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Water Changes and Thermometers

BarryH

Member
Joined
25 Feb 2017
Messages
608
Location
Derbyshire
After many years of keeping fancy goldfish I'm going to use a spare tank for Redmoor roots, Moss and Cardinal Tetras.

Changing the water for goldfish is pretty simple in that I fill containers and let them sit overnight to reach room temperature. I appreciate with a tropical tank the temperatures need to be higher so I'm unsure about adding warm water during water changes. Is it as simple as adding a bit of hot to the container to get to temperature or is there some other method I should use?

Also I was looking at thermometers and wondered if I need to have in the tank or is there another method of checking the temperatures? Looking at the photos in the great threads on here I can't remember seeing a tank that has a thermometer in it.
 
I've always just used warm water straight from the tap, and never had a problem. I have cardinals too.

I have a little cheap glass thermometer tucked away behind plants, like this one: glass-thermometer-for-aquariums Simple and reliable, and not too prominent. I am not at all keen on the stick on ones. I check it daily but have to deliberately look round the back for the temperature, I don't see it from the normal viewing angle.
 
is there some other method I should use?
should isn't the correct word but I have something called a TMV or Thermostatic Mixing Valve which is tucked away under the sink and it's job is to provide a source of water at a constant temperature set by yourself. It makes water changes so much easier in my opinion; when it comes to filling I simply connect a hose between my TMV and aquarium then turn it on, I just dose enough Prime for the whole aquarium - you could of course just fill a watering can from it.

Things to note; be careful if/when buying a TMV you select one that goes down to a low enough temperature as these are mainly used to regulate or restrict the temperature of hot water in public places so don't need to go as low, also remember you need the water supplying the TMV to be hot to begin so if you have a tap that takes ages to get hot (like me) get that going first or run the TMV for a little while.

is there another method of checking the temperatures?
There are some great little digital ones on the market which just rely on a little probe, one step further is to have one that controls your heater. This is something I done after having heaters that did not seem to keep consistent temperatures so I swapped over and now have one of these that controls my heater, Titanium in my case so you would need to set your heater a few degrees above for this method to work. The Elitech controllers have been used in marines for years now and are proven to be reliable so for £20 you can't go far wrong in my opinion, you would just need a sucker to hold the probe on - something like this.

Any questions let me know, even if it's out of curiosity.
 
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