Evaporation Techniques

[Mister Sparkle]

Hey, you're probably right. After all, what do I know? I've only been doing this for 26 years. If you haven't had an illness yet, then you certainly never will.

[1fish2fish]

I'm not mad. I just don't like one size fits all views on keeping animals. Just because I only do weekly water changes (sometimes missing a week on the big tank) doesn't mean my water is nasty. I know the benefits of water changes and I also know what nasty water will do for fish.

Some experienced keepers will say as long as your water conditions are right why do you have to do daily water changes on a one gallon? Others will say you are the devil if you don't do daily water changes. There is no one right answer.

[Mister Sparkle]

I suppose the difference between "have to" and "ought to" is worth exploring! I've never heard an experienced keeper complain about "too many changes"...again, this excludes when we're talking about killies (which are an ENTIRELY different thing!).

[1fish2fish]

I never said anything about too many changes. IMO there is no such thing as too many. But just because you don't do water changes two or three times a week doesn't mean your killing your fish.

(Of course this all excludes smaller tanks which obviously need at least twice weekly changes )

Once I have more time and money on my hands I plan on experimenting with water chemistry.. frequent changes versus one change a week on identical tanks (as identical as you can make such things). Along with a number of other things I'm curious about when it comes to Bettas.

[doggyhog]

I have the same problem. My 10g tanks get water changes once a week, which BTW I think is perfectly enough. and they still evaporate. My tank that has a hood doesn't evaporate much, so I think it comes down to having a good cover. I personally don't mind that much as sometimes I just re fill my tanks when I'm doing the smaller ones.

I personally believe the only tanks that need 2-3 changes a week are 3g and smaller. But oh well, each to his own.

[1fish2fish]

My tank has a full hood but it still loses about 1/2 in to an inch of water during the week (depending on how dry the weather is). I also have large cut outs on the back for the filter and heater which may also cause issues.

I'm mainly asking because the tank I'm putting together now doesn't have a hood. I'll be making a makeshift top out of mesh and sharing the light with my other 10 gallon until I can afford a light for it. I think without a proper hood I'll have a lot more evap.. Its not going to matter much at first because I need to get a filter of some sort before cycling it. I bought a used filter of UB and she didn't send it with the intake . And she hasn't PM'd me back about it either. I can't use the darn filter without an intake :(

[xxabc]

I have a hood over my 5 gallon, and my evaporation is a pain in the butt. If I'm lazy between water changes, I can lose up to 2 inches within 4-5 days? I live in bad weather, haha. I don't know if it would be worse without the hood, I've never tried it (and I honestly don't intend to either).

I just top it off. It doesn't bother me. But if it did, I would keep to the plastic ... thing you said earlier. See how that works.