20% water changes??

[MrsFrog]

Can someone please explain to me what a 20% water change is and how it is done?? Total beginner here, thanks.

 

[Saspotato]

Basically it means you have to take 20% of the water out of your tank and replace it with new water. Find out how big your tank is and then you will know how much water to take out. With mine, it is a 60L tank and I have a 10L bucket, so I usually do a bucket so I remove a bit less than 20%.

If you are replacing tank water with water with chlorine in it make sure you dechlorinate the water before you put it in the tank - you can do this with powders available in aquariums and pet stores or you can leave the water to sit overnight and it will dechlorinate that way.

I am sure lots of people have different ways of change water but I remove my axolotl and put him in a tub and then I use a siphon hose to remove the water as it also enables me to suck up any waste on the ground. For spot cleans you can use a turkey baster.

 

[MrsFrog]

Okay thanks for that, we are lucky here that our water has no chlorine in it, I live rural so thats a bonus. If my tank is 61cm long and 31cm high, how many liters would that hold approx lol??? I have never fully filled my tank or measured it out and now that my axies are in there I don't want to disrupt everything.

So I would take my axies out when I do water change? And just put them into a tub while I do the job? Sounds easy enough

Also...do you guys think that your axies recognize you? I have a nice big black one and every time I kneel down by the tank he/she will come out and slowly walk right up to my face (which is pressed against the glass lol ), and then he/she will just stand there watching me, its really neat.

 

[kapo]

That's about 58 litres.
How high is your tankwater (under 1/2 way or over or about 3/4 full) in your tank?

Basically however much water you siphon/take out it should be about 1/5 (one fifth) (or 20%) of whatever amount of tankwater you have in the tank. A standard plastic bucket holds just under 10litres of water, though we have some larger 20 and 30litre buckets that my brother picked for us that are handy for the larger tanks.

You don't need to remove your axolotls from the tank when you do a waterchange.

Ours will generally come to the front of the tank, when we're waterchanging or spotcleaning or think food is on offer.

 

[MrsFrog]

Hey neat thanks for working that out for me My water level would be just under half way.