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HI, I had an idea today and wonder what you think?

After shocking my fish badly last week by adding water that was too cold when doing a water change, today I filled some fish carrying bags with water at roughly the right temp, elastic banded them and floated them in the tank to acclimatise for an hour before I emptied the water in.
The reason I wanted to try another method is that my spare heater that I had been using to preheat the fresh water, is so long that I had to fill a 15 L tub so that it remained immersed. I only needed to add about 5 L to the tank so it if you think the bag idea is an ok one it will save me using so much water. Whaddya think?

how does this have to do with a lightbulb, o nvm i get it:%)

i would guess, just adding tap that is at the right temp, (around) (thats what i do) would be good enough, but the bag sounds good.


p.s i thought u were moving a lightbulb or something<

Maybe the lightbulb was intended to be close to the waters surface to heat it up????

I just fill a container with the water I need for a change- add chemicals to de-clorinate and let it sit overnight till temp is close- or adjust tap to approx temp.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/site/aquarank.aspx

I use a digital thermometer to match the temps. The bag idea sounds like it'll work, just not as convenient

I have a 1 gallon plastic drink pitcher to which I attached one of those color-coded strip thermometers. I put a drop or two of dechlorinator in and add tap water, adjusting a mix of hot and cold to get to with a degree or two of my tank's standard temp.

I've learned to hit 81 degrees for my clown loach tank by having the cold full-on and the hot ~1/4 on. I get the 78 degree water in my daughter's betta tank if the hot is backed off a little, etc... You know what I mean; once you get feedback on how hot or cold certain mixes are, you get can develop a pretty good feel of how to mix the faucet setting and pretty much nail it.

Even if it's off by a couple of degrees, how much water are you adding at one time? If I add 1 gallon to a 29 gallon tank, pouring slowly, even a 5 degree delta is only going to alter the tank by <0.2 degree anyway. My weekly change is 5 gallons of 29, but I add back one gallon at a time over a 15-20 minute period. So any +/- on each gallon is highly diluted. Each 1 gallon has its own shot at temperature matching. I try to error on the warm side so it can cool to the right temp if need be--or add an ice cube to the pitcher or two if I really missed it :-)

Gary

PS. I have the good fortune of having very low chlorine from the tap, so I've not had to be too concerned with long waits for it to dissipate...

Thanks for sharing how you do your water changes. Apologies for the "lightbulb moment" phrase. Its in common use amongst people I know, for a new idea.

yea, you see the lightbulbs in cartoons over the characters heads and stuff when someone gets a great idea, usually accompanied by a "ding" and an "ah-ha! i've got it!" and a raised arm with the index finger pointed in the air

As for the bags of water, it's not a bad idea. I also agree with letting the water sit out a night beforehand. You also don't have to add dechlorinator if it sits, as the chlorine will just disspiate Just don't put cold cold water in the bags and let them float, as you'll just cause a temperature fluctuation and you aren't much more ahead than if you just dumped in the water.

pardon my ingorance if I'm wrong, but i always thought using hot water from the tap was a bad idea because of copper pipes always found in hot water systems?

It would cause a temperature variation, but at a much slower rate due to the surface area to volume ration (like ice cubes melting faster than a block of ice)

I add boiled water from the kettle to my water change water.

Cynical I'm with you on it...even after posting a thread to get others ideas (everyone seems to think it's fine ) I still refuse to use water hot from the tap. The stuff tastes bad I'd never keep my fish in it !.

I use the microwave @home, in the winter. Summers I just leave the water on the counter. At work I use an electric kettle.
Bag idea is okay, the problem is that you'd be causing small temp drop right near where the bags are. Depending on what fish you're keeping they may not like the change.

As for leaving the water sitting out overnight....just check that your local water company doesn't add chloramine as that takes more than 24 hours to dissapate .

^_^[font color="#999999][hr width='40%']"Let's compare scars I'll tell you whose is worse
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OK thanks for the input. I shall definately stop using water from the hot tap as we do have a copper problem anyway. I'll let a bin stand overnight and then check the temp whith my shiny new digital thermometer!! I dont have to worry about chlorine etc as we have well water. Wont be long now though before we can use use new water source - the bore hole - if only we could get the chemical results back from the testers, we should have had the results two weeks ago but apparently the machine broke down.

Funny isn't it - I am much more concerned about the water parameters re: my fish - than I am re: us ROFLOL. My family think I have completely lost the plot.

Why would hot water from the tap pick up trace copper from the pipes appreciably more than cold water from its pipes? The relatively few feet of pipes in the house is nothing compared to the long journey the water made from the pumping station... The hot water tank isn't lined with copper, is it?

There's plenty of opportunity for water to have contacted copper (or lead, or who knows what else if you live an older urban area) before it ever hits your hot water tank. Water test kits are cheap enough; test it. Copper levels here in Memphis are actually relatively high (about the only trace element that is) but I can't tell a difference between hot or cold.

Gary

the concern is more for the other metals and the calcium/mineral deposits the heating rods in the hot water heater pick up.

Kettle and cold water person here. With digital thermometer to temperature match the water.

But the bag idea is sound. My LFS uses the same method.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002