Restarting the aquarium: how to properly change the water?

Every aquarist is periodically faced with the need to restart the aquarium. The frequency of this process depends on the displacement of the water system. The larger its volume, the less often it has to be done. How to do everything correctly, avoiding mistakes and preserving the health of fish, plants and other inhabitants? Anyone who does this for the first time probably asks himself this question. It has its own subtleties and secrets that it will not be superfluous to learn.

Several factors can precede the renewal of the aquarium:

• sharp turbidity of the water, overgrowth of the walls with algae, no changes when changing the water;
• acidification of the soil, accompanied by a characteristic unpleasant odor;
• disease or death of fish or plants;
• desire to change the internal design;
• the inhabitants in the aquarium became cramped;
• mechanical damage to the container.

Each of the reasons has its own subtleties of elimination, which should be adhered to in order to achieve a positive result. But there is also a general algorithm of actions, by performing which it will be easy to eliminate the problem.

You need to start at least a week in advance with the preparation of the required amount of settled water. It will be needed both for temporary overexposure of fish and for replacing the drained liquid. When the water reserves are completed, the restart process can begin.

Before draining the water, remove all electrical appliances: thermostat, filter, aerator, etc. Then move the fish and the rest of the inhabitants of the aquarium into any container suitable for this purpose. To make fish and other aquatic life easier to catch, it is recommended to drain some of the liquid immediately.

After all the living creatures are resettled, vegetation and decorative elements should be removed. Now you can drain the remaining water and remove the soil. The drain is made through a hose with a funnel put on it. Then the empty aquarium should be thoroughly washed.

Being in a private house, especially in the summer, it will be easier to do this. But, as you know, there are no barriers for the purposeful aquarist. This means that Washing a 100 gallon aquarium in a small bathroom is a feasible task.

The container should be washed with hot water using a soft cloth or sponge. The use of any chemical compounds is undesirable. In most cases, the walls of the aquarium can be easily cleaned of plaque and dirt.

Some aquarium fish lovers use acetic acid. A small amount of it is applied to a cotton pad, which is used to wipe the glass. This method, although effective, is dangerous: acid that is not completely washed out can be detrimental to the inhabitants of the aquarium. You need to be extremely careful with her. Firstly, actions can be performed only with rubber gloves, and secondly, the contact points with the pressure of hot running water for 5-10 minutes.

After the container has been washed, it can be dried in the sun or simply wiped dry with a towel. This is necessary in order to see uncleaned areas or remaining plaque. Fill a clean aquarium with tap water, which must be drained after 24 hours.

Absolutely all components of the aquarium must be thoroughly cleaned and, if necessary, disinfected.

1. Priming. It needs to be washed several times, debris removed, too small particles can be sifted out.
2. Plants. If the same vegetation is used, then it should be cleaned of plaque and dirt, rotted roots and leaves removed and re-planted in the ground.
3. Devices involved in the functioning of the aqua system. These include: thermostat, filter, aerator, heater, spray, etc. They should also be removed from plaque and prepared for further work.

Now everything is ready for filling the container and putting it into operation.

First thing soil is laid out on the bottom... Then you can fill water. This is done through the same hose with which it was drained, only without a funnel. Having poured water to the bottom, it is necessary to level the ground or give it the desired shape, for example, make a depression on one side of the surface, and a hill on the other. Further, so that the jet from the hose does not wash it away, you need to substitute a wide plate and continue filling the aquarium.

If the water drained from the container is suitable for use, then it is poured first of all and topped up with clean, settled. When the fluid level is about half the norm, plants should be planted and decorative elements installed. Then mount all structures and electrical equipmentretrieved from the aquarium.

After installing all the units and putting them into operation, you can relocate snails and fish... Leave the vessel unfilled for now and carefully observe the condition of its inhabitants. For the next 3 days, add settled water in small portions, gradually bringing it to the desired level.

It will be necessary to restart the aquarium urgently in two cases: a sharp outbreak of illness among residents of the domestic aqua system or mechanical damage to the vessel.

In the event that the inhabitants of the aquarium are infected with an infectious disease, they are placed in a separate jar for quarantine.... Depending on the disease, procedures are carried out to treat them.

The walls of the aquarium are treated with a special disinfectant solution. It is better to get rid of infected plants and get new ones. The decor components and technical components should also be carefully wiped with a disinfectant. After quarantine has passed, the system can be started up.

If the glass breaks or the tightness of the seam is broken, you need to remove all the contents from the container as soon as possible, preserving the water for overexposing the fish, if possible, repair the aquarium or buy a new one. Then do everything as during a normal reboot.

In keeping an aquarium, as in any other process, everything is fine in moderation. Sometimes the cause of cloudy, green water lies in an imbalance in the natural bacterial balance. If it is not restored, you can restart the aqua system an infinite number of times, boil the soil and "wash with bleach" the walls of the container. Going to such extremes is not worth it.

Reasons for repeated cloudiness of water after restart.

1. Complete replacement of water and, as a result, an insufficient number of beneficial microorganisms. Exit: perform a 30% water change from a functioning aquarium to populate and reproduce the desired ecosystem as soon as possible. If there is nowhere to get water, bacteria can be bought in a specialty store. The filter sponge cannot be disinfected or boiled; it will be enough to rinse it well in water at room temperature.
2. Overfeeding fish. If the inhabitants of the aquarium do not eat their food within 10 minutes, it settles to the bottom and begins to decompose. Solution: Reduce the dose so that there is no excess food left or use feeders that make it easy to remove the remaining food.
3. Overpopulation of the aquarium. This applies not only to fish, but also to its other inhabitants. Excessive vegetation of plants also contributes to cloudy water and the appearance of green plaque on the walls. Actions: move some of the fish or aquatic plants to another container or purchase a larger aquarium.

The clarity of the water directly depends on the number of plants and the length of daylight hours. There should be a lot of vegetation in the aquarium, and the lighting will be enough to turn on for 6-7 hours.

Next, watch the video on how to restart the aquarium.