Different Types of Water Changing Strategies
Nothing gets talked about in the Discus world more than changing water. There are more opinions on the frequency & size of water changes than most aspects of Discus keeping. There are also many ways to do this task. I’m going to outline the methods that I have tried and try to focus on the pitfalls of each as well as ways to simplify them.
Continuous Drip System – in a drip system you run water directly from your water supply, through a couple of filters and then to your tanks, where a dripper only allows a small amount of water to enter the tank. An overflow box or hole in the tank moves the excess water to your drain. So water is continuously being replaced throughout the day.
I have stopped using a drip system because I found that the water quality was adversely affected. My tanks are much clearer since stopping this since the water is degassed prior to entering the tank. I hadn’t noticed the cloudiness until I turned off the drip. You also don’t have the ability to test the water that’s going into your tank prior to using it. So it’s not like having a holding tank that you can test & then use. It also wastes a lot of water since some of the water being dripped into the tank is leaving the tank as well.
Using a drip system is great because it runs continuously so your water quality can be very stable. It’s very cheap to implement and works while you’re away on vacation. I wouldn’t use it as the sole method of water change and once I realized that, I decided that it wasn’t worth drilling new tanks to accommodate a drip system.
Overflow System – an overflow system is similar to a drip system in the sense that you don’t remove water from the tank, you just add water to it and overflow the excess to your drain. So again you need either a drilled tank or an overflow box.
It is a great way to do water changes because you don’t have to actually remove water, just overflow the tanks. Again it suffers because you do waste some water, as you add new water some of it will also leave the tank. You also have to either drill the tanks or get overflow boxes.
Drain & Fill Method – this method involves removing the amount of water you plan to replace and the refilling the tank from a holding tank of heated, aerated water. It’s possible to just refill from the tap but I prefer to use water that’s been degassed, dechlorinated & heated. The pH is more stable and there is less chance for error.
I have decided that for my fishroom this method is the best. It makes the best use of the water available and wastes none. It provides an immediate improvement in water quality to the fish and is relatively easy to setup. If you pay attention to some of the time-saving and accident-preventing devices that I detail you will find this is a good way to change water.
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