Hi all

Just wondered how often you do water changes and if you use RO, HMA or just treated tap water


i do a daily change of about 15% on all 4 of my tanks with treated tap water,

but i am thinking of purchasing an HMA unit

I am doing 30% water changes every other day on all my tanks ( because the babies poo like mad )

what is a hma unit never heard of those

Hma is more or less the same as a RO unit except with an RO you have to mix the water you cant use pure RO water where as with an HMA you can just pour the water straight into the tank you dont even need to use a water conditioner

Hope this helps

I now keep a shreadsheet of my 24 tanks as I was forgetting to water change some tanks and over servicing other.

I try not to over stock my tanks, especially when it comes to plecs. Water change is usually 10 to 30% once or twice a week using rainwater with maybe a bit of bicarb or something to boost my 6 ph water a bit.

If the plecs are young, I will add back the water slowly with a siphon hose and not do quite a large water change all at once.

For the carnivore plecs with a higher tank temperature teamed with meaty foods, I tend to do a water change every third day.

If I am trying to trigger breeding, I do 10%- 25% wc daily and add water a degree or two celcius cooler.

We recently got a 5 filter HMA unit, and it works great Just asked for the fittings to be hosepipe size, and then just attached it.

The flow obviously is a lot slower, but the quality is fab. It's saving me a fortune too as I use filtered water for our own use, so this serves both the fish and us LOL Britax filters were working out at a fiver a month, and we can get the refils for the unit at just under £20 and they should last us a year on the gallonage that they recommend.

The fish seem happier for it too, and as there are no chemicals being added to the water as with de-chlorinators, they have to be happier at less chemicals

bren is there any chance of looking at a brief spread sheet it might help save me some time when I come to put mine up on the pc, prior to starting the fish room....lol...

thanks in advance....

I'm interested in this HMA unit as well. I do 25% change with treated water, twice a week, flourish added for plants on the second change.

I like the idea of no de-chlorinator - that yearly refill at £20 is probably half what I use in de-chlorinator every year !

more input on the HMA topic would help since I also use quite alot of decholorinator, due to regular fry breeding and evry other day water changes...... regards.. LJ

We have a 5 stage HMA filter ..... it's really for purifying drinking water ....... and believe me it tastes good!! We got ours from here http://collinswaterproducts.co.uk/ and I can't recommend him enough. He's great for informing you what you should do, and how to deal with any problems you may have. The only down side is that because the water is being pushed through ceramic (final filter) it runs rather slowly, so may be an idea in a fish room to use a tank or water butt. The other half may be glad of it too coz it's a lot cheaper than buying monthly water filters for the kitchen