Habitat - Indoor :: water changing question

[ninjaturtles]

i haven't changed my water for a few weeks. i've just kept on adding additional water due to evaporation. water is still clear and it doesn't smell or anything. I also use a turkey baser to suck up and discard the excess waste at the bottem of the tank. I'm using an aquaclear 110 filter. ive added a crayfish/crab/and 2 sucker fishjust to help mediate teh waste particles in the tank. I'm doing everything i can so i don't have to clean the tank a lot, i also want to keep the good bacteria in my tank. So when's a good time to change the water. Also, when the good bacteria colonizes, does it colonize in the filter or in the water--because i have to change my charcoal in my filter soon and i don't want to get rid of those good guys.

Also, what is the point of partial water changes?

[DavidY]

The beneficial bacteria colonize the media (carbon and sponge) in the filter. When you do your cleaning, it's best to siphon some of the water out of the tank (partial water change...i'll explain more about that next) into a bucket. Then take one of the filter's media and gently swish it around in the bucket. The reason for this is you want to make sure to keep as much of the bacteria on the media alive so by cleaning it in the bucket of tank water there's not shock to the bacteria in the way of water temperature or chemistry (i.e. chlorine). Throw away and replace the other filter media. You can also gently clean off the media basket in the old tank water too, but don't scrub it since the bacteria live on the surfaces. With each cleaning you want to alternate which piece of media gets rinsed in the bucket and which gets completely replaced. So if you rinse the sponge, replace the carbon. The next cleaning rinse the carbon and replace the sponge. If the filter housing starts to get really gunky you should rinse that out too. I generally will rinse the housing out under the sink since it is important not to allow too much gunk to build up in there and clog the pump.

By the way, you only need to replace one of the filter's media (either the sponge or the carbon) once a month. You can rinse out the gunk build up as often as needed.

Now the reason for a partial water change is this...all aquatic animals expel some waste in the form of ammonia which can be very toxic. The beneficial bacteria feed on the ammonia and convert it to nitrites, which is also toxic but not as much as ammonia. A second type of bacteria then converts the nitrites to nitrates which is much less toxic and can be tolerated at higher levels by most aquatic animals (turtles can tolerate more nitrates than most fish can). But over time, the nitrates will build up to unhealthy levels and will also contribute to uncontrollable algae growth. The best way to control the nitrates is to do partial water changes. Usually a 20% water change once a month will keep things under control for a while. But a couple of times a year a 90% water change is recommended to bring everything back to near normal.

Another thing to remember is that the beneficial bacteria are called "aerobic" bacteria which means they require a lot of oxygen in order to do their thing so it's important to rinse out the filter media regularly to keep it from getting clogged up and also make sure to direct the filter output so it creates turbulence at the water's surface. That increases the surface area of the air/water interface thereby increasing the gas exchange rate as well.

[ninjaturtles]

i dont' get the whole process involving the bucket.. so, i scoop water into a bucket, then take out the foam/carbon from my filter, swish it around in the water. then throw it out and put the new carbon or foam in the filter and pour the water back in?

[DavidY]

Well, you should get a siphon hose so you can siphon the dirty water out of the tank and into the bucket. You can get something like this at the petstore...
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3889&N=2004+113164, or you could just get a piece of flexible tubing at Home Depot.

After you rinse off the filter media (foam or carbon) put it back in the filter and continue using it until the next major filter cleaning, then replace the other filter media component. So if you rinsed the foam, put it back into use in the filter, but throw away the old carbon bag and replace it with a new one. The next month (or whenever your next major cleaning will be) rinse the carbon bag and put it back in, but replace the sponge with a new one.

Then throw out the dirty water in the bucket and the same amount of clean water to the tank. If your tap water is chlorinated you will need to treat it with water conditioner first.

Does any of that make sense? I tend to do things the complicated way, maybe someone else can suggest a simpler way to do it.