Reply With QuoteI have been doing the direct hose and dose prime method from the start .
I am lazy
I have been keeping fish for over 2 years now. Every week when I do WC I will fill a pail with tap water and dose with seachem prime before using a jug to manually transfer water into my tanks (3ft and 4ft). This often requires 5 to 6 trips of filling the bucket and transferring them.
Can't say I find it a chore because the end result is so beautiful. But I hate to admit that the manual labour is so time consuming.
The question is:
Can I use a hose to fill my tank directly followed by dosing seachem prime directly into the tank?
it helps to safe time from manually lugging the pail back and forth.
My my concern is whether using tap water first will kill the BB and harm fishes. Or should I just stick to using prime first before adding water into the tank?
btw I keep angels and discus.
Share your regime!
I have been doing the direct hose and dose prime method from the start .
I am lazy
Actually the trick is to ensure the correct (minimum) amount of Prime to use for the neutralizing. Overdose will cause complications to the tank ecology.
In this regard it is a good idea to instal permanent piping with a tap next to the tank/s. The chore of laying out and rolling back the plastic hose is also quite a chore.
LIFE IS UNBEARABLE WITHOUT A FISH TANK!!!
my tank is 200l. each time i WC about 50% but i still dose prime for the whole 200l. this means i am dosing 100% more thn the required. so far all has been okay.
im wondering if i top up with tap water directly followed by prime about 5mins later. would the BB be killed? what is the time frame?
The purpose of Prime is to neutralize the poisons in tap water. If you pour tap water into your tank without prior neutralizing it with Prime treatment, a lot of bacteria will be killed on contact with the poisons. Bacteria are delicate creatures too. It takes months for their colonies to be established, so take good care of them.Originally Posted by jyn1989
those who swim in fresh water swimming pools would know how chlorine feels and taste like...red eyes and dried skins when water were sometime with higher level of Chlorine...
Depend on the % of WC, do we want our fish / tank Eco systems to go thru that few seconds/minutes of tap water add ....
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I try to do 1/4 water change every week and straight from the tap. Never use any products to remove chlorine etc. Perhaps the water in my area is safe or the products make you feel psychologically safer. I also drink straight from Singapore's tap, no boiling needed.
Yes i agree with you. Best is to use a pail water, doze prime before pour into the fish tank. It is troublesome, but that is the correct way.
Very good. You save the life of all the bacteria.
Since aquarium bacteria takes many weeks to cultivate, they should be treated with greatest care.
Many people don't care much for the welfare of the bacteria, because they only concentrate on their fishes or shrimps & plants.
In reality, the bacteria's welfare is more important, since they are the things which ensures the overall health of the aquarium.
wa cannot la! what fishes u keep?
yup, thats what ive been doing. but i cannot imagine those keeping 4ft and above tanks. WC with pail can take 2-3 hours!!!
how do those with large tanks do their WC? mine 3ft already take a few trips to fill liao
I fill up my 422 direct from tap, I conduct 50% WC weekly or bi weekly, I will break my back if I use the pail method.
Few things that I always follow.
1 ) Aways dose prime before I turn on the tap
2 ) Turn down my main filter to 30% to 50% speed
3 ) Ensure that there is circulation in the tank (I use a power head)
4 ) Fill up the tank slowly.
5 ) Don't feed my fish before water change.
So far so good after many years.
Why need 50% WC? That is a lot manz.. By the way, your method is good too.
Its okay to siphon out and refill the tank with tap water, then dose Prime for the entire volume of the tank, that is a recommended method by Seachem too, especially for large tanks (though it does use up more Prime over the long run).
Even though some of the weaker beneficial bacteria in the tank itself (ie. those that live in the soil, on plants and hardscape etc) may be killed by chlorine/chloramine in the untreated tap water during the few minutes its being refilled, the chlorine/chloramine will be neutralized in a few seconds once Prime is subsequently dosed. The vast majority of the strongest beneficial bacteria populations will be living in your filter bio-media, so they are not touched by the raw tap water anyways. Whatever small amount of beneficial bacteria that were killed in the tank during the refill process will quickly recover easily as those from the filter will repopulate the tank.
I treat my bacteria better than my fishes, lol.
Bacteria do not propagate that easily, especially when they are 'injured' or impaired by chemicals.
Then perhaps they will take longer to replenish than the initial cycling phase.
Anyway, since many fish are hardy, they can tolerate having less nitrifying bacteria.
you can always have a bucket with a pump into your tank.
fill up bucket from hose , dose with prime. mix. then turn on pump.
bucket empty, turn off pump.
fill up bucket from hose, dose with prime. mix. then turn on pump.
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its quite close to what I do, since I run my water from the pump via a dish strainer so it doesn't disturb ada soil + simulated rain.
Well, another alternative(more costly but saves ALOT of time) would be to get a filtration system that removes chlorine. For planted tanks and shrimps, you might need to add nutrient and minerals since the water will be quite "bare". I've been using one for changing water in a 5 x 2.5 x 2.5 and I cannot imagine lugging pails of water for it.
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Swimming pool water is not the same as tap water. In swimming pool, the water from the PUB mains is treated with much stronger chemicals, mainly chlorine. A stronger concentration is used to kill the germs introduced by swimmers through bad personal habits, etc, etc.
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