Water change

[Typical Tony]

how often do you guys change out the water in your carnivore tank?

My 80g get feeders about 2-3x a week and the days they dont, they get carnivore pellets, food sticks, massivore delite, cichlid bio-gold+, and NLS lg fish form. pellets...

I have an ~11" pol. weeksii, 9" pol. endli, a 7" pol. endli, a 7" pol. ornate, 8" florida gar, 7" florida gar, 6" toadfish, a 5" EBJD, and recently added 2 4" ABNs and a trio of green terrors ranging from 4"-5".

I have a Rena Xp4 and a Fluval 305 running with plenty of bio medias to help control phosphate/nitrate/ammonia... and i do 25% wc about once a week. Is that good enough? Sometime i get a fishy smell coming from the tank even after the wc...

I will be adding a JBJ submariner 9w uv sterilizer into the tank as soon as the replacement bulb come in...

[Austin]

I run a drip system. The 300 does 45 gal a day, the 210 does 30 a day. The growouts all do 20% a day. Best investment ever.

[Typical Tony]

Info on the drip system? That's a lot of water. Haha

[Austin]

Check my threads I made one when I finished it. Basically it's a chemical dosing pump tapped into a water line that doses dilluted prime and a line runs to every tank with float switches in the sump attached to pumps to dump waste water. The growouts are drilled and ran to one pump station which is tapped in to the j- trap under the sink. Roughly $600 but worth every last nickel...

[flamenco-t]

For an 80 gallon, you wouldn't need a drip system. The amount of water that you're replacing is more important than the interval.

Based on your stock, I'd do 50-70% once a week if I were you.

If you want to really know for sure, test your pH daily after a 50% - 70% water changes, your PH will drop slowly every day afterward. See how many days it will take for your PH to drop a whole point, that should be the number of days in between water changes.

Drip system will ensure that your PH stays the same AT ALL TIME. But dropping a whole point over a couple of days will be fine.

Links to my drip system

http://www.dfwfishbox.com/forums/production/showthread.php?t=3957

Why did I mention PH ? here's my thread on the relation of PH with beneficial bacterias and nitrate.

http://www.dfwfishbox.com/forums/production/showthread.php?t=4538

Stan

flamenco-t added 1 Minutes and 32 Seconds later...

Info on the drip system? That's a lot of water. Haha

My 240 is getting 80 gallons per day to keep PH at 7.0 at all times. I have a lot more fish than austin's therefore my bioloads is a lot heavier.

[chirohorn]

Nice drip ideas. Informative threads Stan.

[Typical Tony]

that was a good read, thanks stan

[spxsk]

I do 40-60% every week on my 270. I do not use a drip system, though some day I would like to set one up. I do use a Carbon Bottle for water purification when refilling.

[Incaico]

I've seen Gregs' carbon bottle purification system. I would go that route if you don't do a drip system. Just need to get a j.o.b. so I can afford it.

[flamenco-t]

Carbon is good if your water only contains chlorine. Chlorine can be removed with carbon, Chloramine however can not be removed with carbon. Chloramine is a bond between chlorine and ammonia. You remove the bond (by removing chlorine) and you'll end up with ammonia which is toxic for fish.

This is where dechlorinator comes in, it will detoxify chloramine by removing the chlorine and bonds the ammonia harmless until your bio bacteria slowly consume it

Stan

flamenco-t added 6 Minutes and 9 Seconds later...

Another note, Carbon gets exhausted so fast, once it is exhausted, all the contaminants that it's been holding will be leached back into the water.

Just my 2 bucks LOL

Stan

[Incaico]

Didn't know that. Good to know.

[spxsk]

For reference. I have used the same carbon bottle for weekly 100 Gallon plus water changes for 18 months, and during the summer I dose with Prime in addition to the carbon bottle due to extras they put in the water after rain storms and to combat the higher temps and increased sun exposure in the reservoirs during the summer.

My carbon bottle is 48" tall and 6" in diameter filled with carbon. It takes a good long while to exhaust this method, and it is what many of the professional aquarium maintenance folks use to do the water changes on client tanks.

This being said, what Stan says is true. Once the carbon is exhausted it will begin to leach what you removed back into the water passing through it. So regular maintenance of this tool is important.

[kcblkeeley]

I swear I have never changed my (180 gallon tank) water in 10 years. I have to add about 2 to 3 gallons a week from evaporation but that is it. I have always believed that the filter is the most important part of your tank. Your fish will live or die by it.

[greeneyed]

How do you get rid of nitrates?

[kcblkeeley]

I use a filter bag with charcoal and a nitrate remover that I get from a commercial supplier. I work at a seafood distribution plant that has 15,000 gallons of lobster tanks. (2 5k and 5 1k tanks) I change the bag every 2 months when I clean my cannister filter. I always wash the filter but never scrub it completely or change the scrub pads in it. The only thing that is fresh is the "pillow stuffing" and the carbon/nitrate bag. No, it's not really pillow stuffing, but it looks like it. I have been using this same setup for over 40 years,my first being an external pump filter on a 29 gal tank when I was a teenager. A lot of trial and error and quite a few dead fish too. Just now I have also used it in my job as well. Saves a lot of money on saltwater changes being cut down to twice a year from monthly. It still needs to be tweaked now and then so please don't go out and change what you may be doing. If it works, why change. I just know everytime I would transfer fish there was a chance of losing some.