When it comes to water changes, this is your opportunity to remove physical waste from the aquarium. So, let’s say you’re doing a gravel clean. It’s never a good idea to clean all the substrate in the aquarium in one go. There are bacteria in that substrate that play an important part in your aquarium’s health and cleaning it all in one go, will likely upset this biological world and create further issues. It may raise ammonia or nitrite levels which are toxic to your fish and inhabitants. This applies from a simple goldfish bowl to the most advanced marine aquarium. Make sure your water is right. This is more crucial with the greater percentage of water you are changing.
Temperature is important if the water you replacing is considerably cooler or warmer than what your tank inhabitants like. Sudden and regular swings can upset things drastically and even make your fish sick. So, i.e. for a gold fish bowl leave the water you’re changing out overnight before the change in the same room. This way the temperature will be very much the same.
One common mistake made in this situation is owners rinse the substrate under a running tap. The plus side is that the sand is nice and clean, and the downside is that all the good bacteria that was looking after the waste your goldfish creates is now gone. Problems are soon to follow.
So, be sure your water is right, add a water conditioner to remove possible harmful chemicals found in tap water, and it’s always good to condition the water to what your inhabitants prefer it, be it hard or soft water.
As for a reef tank temperature and salinity are important and should always be maintained within the correct range. Hope this helps enlighten you to a couple of basics and I look forward to sharing more tips in future articles.
