Help with water change 14g bio

[phillybrock]

I have a 14 g biocube in which from what I'm told I should do a 25-50% water change a week which I'm doing now every Sunday. My question is A. Is that true? And B. How does one get the fish waste that's at the very bottom. Pretty hard to get to with coral/rock. When I had my 100g I used a hose ofcourse but u can't really on a tank this small....any ideas or reccomendations? Thanks

 

[shrimpy brains]

I would only do a bout 10percent weekly. In a 14g that would be about 1-1/2g.

If you accumulate alot of detritous, you could just blow thru the bottom with a powerhead just before siphoning out water for change. But a good cleanup crew and adequate flow should help prevent buildup.

Just my .02!

 

[phillybrock]

Great thanks! I have a power head facing up for the wave look.... Should it be faced differently?

 

[jennm]

10% should suffice but your water parameters will tell you if you're changing enough.

You can get a small siphon vacuum, appropriately sized to a small tank.

Jenn

 

[phillybrock]

Thanks

 

[eliphant]

You could use the small airline tubing to suck up the detritus on the bottom

 

[toeside]

Shrimpy Brains;502609 wrote: ... you could just blow thru the bottom with a powerhead just before siphoning out water for change...

I my experience, this causes problems in a nano. I lost a fish once this way, and I suspect it was from the sudden release of so much waste into a small volume of water. You might want to quarantine your fish first if you do this.

I use the typical gravel-cleaning attachment on a siphon hose, being careful not to stir up big clouds of sediment. Because of limited room to work, I'll sometimes collect a gallon or two of old tank water into a bucket, "rinse" my rock and corals with a turkey baster in it, then let them hang out in the sump (or another bucket) to give room for vacuuming sand and cleaning glass.

I like to add back fresh salt mix in stages. First after drawing off rinse water, and then after each gallon or two removed while vacuuming. Of course you'll want to have sufficient water ready ahead of time, and make sure the salinity of it matches what is in your tank. This usually ends up being more than a 10% change... more like 25%+, but it's never caused me any problems.

 

[dakota9]

I used a small aquarium vacuum (meant for use on a Betta tank) when I had my 14g BC. You don't get all the detritus, but you get enough. I also changed about 4 gallon of water out every other week.....

I'm pretty certain that a 14g BC is really no where close to an actual 14g standard volume. Draining out the 4 gallons, the tank was only about half full,,,,,

 

[phillybrock]

Thanks Dakota always a big help. But toeside wouldn't removing rock and coral stress out your fish and coral if u did it often

 

[toeside]

phillybrock;502679 wrote: But toeside wouldn't removing rock and coral stress out your fish and coral if u did it often

That's a valid concern, but as long a you're reasonably careful, your corals will be OK. Sure they'll close up, but moving them to the same tank water for a short period shouldn't be a problem. I've never lost any doing it. As for fish, I normally leave them in the display during maintenance.