Joined
·
374 Posts
I add water directly from the tap. I temper the cold water with a little warm mixed in. I try to keep the incoming water around 65-70, but dont use a thermometer. The hand is pretty accurate for me.
I do 50% water changes, and i dont want to mix my 55 deg cold tap water directly with the 75 deg tank. Mixing 65-70 with 75 drops my tank temp by 2-5 deg. As others have said, this is good for the fish and will often stimulate some to spawn. (similar to the effect of a rain storm in the tropics).
Have never tried dropping the temp 10 deg. That sounds like way too much for a quick change. I would be curious to hear if others do that much and with what fishes.
BTW, I dont pre-condition my tap water either. As the water comes in, i add PRIME. That seems to be sufficient to neutralize my chloramine. I also simply calculate the PRIME dosage to match the replacement water (replace 60 gallons, use 6 ml of PRIME). That has always worked for me... mostly cichlids, tetras, SAEs, corys, so YMMV. The synodontis always react funny for a few minutes, but that regime has not fazed my pair of S.angelicus after 20 years of that treatment.
Fish are pretty resistant to reasonable temp fluctuations. Accordingly, i set my tank heaters to 68 degrees. They hardly ever come on. I learned this when i visited the "Mizukusa Club" in 94. This was a fantastic pre-amano aquatic plant shop between Tokyo and Yokohama. See page 9 of Planted Aquaria Magzine, issue 1 (Spring 2000). I will have to post those pictures on-line some time. Mr. Watanabe didnt use heaters at all. This allows the water temp to fluctuate between day and night. This made sense to me as it does get cooler at night even in the tropics.
I do 50% water changes, and i dont want to mix my 55 deg cold tap water directly with the 75 deg tank. Mixing 65-70 with 75 drops my tank temp by 2-5 deg. As others have said, this is good for the fish and will often stimulate some to spawn. (similar to the effect of a rain storm in the tropics).
Have never tried dropping the temp 10 deg. That sounds like way too much for a quick change. I would be curious to hear if others do that much and with what fishes.
BTW, I dont pre-condition my tap water either. As the water comes in, i add PRIME. That seems to be sufficient to neutralize my chloramine. I also simply calculate the PRIME dosage to match the replacement water (replace 60 gallons, use 6 ml of PRIME). That has always worked for me... mostly cichlids, tetras, SAEs, corys, so YMMV. The synodontis always react funny for a few minutes, but that regime has not fazed my pair of S.angelicus after 20 years of that treatment.
Fish are pretty resistant to reasonable temp fluctuations. Accordingly, i set my tank heaters to 68 degrees. They hardly ever come on. I learned this when i visited the "Mizukusa Club" in 94. This was a fantastic pre-amano aquatic plant shop between Tokyo and Yokohama. See page 9 of Planted Aquaria Magzine, issue 1 (Spring 2000). I will have to post those pictures on-line some time. Mr. Watanabe didnt use heaters at all. This allows the water temp to fluctuate between day and night. This made sense to me as it does get cooler at night even in the tropics.
