[APD] Water changes and temperature matching

[Scott Scheibe <dsscheibe at earthlink_net>]

        What I have done is bought four 5 gallon water bottles and four 
submersible heaters. Put one in each bottle and plug them in for a few 
hours before I do a water change.  I put chlorine remover and a table spoon 
of aquarium salt in each bottle before filling it. Three of them I fill at 
a Glacier water vending machine which RO filters and double UV treats the 
water which is zero hardness and 6.0 PH.  The other I fill with tap water 
which in Phoenix, AZ is 20+ GH and 8 PH  This keeps the tank around 10 GH 
and 7.4 PH
        I didn't need the heaters until this winter, until the weather 
cooled off.  Normally I have to fill the bottles a few days ahead, let them 
set until they come down to room temperature which is about 78 in the 
summer.  Water comes out of the tap at 90+ F. in the summer.. If they are 
too cool I could put them out in the sun for a little while.  I use a 
thermometer on fishing line so I can drop it in the bottle for a few 
minutes to measure the temperature.
        I just got back into having tanks again last spring when I bought 
a 44 gallon tall corner tank in a clearance sale. I currently have two 
black marble angels, some long fin blue dannios, some julie cory's, a candy 
strip plecostomus, an algae eater and a black mystery snail.
        I'm slowly working making it a planted tank, it has a couple misc. 
sword plants, floating Egeria Densa, what I think we (pet shop in the same 
shopping center I work at) have identified as a Needle Leaf Lud (Ludwigia 
arcuata) which I bought at Petco as a miscellaneous potted plant.  I need 
more lighting but the hood takes a weird sized 18 3/4"x 4 1/16 light strip 
which no one seems to have.  The hood has two windows for it, but only came 
with one strip.  20" strips are too wide and won't fit in the front between 
the original light and the feeding door or won't clear the penguin 330 
filter if put in the back position..  I'm trying to see if Petco where I 
got the tank can order me one.
        I also have a 10 gallon which has the 5 remaining seprae tetras 
and one blood fin tetra which I used to start the 44 and then found they 
were a bit too aggressive for a community tank.  It also has an algae eater 
and  the two apple snails which got moved out of the 44 after they made 
short work of the first sword plant I put in it..
        I have a 2 1/2 gallon tank I use as an isolation tank that has a 
couple of guppies and a rams horn snail in it.  Occasionally one of the 
tetras ends up in it after it's fins get all tore up.  I have found if one 
is a bit weak the others will pick on it until they kill it..


   D. Scott Scheibe
<mailto:dsscheibe at earthlink_net> 
<http://home.earthlink.net/~dsscheibe/>

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