Water Change and Tank Maintenance

Just wondering if someone has an easier way of doing a wc and tank maintenance. Seems like whenever I clean my tank the whole house gets turned upside down and it takes me all day. Here's some pic's!
I take out all the rocks and plants and scrub them in tank water. I vacume the substrate. This uses almost sixty gal of water. Then I have to boil the water to make sure the temp is exactly 80 F when I put water back I also add aqua plus to the pails before I put water in tank. No I do not have a python. If I did I probably would flood the kitchen. It looks nice when I am done. It just takes a long time.

i dotn take out my rocks or plants... just cause i liek the algae, and my guys do a pretty good job of eating most of it. that would save u a bit of time if u didnt do that, and the fish might like it better too since they would keep there teritories, as is.

other than that there is no getting around bucket after bucket.... i dont have a python either, but i kinda like the fact that water changes keep me is shape

but i give u props for boiling ur water, i would prolly only have one tank if i had to do that.

Susan, You must get a couple things.

1.) A Python is a must. When you do weekly water changes, Do just that. Dont remove anything. Vacume with the python and change your water. You need to experiment with baking soda, salt, and epsom salt in a 5 gal bucket with your tap water. Find out the amount of b.s., and salts it takes to get your tap water right. Start with: 1 tsp. b.s.,1tsp. salt, 1 tblsp. epsom salt per 5 gal. Test the water in 20 min. or so. It may be right the first time. if not, add B.S. at 1 tsp. Retest. Then calculate the ratio to your tank when you refill it with your python. Of course you ar going to tear down every 4-6 weeks, but I recomend you never scrub your decore. Just clean the glass with the second item, lol http://www.bigalsonline.com/StoreCatalog/ctl3684/cp18377/si1381864/cl1/python_no_spill_clean_and_fill_100?&query=python&queryType=0&offset=

2.) A Mag float, http://www.bigalsonline.com/edealinv/servlet/ExecMacro?omni_scAdd=scAdd&nurl=control%2FBrowseCatalog.vm&eurl=control%2FBrowseCatalog.vm&rurl=control%2FBrowseCatalog.vm&ctl_nbr=3684&queryType=0&path=&offset=&hits=&sortby=&query=mag+float&submit.x=14&submit.y=10

Now you should be able to do a water change in less than a half hr.

Splash, I think I asked before, but I forgot -- why do you have to boil the water?

Sorry I guess I was so tired when I was finished that I kind of did not explain myself properly. I don't scrub the rocks just the plants. I remove all the rocks to vacume under them because I don't want those worms that I hear people talk about. So if I just move the rocks once a month I won't get the worms. Yuck those things give me the creeps. I don't know what they look like but I have read lots of posts about people having them in their tanks. I clean my canister about once every 10 days is that normal. It's a fluvol 405 on a 90 gallon. Idon't do any thing with the sponges just dump it out. Rinse bio media a bit. Sometimes rinse sponges a bit in tank water. Change the floss. I am going to put pot scrubbers in the empty baskets where the charcoal goes the next time I clean it. When I start it up all the gunk comes out of the hose that settles in the hose and spews back into my tank is there any way to prevent this. I want my tank to be nice for the fish. Sometimes they are restless and seem like they are trying to get out of tank. The crbo wants out but I think it's because there is none of it's own kind in there, but that's on purpose I don't want to start a war. Any how I will talk about fish in a different post. Thanks every one for youir advice. I have a water softerer on my hot water tank thats why I boil water. I am afraid to use baking soda or anything else because I not sure if I fully under stand what I am doing yet. I will keep reading everyone"s posts and read articles.I do know how to get my fish too make babies Keep them happy, watch for signs of stress monitor things daily.
I do have a mag float to clean the glass. Thanks for the links mac.

The only time I have had any worms was when I was way overfeeding a fry tank. There was a lot of left over food and I wasn't changing water as often as I should.
Cutting back on the feeding and a couple of good vacuums took care of that. I agree, they are nasty. I freaked out when I first noticed them. I didn't want to put
my hand in that tank. If you do regular tank maintenance and don't have uneaten food laying around, you shouldn't have any problems with those creepy
worms.

I don't remove my rocks unless I'm trying to catch a fish. I will take my hand and "wave" it around the rocks to push water through the cracks and caves to dislodge any
poop so I can vacuum it up. Once in a while, I'll pick them up and set them aside to give a thorough cleaning, then put them right back without actually taking them out of
the tank. I do take the plants out to clean them because I don't like the look of algae on them.

I only clean out my canister filters about once a month. I know that some people go a lot longer, but I don't like the idea of all of that crud in the sponges with water
recirculating through it. I don't do anything with the bio media. I get that crud coming out when I restart the filter as well. I don't think there's any way to avoid that
other than cleaning out the hoses and that is a pain in the you know what. My fish eat it and it goes away pretty quickly.

If your fish are healthy, you probably don't need to worry about additives. Do you know what the hardness and pH are out of your tap? I'm guessing it's pretty hard if you
have a water softener.

That does seem like alot of trouble. I would have to say I have fallen in love with my python, since I have a bad back if I changed all my tanks by buckets
I would be dead by the end of the night. I have flooded my kitchen floor before from the python lol. But I got it all cleaned up after. The trick to not flooding
anything is to remember that it is on I have to say I wouldn't worry about cleaning under the rocks all the time. Maybe once a month or so. We hardly ever
move and clean under our rocks, maybe once every other month. And I have never gotten worms. The most I have had was bloat from feeding my fish the wrong foods
and ich or nitrite poisoning due to high nitrite levels. If you get real plants at least you don't have to take them out and wash them, you only have to prune them once in a while
and feed them fertilizers. You should be able to get away with cleaning your filter once a month if you do your regular water maintenance every week. We clean our aquaclears every
2 weeks, but take out the filter floss and rinse that with every water change. Ou eheim canister gets cleaned once every couple of months, one because it is such a pain in the butt to get
in and out and take apart to clean, and also because it is such a huge canister. Now for the gunk that comes out of the filter hoses, you should try and clean the hoses once a month,
and try cleaning the filter before you do the water change. Then if any gunk comes out at least you can suck it up when you vacuum. But you are doing a great job And baking soda
isn't too bad. It is just with testing and knowing how much you will need to put in that will be the hardest part. We are going to have to do the same testing when we get our RO up and running.

Sorry I don't understand what the baking soda is for or why I would use it. I am confused

Lol it's ok susan, there are alot of people who won't know that. Basically baking soda will raise the pH since it is alkaline. And it is a much safer method than using other alkaline chemicals. It's chemical name is sodium bicarbonate. Another way it is used in the aquarium is in yeast method CO2 systems. I don't use it with mine because I already have hard water, but if I were to have soft water I would be using it in my yeast mixture.

No I do not have a python. If I did I probably would flood the kitchen.

I've had an incident or two with flooding, but just minor ones with the Python. I
only use it to refill. I drain with a regular gravel vac that I attached extra tubing to
so I can run it out the window and into the grass or flowers.

I have plenty of incidents involving buckets. I still use that method with my smaller
tanks. The most recent was when my curious cat removed the end of the tube from the
bucket while I was vacuuming the sand and I didn't know until I moved over to the other
end of the tank and my feet got wet. The carpet was soaked and water was dripping
through the floor into the garage.

Come to think of it Aura, I have had my share of bad incidents with buckets too. Don't you just hate it when you are focused on the poop floating up the siphon, that you end up moving the other end of the tube slightly causing you to miss the pail, or you accidently over flow the bucket. Done that many times lol. That is a very good idea though to have it flow out the window. You won't have to worry then about over flowing anything all over your floor

I've missed and overflowed plenty of times, too.

I have even missed when refilling with a bucket if you can believe that!

Don't worry, I have done that too I hate it with the pythons when you are done emptying, and you need to fill it, so you leave the one end in the tank and run to the sink to switch it over. One time when I was doing this the pressure from the water coming back through the hose made it flip out of the tank....I had a bit of a mess to clean up there, at least I got to it in time to not do too much damage Thinking about it now, I really don't think there is any fool proof way of doing things

So if my ph is 7.5 and I want it 8 I add baking soda. But then I would have to do some math and that is totally out of the question. How about when you comecc you can help me increase the ph in my 90 gallon. I want it just a little higher. I thought about putting some crushed coral in a nylon and adding it to my canister filter.

Sure I can do that for you. It is all about experimenting with it. I would suggest if you were to try, adding some to a bucket of tap water first, check the pH, then let it sit over night and check the pH again in the morning. You can try adding the crushed coral, but it might not be enough to do very much. I will try and run some tests with my tap water and see if I can get an approximate amount you might be able to use for yours.