This page contains Customer Comments and our Replies about Water Conditioner. Click here to go back to the first page in this discussion of Water Conditioner for aquariums.

Put the container on the floor near your aquarium. If the floor is cold, put one or more small rugs under the container to insulate it from the cold floor. Get a clean pan and scoop water from your aquarium into the container on the floor, until the water is deep enough to cover your fish plus an extra inch or two. So if your deepest fish is 3" from top to bottom, make sure the water in the container is at least 5" deep.

Use the appropriate size fish net to move your fish from your aquarium to the container on the floor. Then clean your aquarium. Be sure you get all the fish food out of the gravel.

But here is something important do not overreact and try to sterilize the aquarium or gravel. Just rinse it until it is clean, then fill your aquarium with tap water, and add the correct amount of water conditioner. Also add 1 Tablespoon of Aquarium Salt to each 5 gallons of water in your aquarium, and add 1 drop per gallon of Quick Cure. Do not add anything else.

Turn on your filter and let it run for an hour or two. Watch the fish in the container on the floor. If they start to gasp at the surface or show other signs of stress, you will need to aerate their water or put them back in the aquarium. But waiting at least an hour before you put them back in the aquarium will give the chemicals in the water conditioner more time to neutralize the chemicals that are in the tap water.

In our facility we have a set of plastic measuring spoons with 1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 teaspoons. The 1/8 teaspoon is the closest to the 1/10 that you need to make 1-gallon of water, and the 1/8 would probably work for you. A little bit of extra water conditioner will not hurt but don't greatly overdue it.

My second idea, as I remember the AquaSafe container has a dropper built into the top. Carefully drip drops of AquaSafe into a teaspoon and count the number of drops it takes to fill a teaspoon.

Lets say it takes 53 drops. I don't know the number, and 53 is just an example that is probably not the number you will get. But you count the actual number. If you get 53, then divide by 10 to get 5.3, and round UP slightly to 6. Then add 6 drops of AquaSafe to the 1 gallon jug of water.

I've never done this myself so I can't tell you the answer based on experience, but I explained this method to you, because I've done many similar things in my facilities, and after I've done it, I get a marking pen and write something like, "6 drops per gallon" on the container, so I don't have to measure it again.

Here is something to be cautious about. Lets say many months from now, you use up all the AquaSafe and buy a new bottle. Be sure to re-test the new bottle, because the hole in the top may not be the same size, so the drops may not be the same size, so the number of drops you add to the gallon jug may not be the same, and you'll want to re-test the new bottle.

Whew, I'm about out of ideas. I hope some of this helps you. Click here to read more about Aquarium Measuring and Calculating. 

You say you change the water in your fish bowls every four days, which is about twice a week, as we recommend. Most people find they are more reliable, when they change the water every Monday and every Thursday, or on a similar combination of days each week.

When you change water in your fish bowls, be sure to change at most 20% of the water on any one day. Your one-gallon fish bowls hold four quarts, and in each bowl you probably keep about three quarts of water, which is 3 x 32 oz. = 96 oz. So 20% is about 19 oz. in your fish bowls.

We recommend you use bottled drinking water in fish bowls and not de-ionized or distilled water. You can make your own fish bowl water from tap water by adding the correct amount of high quality water conditioner, and then letting the container stand for three days, before you add that water to your fish bowl.