it takes me about 2 hours to change water in my tank and i always tourned my filter offIs turning off my filter OK when i change water?It takes me about 4 hours to change the water in 25 tanks and I don't turn anything off, it is not necessary unless you take out too much water and uncover the heater or the end of the filter intake tube. What you are doing is changing 100% of the water and cleaning (washing) the gravel, right?
That is not the way to go, you are removing all of the %26quot;good%26quot; nitrifying bacteria that help remove the ammonia and nitrites from the water. You leave them (the %26quot;good%26quot; bacteria) in there and they convert the ammonia (from fish waste and uneaten food decaying) and nitrites to nitrates... then you remove the nitrates by means of the water changes. All three are toxic to your fish.
By removing the good bacteria with a teardown, you force the tank to go through the cycling process again every time you do a complete teardown. This is not good for your fish. I have tanks that have been set up and running for over 6 years without a teardown by following the procedure below.
You should only be changing 25-30% of the water each week and siphoning half (left or right, alternating each month) of the gravel once a month. A gravel siphon costs about $15. Well worth the money.
Depending on the size of the tank, it should only take you from 10 to 30 minutes. I do my 10g tanks in less than 10 minutes each. The biggest one, a 55g takes almost 30. I use a home-made siphon that attaches to my basement sink faucet and with a flip of a valve, I can empty or refill a tank.
Email me if you would like to learn how to build one of your own for much less than it would cost to buy one at the fish store.Is turning off my filter OK when i change water?Yea, since your changing the water anyways; just don't forget to turn it back on!Is turning off my filter OK when i change water?having the filter turned off for a few hours won't cause any problems if there r just fish in the tank. if there is something other than fish then i couldn't really say.Is turning off my filter OK when i change water?Yes, that's a good thing to do. If you didn't it might burn out the pump on your filter. It's also a good idea to unplug your heater during a water change.
MMIs turning off my filter OK when i change water?The thing is after two hours the nitrifying bacteria start to die,from lack of oxygen.In 24 hours they would all be dead and a substantial amount of your ammonia removing ability with them.I point is to minimize the down time,and clean the filter elements in water just removed from the tank.Is turning off my filter OK when i change water?Yes,it's a good idea. There might not be enough water to properly run the filter during the change.,as long as you don't spend too much time doing it on 1 tank.Is turning off my filter OK when i change water?Not only is it okay, it is actually recomended. It is recomended to turn off everything in your tank as you change the water as well. A good reason to turn the filter off during a change is, if you have sand, the sand might get stirred up, either by your or your fish, causing it to be sucked up by the filter, and ultimately wrecking your motor.
Ryan
