How to Change Water in a Fish Tank

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Chris, from Aquatic Central, here in San Francisco, and on the web at: aquatic-central.com, and today, I'd like to tell you how to do your water change in a fish tank. Now, water changes are the crux of aqua culture, and all applications. There's been numerous advancements to filtration, etc, etc. Electrolysis, ozone, foam fractioning, however, all, most will still require the incorporation of a water change. There's a couple of different ways to remove water. One, would be to simply take a container, and scoop out the water, like such. Another way of doing a water change, is through a siphon. One of the old fashioned ways to start a siphon, is like this. If you have a reef tank, or a salt water tank, you may want to skim lightly across the bottom of the surface, with your siphon, and if you have a deep gravel bed, and it's a fresh water tank, you will want to stick the siphon down into the gravel, and remove a lot of the de-tritus, that will accumulate there. The smaller the water change, the better. Now, depending on your municipality, there will most likely be the presence of chlorine and chloramine in the water. These will need to be neutralized with a conditioner, such as this. One way of adding water, simply add it to the tank, and then add in your conditioner. A better method, will be to premix it. For example, in a separate container, such as this, and then to mix it around for a little while, and then add it to the tank. Now, adding water that is very similar to the existing water, is also key, so that may require preheating the water, adding PH, or alkalinity buffers, etc. etc. Aging is no longer sufficient for pre-treating the water, because of the addition of chloramine to the water. Before, aging water for approximately twenty four hours, would allow the chlorine to dissipate into the atmosphere, but that is no longer the case, so do remember to use conditioners, when adding new tap water, and the more frequent the water change, and the smaller the better. Again, this is how you do a water change in a fish tank. My name is Chris, from Aquatic Central, in San Francisco, and on the web at: aquatic-central.com."