HH Morant

My biggest water change mistake was this past Friday when I changed the water on my 10-gallon quarantine tank containing 5 young angels. The tank is near the sink in my kitchen, so I use a 2-quart plastic container to bail the water out of the tank and into the sink. Midway through the water change I noticed there were only four angels in the tank. I double-checked - just four. I must have poured one down the drain! I frantically reached down the drain and after a little searching I felt the fish flopping around down there. He came to rest on top of the garbage disposal. I was able to catch his top-fin between two fingers and lift him out. I quickly put him back in the tank. Now I am not even sure which one it was. They all seem fine. That was close. Below is a video taken afterwards. So what is your memorable water change mistake?

Some deaths which are associated with water changes are due to occasional super-chlorination of tap water by municipalities. Although the usual chlorine content may be 1 ppm or less, under EPA rules the city water department can increase that to 4 ppm. Water changes during the super-chlorination period can kill fish if a 4 X dose of de-chlorinator is not used. See the aquariumscience.org article entitled "Chlorine and Chloramine." I don't know if that is what happened in your case, but I doubt that a pH difference of the magnitude described would be fatal to fish. If the deaths were indeed caused by the water change, a few fish were apparently more susceptible than others, regardless of what attribute of the new water killed them.

I think there is a regulation which says that the municipal water people can put in as much as four ppm chlorine, although one ppm is the regular dose in most places. I think that is where the 4 x dose comes from. So I think 3 crystals ought to be fine for 20 gallons. Overdosing sodium thiosulfate by any reasonable amount is not dangerous. I assume the instructions on the bag of sodium thiosulfate anticipate that we will measure it in the crystal form. If you crush it into a powder (to make it dissolve more quickly) you are going to get a lot more sodium thiosulfate in a quarter teaspoon.

I used the sodium thiosulfate yesterday. It worked fine. But because it is in crystal form rather than fine grains (like Safe), it takes the sodium thiosulfate about 2 minutes to fully dissolve in water. Also, in order to fix my mistake in the crystal picture in my first post (I wrote "ammonia" rather than "chlorine"), I added a picture. But when I measured a quarter teaspoon the second time, I got 17 crystals rather than 21, so I re-wrote the paragraph about the crystals. Anyway, it is as good as it is going to get.

You are right. I meant to write "chlorine" instead of "ammonia" in the photo of the crystals. Thanks.

The problem is that the tank has two evenly-spaced cross-braces at the top, so I would need three 24-inch lights rather than two 36-inch lights. I would rather not do that. But 72-inch options are few.

What is the best programmable 72-inch light? I have been looking around, but haven't seen many candidates.

This is Spyro Gyra:

Dave at aquariumscience.org says you can mix it with water and use the solution like Prime. I recently asked him if you can use it in dry form like Safe, and he said yes. I am thinking about putting some of the 10 pounds in a time capsule so that when they develop the technology to cure whatever I died of, defrost me and bring me back to life, I will have some dechlorinator. Or I may leave it to somebody in my will.

Yes, it works on chloramines. The chlorine and ammonia are separated and the chlorine is neutralized. The small amount of ammonia is then processed by your filter. Sodium thiosulfate is the active ingredient in many commercial dechlorinators sold for the aquarium hobby, although many manufacturers have gone the way of Seachem - don't tell people what is in it and claim it does everything. See aquariumscience.org articles regarding dechlorinators. I am not a chemist and he is.

I use Seachem Prime and Safe. They work great to dechlorinate my tap water so I can use it in my aquarium. I don't believe they do that other stuff that Seachem claims [see my earlier post - "Hold my beer while I detoxify this"]. So I bought 10 pounds of sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate - $24.99 on Amazon. I have not used it yet. The label says 4 teaspoons neutralizes 1 ppm chlorine in 10,000 gallons of water. So one quarter of a teaspoon neutralizes 1 ppm in 625 gallons. One quarter of a teaspoon is 17 to 21 crystals, see the pictures below. I did the picture twice because the 1st time I wrote "ammonia" rather than "chlorine." The 1st time I measured a quarter teaspoon, I got 21 crystals and the 2nd time I got 17 crystals. At 21 crystals, each crystal dechlorinates about 29.76 gallons. At 17 crystals per quarter teaspoon, each crystal would dechlorinate 36.76 gallons (625 ÷ 17). I think 10 pounds might be a lifetime supply if I just do the 1 ppm dose. But I understand that some people recommend 4 times the 1 ppm dose to protect against occasional super-chlorination by municipalities. Has anyone used this product?

Unless a bearded dragon is a magical beast with poison poop and cursed urine, I don't see why the tank could not be cleaned. There may be some incantation that must be recited while cleaning, or some potion that must be used, but I will leave that to the experts. Fill it with water first and see if it leaks,

That looks like a great set-up! A fluidized bed sump with K-1 media is the most efficient biological filtration. "Most efficient" meaning the most biological filtration in the least space. Mechanical filtration is overrated. I have found that I don't really need it for clear water. Same for chemical filtration. I would have just two compartments - a fluidized bed and a compartment for the return pumps. If you decide not to do a fluidized bed, 30 ppi foam is the best filter media. See the excellent articles on filtration at aquariumscience.org.

These 5 orange/black angels arrived 13 days ago, dime-sized. They did not show much enthusiasm for food at first, but did peck at the food after it was on the bottom. Now they are anticipating food when I get near the tank and getting excited at feeding time.

Today I took 125 more little angels to the LFS. Got $2 each - $1 cash and $1 store credit. Used the store credit to get a dozen dwarf neon (Praecox) rainbows. They look good so far, and they ate some food about 5 hours after being put in the quarantine tank. I think they will spice up the downstairs tank a little and look good against the black substrate and black background.

Nice looking angel! Angelfish are always going to spar with one another to establish and maintain the pecking order. When only one fish is absorbing all the abuse from an aggressor, it can be too much stress on the victim of the aggression. Adding the two juveniles will take some of the pressure off the timid angel because he won't be taking all the punishment all the time. I would put the two juveniles and the timid angel in the 55 and put the aggressor in the 29. That would give the 3 fish in the 55 time to grow a little and have the 55 as their home territory. Then you could add the aggressor a few weeks or months later. Even spacing the entry of the fish this way is probably not going to change the pecking order. It is likely that when all the angels are in the 55 together the aggressor fish is still going to be the boss. But maybe having 3 other angels to absorb the aggression will make it bearable for all 3 subordinates.

I use this transfer pump to remove and to replace water in my two 100-plus gallon tanks. I add de-chlorinator to the replacement water in a plastic container and then pump the water from the container into the tank. I use a storage container, but any plastic container - like a garbage can - would do. I think de-chlorinators are great and they work very fast, but I don't believe they work instantly. I would guess that repeated exposure to chlorine even for a few seconds at a time would damage the gills of fish. Chlorine is more toxic to fish than ammonia or nitrite. I have seen pet shops put the de-chlorinator in the aquarium and then run tap water into the aquarium. It doesn't kill the fish right away, but I don't think it is a good practice.

In my experience, a water change of more than 50% is not going to hurt fish. I have 2 tanks around 120 gallons and I never do a water change less than 50%. The same for my 20-gallon quarantine/grow-out tank which lately seems to be constantly occupied. If your ammonia is not zero, I would not add more fish. Give the beneficial bacteria some time. In a mature tank with a mature filter, ammonia is zero. Over-feeding is something I think we are all prone to. I combat that tendency by feeding once per day, measuring the food each time, and having one fasting day per week.

Beautiful fish. I love the pics. Are you planning on doing daily water changes forever? I see that you are considering a matten filter. Do you have any other long-range plans for filtration? I understand that over-filtration is a good idea for discus.

18 x 72 x 22 high.

Looking through 6 feet of water. Clear!

Changing the water and cleaning the glass always makes me want to take pictures.

I have plants, but nothing planted in the substrate. I use plastic planters and I plasti-dip them black. I think they are less obtrusive that way. The planters in the pictures were made from a 2-liter coke bottle, a Gatorade bottle, and a plastic planter liner from Home Depot. I also glue plants to rocks and wood.

I changed the water in all tanks, large and small.

Dude! You have bugs in your tank!