Storing water for WC's

[Steve]

Just wondered if anyone here does this for their larger tanks or if it's even something worth doing or not. With the 265 going to be up and running in the next week or two I am deciding to change the way I do WC's a bit in hopes of keeping water parameters a bit more stable in the big tank. Right now I do about a 40-50% WC every week on my tanks, but am thinking of trying to keep the big tank on a schedule of 15-20% every 3-4 days to keep it more stable.

I have a 700gph submersible pump as well as python style WC'er but I am thinking it might be easier to buy a plastic food grade 55g barrel (on CL all the time for $15) and just keep that in the filter room right behind the 265 tank and that might make it easier to keep up with more frequent water changes as well as maybe being able to match the temp exactly (if I run a heater in the drum) plus keep the amount of water change the same every time.

Anyone else do this or think it is even worth doing?

[four_by_ken]

I thought a lot about this back when I was having water troubles a years ago.

Unless you have problem water that you have to treat,  I don't see a reason to go through the trouble.

My problem ended up being my water softener... so, I just stopped using it.

[jamarini]

I've been storing 250 gallons of water in animal troughs indoors for several years.  I have chlorinated water and a ventless natural gas heater for my fishroom so by storing the water, I can de-gas it and bring it up to room temperature within a couple days.  I have larger African cichlids and colonies of fish in 180s and 100s and a variety of other sizes for either smaller breeder communities or growing out fry.  I never use dechlorinator and the extra volume of water in my fishroom helps to maintain the room temperature.  My water changes are between 25% and 40% weekly.  This system has worked well for me for years.

[Maize-N-Blue-D]

Steve you should talk with Josh Cunningham,  he has a couple of big Rubbermaid  trash cans on wheels (gray).  I have also seen some LFS do the same..

[Marty]

You probably don't need to do that large of a water change for your fish to be healthy.  Exceptions to this would be if your tank is overstocked, you don't have adequate filtration, or you are trying to breed a fish like discus.

[jcunningham0295]

I use 44 gallon trash cans to house my water for water changes.  I treat it in the barrel and it probably sits in their an hour before I use it to give me time to drain the tanks.

[Steve]

I like the idea of a plastic trash can on wheels a lot better than a drum that couldn't be moved around when full. Since this is my first tank over 55g, how much and how often WC would you guys do on it? Probably going to be around 14 to16 larger haps 7"to 15" range, two FX5's with total of 8 liters of Matrix pond media, 265g tank.

[jcunningham0295]

I usually do 20 to 30% each week.  A little more like 40% on my Tropheus tanks.

[Regalblue]

I shoot for 50%/wk , but lately it's dropped down to 50%/month (except my Tangs ) 

Although,  most of my tanks are very lightly stocked & not frequently fed.

[lightaddict08]

I still don't have a massive amount of tanks, but I have a 10 gal set up on a shelf near the ceiling in the heated room that I fill with cold tap. I then wait at least 24 hours for the chlorine to degas. This makes it easy to siphon into the tanks I pulled water out of. I've only got one rack though, so one tank above the others is doable. The temps are reasonably close by waiting the 24+ hours. I tend to do 10% changes every 5 or so days.

[Marty]

I like the idea of a plastic trash can on wheels a lot better than a drum that couldn't be moved around when full. Since this is my first tank over 55g, how much and how often WC would you guys do on it? Probably going to be around 14 to16 larger haps 7"to 15" range, two FX5's with total of 8 liters of Matrix pond media, 265g tank.

Why were you going to run two FX5's?  One is rated for 400 gallons.  I would start off with 25% bi weekly, and adjust the amount upward if you're not happy with the water quality.

You can pick up a Rubbermaid garbage can and the wheels (it's a separate piece that twists on and off) for around $70 at Home Depot.  They're pretty handy.

[Ron]

You probably don't need to do that large of a water change for your fish to be healthy.  Exceptions to this would be if your tank is overstocked, you don't have adequate filtration, or you are trying to breed a fish like discus.

x2

I aim for 40%-50% every 2 weeks for most of my tanks (standard africans, tropicals, etc). Sometimes time flies and an extra weekend might pass.

Exceptions to the above were made for species that are sometimes more sensitive. My tropheus I'd aim for 40-50% weekly, but would sometimes slip 1 week. When I kept cyps smaller, sensitive fish, I'd go 20%-30% every 1-2 weeks.

Something to keep in mind, changing a small amount frequently is perhaps less effective than doing a larger amount on a longer duration. For example doing a 20% water change weekly is less than doing 1 40% water change every 2 weeks. 20% weekly would be ~36% of the original water being changed out over the two week period.

[Steve]

Why were you going to run two FX5's?  One is rated for 400 gallons.

I like to shoot for a turn over rate on my tanks of around four/five times the tank capacity per hour. Each of my 55g's have an XP3 as well as XP4 on each tank...I figure it's always better to have more than needed than not enough  plus I got a good deal on a pair of them. That way I can have an intake as well as spraybar at the ends of each side of the 7ft span of the tank. I gotta hit Lowes/HD this week so I'll check on the cans and the wheels for them for sure.

Glad to hear 25%- 40% or there abouts every 10-14 days is fine, that'll save me a lot of time and work as to what I was thinking I was gonna have to do. I usually try to do 40% every week in my 55's and whenever I stretch those to 10-14 days I always feel bad about slacking off, so glad to hear there's nothing wrong with stretching it to there.

[Marty]

with as much filtration as you have, two weeks isn't a stretch at all.  About the only thing your filters aren't removing is nitrates.