are good at eating detritus; but the hide most of the time and you hardly ever see them. Others are good at keeping your sand-bed stirred up; but they tend to eat all the pods & worms that you want in there. Dr.'s Foster & Smith has something in their catalog called a sand sifting star which looks interesting & I'vebeen thinking about. I can't find any good info on it though so I've held off. I'm not worried about it eationg all my pods, since my purple pseudochromis took care of that already!!!! Then there are purely decorative ines, like the blue & red Linkia Stars. Stunningly beautiful, but l've read that they are VERY difficult to keep alive due to their feeeding requirements. Of course this is all just second hand info that I'm giving you so don't hold me to any of it. Have you tried doing a search on this board and on www.reefcentral.com? The results are always a real mixed bag, but if you have the patients to sort through it all I've found that there are, generally, some very informative posts out there. Also I don't know how long a star will last with the coral-banded shrimp. I know that Harlequin (sp?) shrimp eat nothing but a certain type of star, Linkias I think. So, while I'm probably wrong, I'd have reservations about the Coral-Banded/star combo. OK, considering this is a topic I really don't know anything about I think I've pontificated long enough!!!! Ike Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 Well thats enough for me to know then. I think I will just stay away from them until one day when I upgrade into a bigger tank. Thank you for taking the time to write me. I believe my next purchase will be a false perc clown!! Link to comment
Crakeur Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 coral banded shouldn't go after the star fish although I would suggest avoiding most stars (except the teeny tiny micro stars and ministars). brittles might damage corals and some of them can get fairly big and might go after smaill fish. Link to comment
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