# How do you do 100% water changes



## LisaLB24 (Oct 26, 2010)

Hi, all. I am currently preparing to start a sorority in a planted, cycled 10g tank. I have purchased the females but noticed that one has slight popeye and one has pretty severe fin rot that I didn't notice until I got her home and she flared. Not sure what to do. I'm currently keeping these two girls in salt baths and have ordered jungle fungus eliminator. I'm afraid to add the other girls to the tank, because I don't want to start potential fighting all over when I add these two girls after they've mended. So, currently I'm doing 100% water changes for all seven girls who are still in their cups. They are sitting on a heating pad wrapped in towels (I tested with cups with just water) and the temp is remaining a constant 77. I don't mind the work but I'm concerned about stressing the fish. What is the best way to do a water change, causing as little stress as possible?


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## JackisLost (Feb 26, 2011)

I had always read doing 20-50% water changes is better than doing 100% changes. Water conditions change too much around the fish and it is harder for the fish to acclimate. Personally, I would never do 100% unless I have harsh medications that I want to get rid of or something is seriously wrong with the fish's environment


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## LisaLB24 (Oct 26, 2010)

Thanks for the quick reply! The fact that they are still in the pet store cups to me suggests that there is something seriously wrong with their environments. And once I begin medicating with the fungus eliminator I will need to do 100% daily changes, right?


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## SmokeNLark (Jul 22, 2010)

On anything uncycled, there should be 100% changes.

As for the water changes for the cups, I would get some kind of container and fill it with your treated water. Let it sit and reach the same temp as the water the girls are in now. then I would pour out a bit of their water and add some new. Do this 2 or 3 times over a half hour or so then pour as much water out of the cup as you can (without spilling the fish) and fill with the new water. I think that would be the easiest way. I'd do it every day too until you can get them all in the tank.


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## LisaLB24 (Oct 26, 2010)

Thanks. Last night I tried netting them out and that was horrific. I was really torn between the stress of netting and the stress of bad water. It's a bad situation either way. I'm now thinking of getting the other girls in the sorority and just adding these two after they've healed. Any idea how long it might take to fully heal? My girl with popeye already looks SO much better. I think she'll be good in a couple more days. I may wait til she's ready to add them all to the 10 gallon. A couple more days in cups won't be too bad. The fin rot is bad though. About half her tail is dissolved almost to her body. It looks fine until she flares and then it's really obvious. How long might it take to clear up such a severe case? 

Wow, that was really rambling!


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## SmokeNLark (Jul 22, 2010)

I'm not sure about how long that will take. I've never had to deal with fin rot. And my one betta with popeye lasted a while. Try looking around in the diseases section. There's good info in there. Do a search.

I've never had a sorority, but from what I hear, it's best to add them all at once. And changing the water in the cups doesn't even require a net. If I were you, I would wait or change where all the decor in the tank is before you re-add all the fish so none of them have established their own spots.


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## Torat (Dec 22, 2010)

For the fin rot, I had Ulmo in the quarantine tank for about a month. I went between bouts of medication and salt baths, relaxation. I did it this way (for so long) because I wanted to be 100% sure he was good. Plus he's a tail biter, so he'd heal, bite his tail, get the rot again after a few days of biting, etc., when he was in his own tank right away after treatment. He has been in his quarantine for about two months, because I want him to grow enough out and show that he's not biting himself any further before he goes back in his original tank.


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## scootshoot (Oct 11, 2010)

JackisLost said:


> *I had always read doing 20-50% water changes is better than doing 100% changes.* Water conditions change too much around the fish and it is harder for the fish to acclimate. Personally, I would never do 100% unless I have harsh medications that I want to get rid of or something is seriously wrong with the fish's environment


Agree with this. Less I have some sort of toxic bacteria killing off my fishies, I much prefer to do more frequent changes at 20pct 3-4 times a week as opposed to one big one.


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## Lion Mom (Jun 14, 2010)

scootshoot said:


> Agree with this. Less I have some sort of toxic bacteria killing off my fishies, I much prefer to do more frequent changes at 20pct 3-4 times a week as opposed to one big one.


Are you talking about filtered tanks or unfiltered?


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## Thunderloon (Feb 6, 2011)

The jungle has dosage and time constraints on the label. Usually a dose is four days soak without change. You can re-dose daily but it'll use 4x the material.

Water changes in cups... I actually use a small air line to siphon out the bad stuff at the bottom until the fish's height of water is left then slowly pour in the new aged treated and temp controlled water while still siphoning. Since I make the water a gallon at a time this means that with mixture I've diluted 30% of the original water by anywhere from 20 to 80x. Its effectively a 100% water change. For your two cuppies I'd say do the same. The wastes will almost all be down near bottom where you can siphon them off.


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## LisaLB24 (Oct 26, 2010)

I used my babies blue nose sucker bulb to suck out the gunk from the bottom tonight and then poured out most all the water. This worked much better but still just seemed really stressful. I might clean tomorrow and Thursday and then Friday night add the 5 girls to the tank. I think it will be less stressful for all of us  I'll try to rearrange the tank and add the sick girls in after they've healed and if it doesn't work, I'll just have to let them me solos! Thanks for all the advice! And yes, I will be buying a new nose sucker for the baby!


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## SmokeNLark (Jul 22, 2010)

scootshoot said:


> Agree with this. Less I have some sort of toxic bacteria killing off my fishies, I much prefer to do more frequent changes at 20pct 3-4 times a week as opposed to one big one.


I do agree with this on a filtered tank. On an unfiltered tank, if there are no 100% changes, ammonia builds up very very fast. it doesn't matter if you do 20% every other day. When there are no bacteria to help break down ammonia and fish waste is allowed to stay in the tank, the production of the ammonia is faster. Uncycled tanks need to have 100% changes and the substrate rinsed to get all of the nasties out. I would never have an uncycled tank with no 100% changes. All of my uncycled tanks get at least 1 100% change a week, usually with a 50% change in between.


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