Water Change

Now that our fish are eating food, they are also producing solid waste.  That means that our tank is now getting dirty with poop and uneaten food.  To keep the water clean, we test the water quality (watch for a post about that next week) and twice a week we change 10% of the water.  How do we do a water change?

First, we remove about six gallons of water.

Next, one of the teachers uses a suction device (baster or siphon) to remove waste from the bottom of the tank.  The water FREEZES our hands!!

Our debate today was is this uneaten food or is it fish poop? What do you think?

Finally, we connect a hose to our sink and run the hose across the room to the tank. We turn on the water until the tank is full.  We also add a chemical called Prime to the tank to kill the chorine and any ammonia that is in the water. (Mrs. Mali, Mrs. Davis, and Mr. Mike from Premier Pet Supply did some math to determine how much Prime to be right for the amount of new water and also we used math to mark the tank with a sharpie so we would know where the 10% water level is.)