Performing Tank Changes

[Lissa3116]

I am just curious how you change your tanks.

What %?
What size of tank?
How you take our a certain percentage of the water out? (Dump, Use Bowl, etc.)

Thanks! Just curious.

[Lissa3116]

Also, how you clean the gravel and plants?

[sainthogan]

Mine is a 5 gallon with a filter and live plants, so I do a 50% once or twice a week using a siphon. I use a turkey baster to suck up all the yucky stuff at the bottom before I pour my new water in.
Oh, and I don't take Fishy out, she stays put and swims around trying to get in the way of my cleaning. She also LOVES to go underneath the flow of the new water coming in, get pushed to the bottom, the swim back up to the top to do it all over again. :D

[Kytkattin]

What I do is similar to sainthogan, though I also have a 2 gallon in addition to my 5.5. I never take my fish out, but I also never do 100% changes. My tanks are moderately planted and will soon be more heavily planted. I use a gravel vac and take out about 25-50% from either tank depending on my mood. I also pour my new water (after being treated of course!) into the filter so it doesn't disrupt the gravel on the floor. Technically my 5.5 is way overstocked with a female betta and 2 kuhli loaches, but the plants make it work. It has been running for over a year now with no fish death or health problems (unless you count the loaches living in the fitler for the last 3 months a health problem).
I also scrub for algae on the glass when I do the water change, and do a lot of pruning and pinching of dead leaves or of plant growth where I don't want it. I call it underwater zen gardening! It is so relaxing for me.

Since I have plants, I fertilize every 3 days after a water change.

[LizzyP]

I have a 5.5 gallon and a 3 gallon, both are filtered and heated. The 5.5 has sand and live plants while the 3 gallon has gravel and silk plants.

I clean both tanks once per week with a gravel vacuum, 5.5 gets a 50% change and the 3 gets a 75% change. I don't clean the decorations as some good BB lives on them. If I have to clean them I just swish them in some dirty tank water.

Hope that helps :)
Lizzy

[aokashi]

for my 1 gallon i have 2 1 gallon bottles and 2 airlines. I set one bottle with new water up high an one empty one down low. i run an airline from each to the tanks and siphon simultaneously. :P

[Wendyjo]

I have two 5g betta tanks, a 2.5g baby betta tank, and a 40g community tank. I typically do about a 25-30% water change each week on each tank using a gravel vac. All tanks are cycled and planted. I also do small daily water changes on the babies tank in addition to the larger weekly one.

[pittipuppylove]

I have two 5.5 gallon tanks, a divided 10 gallon tank, and a 15 gallon guppy tank that and are (over) filtered and fully planted - they each get a 50% change on once a week and fertalizer the next day. I siphon out the water into a bucket and suck up any fish poop and other nasties, and while the water's low I work on the plants. When it comes time to put treated water back in, I set up the bucket on top of the tank and siphon the water back in to tank to help adjust the fish to any temperature changes in the new water (I get it as close to tank temp as possible, but there's some difference). All the fish stay in their repective tanks while I do the change.

As for cleaning the gravel with plants, you really don't The plants suck up most of the stuff in the gravel bed; on occasion I'll gently siphon the top level of gravel on occasion, but the plants do most of the work. Sand's a bit different, though - unless you have Malasian Trumpet Snails, you need to disrupt the bed on a regular basis to prevent the formation of anerobic pockets.