Water changes....

[Ron Sower]

When you folks do cold water changes, what percent do you change and what is the temperature of the new water you add back to the tank?  Do you do this with small tanks - 5-10 gallons?

[Mugwump]

It's really 'cool' water changes...to me, that's room temp, and a 20% change....so it would be somewhere near 10deg's or so...I guess we use the term 'cold' because the water isn't heated??
Other folks may vary, I would guess.......

[BallAquatics]

Since most of my tanks are not heated my cool water changes are a bit cooler than Jon's.  I generally shoot for around 30% water change volume and water that is 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the tank water.  It's not uncommon for my tanks to be at 70 ?F so my cool water will run around 55 - 60 ?F.

Dennis

[BillT]

I have heaters in most of my tank and water systems but they have set-points in the low 70's.
My water change temp depends on the outside temperature. Now it is cold so the water coming in would be in the 50's or maybe colder.
Because my water changes are run but a sprinkler timer and valve I do 4 small water changes a day rather than a single big one. Probably totals about 10-20%/day. The cold water in small doises does not change the tank temp that much and the heaters bring it back up.

[Ron Sower]

Thanks folks.  I grew up on 2*+/- for water addition.  When I got back into the hobby 3 years ago, I was surprised that people would have that big of a temp differentiation when adding water.  I does make sense though, since the rainwaters into a stream or lake wouldn't necessarily be warm and could lower the a few degrees. I would suppose that the regular water changes would keep the water environment ''cleaner'' and less likely to create a weak immune system in the fish, thereby NOT allowing the little nasties make them ill.

So I'm going to try a few cold changes in my 55g tanks and see how things work out.  Still skiddish though..!!

[BallAquatics]

I guess I'm a bit confused Ron.  When I do a cold water change, it is meant to trigger fish into spawning.  I don't use this method when doing normal water changes on my tanks.  With a normal water change, my new water is in the aging vat and is very close to the same temperature as the tank water I'm replacing.  In my case, that's room temperature.

When you asked..... "When you folks do cold water changes....."  I thought you were referring to water changes meant to stimulate the fish into spawning.

Dennis

[Mugwump]

I use it in an attempt to trigger spawning too. We have a large tub for regular changes, and that water is fairly close to tank temps.

[Ron Sower]

When you asked..... "When you folks do cold water changes....."  I thought you were referring to water changes meant to stimulate the fish into spawning.

Dennis

Well now, I'm further enlightened.  I thought you guys were doing the the CWCs for regular water changes, and that triggered spawning behavior. 

Do you think it creates a problem if that were the case...regular WCs with cold water?

[Mugwump]

When you asked..... "When you folks do cold water changes....."  I thought you were referring to water changes meant to stimulate the fish into spawning.

Dennis

Well now, I'm further enlightened.  I thought you guys were doing the the CWCs for regular water changes, and that triggered spawning behavior. 

Do you think it creates a problem if that were the case...regular WCs with cold water?

Myself, I wouldn't go too cool with regular changes......a bit cooler than tank water, I see no issues.....but those 10-15 deg, or better, changes all the time....naw...

[BallAquatics]

Do you think it creates a problem if that were the case...regular WCs with cold water?

I think that it probably would with certain fish.  I only have a handful of fish that are triggered into spawning using this method and those are the only fish that ever get a cold water change.  It serves no purpose to expose fish to the stress of a cold water change when there is no end goal.  With that in mind, I don't perform cold water changes with the fish that do respond to them unless I'm attempting to spawn them.

Dennis

[Mugwump]

Do you think it creates a problem if that were the case...regular WCs with cold water?

I think that it probably would with certain fish.  I only have a handful of fish that are triggered into spawning using this method and those are the only fish that ever get a cold water change.  It serves no purpose to expose fish to the stress of a cold water change when there is no end goal.  With that in mind, I don't perform cold water changes with the fish that do respond to them unless I'm attempting to spawn them.

Dennis

better said than I did.....

[b125killer]

I did a cold water change yesterday.  The tank was at 78? I added water that was 71? the temp dropped to 73?. And they spwaned for me. They look pretty when they have there spawning colors.

[Mugwump]

I'm glad it worked..but that's awful cold...wow

[Ron Sower]

Any of you have any experience with CWCs and German Blue Rams and Corys?

[Mugwump]

Any of you have any experience with CWCs and German Blue Rams and Corys?

Cory's, it works well on....feed em blood worms for a few days, look at the females bellies..when they get a nice rosy magenta color....do that cool/cold water change.....they'll go pretty quick after that....if not, repeat....

Rams...Maybe Scott or Capt'n Bob would be better answering that one....?