How long does it take for you to do a water change?

[Complexity]

I got up this morning with plans to pick up some fish. But before going, I wanted to do a water change for my tanks.

I start out with my little 5g RCS tank. I need to clean the filter. And the sponge. And pull up some plants that aren't doing well. And clean out the dying leaves in the java fern. Well, while I'm at it, I need to tie down the java moss and trim it. And there's the process of cleaning out as many limpets as I can (how I got them, I'll never know, but they're always in this tank).

Okay, moving on to my planted Q/T tank since I'll be adding fish to it for quarantine. But, wait, if I moved this plant to my 5g, it would be nice. And maybe some of those plants, too. Oh, and a grouping of those other plants would finish it off. While I'm at it, I need to clean out the Marsilea minuta that's floating at the top. Well, gee, I can plant some of them in my 5g. Wow, is this Q/T tank dirty; I need to take out the java ferns and rinse them off. Might as well refresh that other plant in the corner. And plant the wisteria that's just floating around. Oh, wow, but just look at all that plant debris! Gotta clean that out. And the filter intake needs cleaning; it'll only take a minute.

4 hours later...

Plans rescheduled. I only have 3 more tanks to do water changes. I should be done by... 7 or 8 tonight!

Please tell me I'm not the only one! I seem to never be able to simply do a water change!

[fshfrk]

I did a 80% w/c on the 210 last night in 50 minutes. Then did the 150 in another 40 minutes. Giant wet dries that never need cleaning,sponge filters that i can change in a few seconds, canisters set up to clean every 6 months, hobs that I change the pads in a few seconds for a few cents. Your planted tanks are a whole differrent game.

[madehtsobi]

holy cow!!! thats a long time...

30 min max on my 180....like 25% WC

and maybe 5-10 min on my 55...10% WC

i think you have too many plants and what not and have to mess with all of it...

i just have rocks and fake plants and driftwood...

[ddaquaria]

7 tanks - 4-120s, 2-90s, and 1-215 = about 2 - 2.5 hours with 40% water changes

[fishboyt]

55g x2, 10g and 20g. Cleaning all the filters, and doing a 25-30% WC takes me 30-45min.

[Complexity]

Okay, I guess I am the only one!

I seem to always find things to clean, change, rearrange, or whatever no matter what I do. Although the plants do take up a lot of the time, I find myself fiddling a lot even with my 90g tank (with few plants).

[FrontosaurusRex]

30 min max on my 180....like 25% WC

and maybe 5-10 min on my 55...10% WC

Thats not a water change. You're just wasting your own time with that amount. You need to be doing at least 50% to even make it worth while.

[madehtsobi]

Thats not a water change. You're just wasting your own time with that amount. You need to be doing at least 50% to even make it worth while.

when im siphoning theres no more "crap" coming up and my filters are like gurgling with the water level lowered...

do yall just turn off your filters? i remember turning it off awhile back and turned it back on and all this crap came out...what a waste..

[FrontosaurusRex]

when im siphoning theres no more "crap" coming up and my filters are like gurgling with the water level lowered...

do yall just turn off your filters? i remember turning it off awhile back and turned it back on and all this crap came out...what a waste..

as long as you dont break the syphon on the filters, everything is ok. Alot of people shut off their filters, but I dont. I have my filter tubes really low in my tank so I dont have to turn em off every time i change water. I promise you'll notice a difference in your water and your fish if you do bigger WC's. Good luck.

[Complexity]

I always shut my filters off because the intake valves are above the water line when I do a water change. However, to prevent the "crud blowing" problem, I flip the quick release to stop water flow. The intake tubes cannot take in any air because the other end is closed. It's like plugging up a straw and then taking it out of the liquid. The water can't run out (and air cannot run in) because of the closed end.

While the water is refilling, I watch for when it reaches above the intake valves. At that point, I flip the quick disconnects back and turn the filters back on. The usually start back up as if nothing ever happened. No crud or air bubbles.

[Lawsman]

Takes the spouse and I several hours to do 50% on 156 and 42 hex!!!!!!! The new 180 and the 170 "L" is going to be brutal. It's the well water and propane crap again? We can never get a constant well water pressure becasue it is on a pressure switch outside. So, maybe something is wrong, but you can definitely tell when the well pump kicks on becasue the cold water at the tap gets real cold. So, we constantly have to regulate the hot and cold water valves to try to get close to the tank temp. Propane!! Ever have it? Takes twice as long to heat the water back up Vs. natural gas.

And yeah, I shut everything down except one airstone in the tank. Can't tell you how many heaters i broke from thermal shock. I guess they are protected from that now, but it is just a habit to shut her down!

[madehtsobi]

as long as you dont break the syphon on the filters, everything is ok. Alot of people shut off their filters, but I dont. I have my filter tubes really low in my tank so I dont have to turn em off every time i change water. I promise you'll notice a difference in your water and your fish if you do bigger WC's. Good luck.

yeh thats the problem i was worried about...my filters tubes are low too but once the water level is like 5" down...the fx5 starts gurgling and i dont wanna burn out the motor when it cant suck in the water cause its too low.

I always shut my filters off because the intake valves are above the water line when I do a water change. However, to prevent the "crud blowing" problem, I flip the quick release to stop water flow. The intake tubes cannot take in any air because the other end is closed. It's like plugging up a straw and then taking it out of the liquid. The water can't run out (and air cannot run in) because of the closed end.

While the water is refilling, I watch for when it reaches above the intake valves. At that point, I flip the quick disconnects back and turn the filters back on. The usually start back up as if nothing ever happened. No crud or air bubbles.

so just shut off the intake valves and leave it on or turn both off?

[Darbex]

It takes me about 3 - 4 hours for a WC on my 330 but most of that time is the refill time since I am running through my carbon filter the siphoning only takes about 20 minutes

[Complexity]

so just shut off the intake valves and leave it on or turn both off?

Turn off the filters, then flip the quick disconnects. You don't want to have the quick disconnects flipped to stop water flow while leaving the filter running. To start back up, do the opposite. Flip the quick disconnects to allow water to flow again, then turn the filter back on.

Actually, since I have other equipment inline with my filters — uv sterilizers and reactors for CO2 — I have it all plugged into one power strip. I have a second power strip for lighting. So I turn off the power to the entire power strip for all my filtration and the inline equipment that works with them. If I used heaters, they'd be plugged into that same power strip. That way I don't accidentally forget to turn anything off. It's all automatically turned off when I flip the big red switch.

Here's a picture of my power strips on my 90g from my journal. I don't have CO2 on this tank, but it's the same configuration. I just have more stuff plugged into the bottom power strip for my other tanks.

[PhishPhreek]

I have my tanks devided into 4 groups, and each group takes 2-3 hours the other 3 days I do things like tear down & set up spawn tanks, clean filters, cull and/or ship fish, repair equipment, yada, yada, yada