A lot of people flinch at the mere word "water change". Dirt, stains and puddles everywhere. Either a bucket topples over, some water spills out of the hose or the dried dirt from the last water change crumbles out. And if it's not that, the inexperienced aquarium owner sucks in the first sip of water straight away. Sounds like a horror scenario and it's really not pretty, but it's part of the game. But let's be honest, nowadays it doesn't have to be like that, it really doesn’t. With a little practice, the accidents can all be averted.
With the right equipment, such as the JBL PROCLEAN AQUA IN OUT Complete , JBL PROCLEAN AQUA EX 20-45 and JBL PROCLEAN AQUA EX 45-70 substrate cleaners, their self-priming properties make it easy to move the water into the bucket without sucking it in with your mouth. However, that is not what today's blog post is about. If you would like to learn more about mulm care and substrate cleaning, take a look at this myJBL blog post: Here’s how you clean your aquarium substrate correctly! .
The clean water change
Today let’s talk about making the water change less messy, to save the living room carpet from getting ruined, even when you’re a bit careless. With the JBL PROCLEAN AQUA EX 45-70 , you can easily carry out a partial water change with substrate cleaning for mulm care, in aquariums from 45-70 cm. If you remove the middle section from the transparent suction device, you can even carry out a water change with an aquarium height of 20 cm. You can even reach hard-to-reach spots without sucking off the substrate thanks to its specially shaped sediment bell. The dedicated "POWER WHIRL” makes all this possible.
But what makes the JBL PROCLEAN AQUA IN OUT Complete different from a conventional device? The water is sucked directly from the aquarium and delivered to the nearest washbasin via the water jet pump. The automatic suction device is set in motion by the suction of the water jet at the tap. It is only important to turn on the water briefly for the start-up process. After that, it flows automatically. If the water has to flow "uphill", which is a physical impossibility, a slight difference in height uphill can be overcome with the running tap. It thus also works if the washbasin is higher than the aquarium. Your tap in the bathtub can also be used. Its multiple adapters make the installation child's play and it’s easy to remove again once the water change is finished. If 8 m of hose is not long enough, the set can be extended by another 8 m to a total of 16 m with JBL PROCLEAN AQUA IN-OUT EXTENSION .
You get the water for refilling by flipping the lever on the water jet pump, right there from the nearest tap, where you’ve just drained off the dirty water. You do not have to make any changes to the set up. The hoses are secured from slipping off with the enclosed JBL ClipSafe Vario - from now on everything runs automatically. The substrate cleaner adds the fresh water to the aquarium via a soft jet.
So what’s the biggest advantage? If you need larger quantities of water to fill up, you will get tired of lugging the buckets. Backache shouldn’t be a consequence of aquarium keeping. Even if you only change 30 % of the water every 14 days, you will quickly accumulate several 100 litres of water a month that have to be moved. The JBL PROCLEAN AQUA IN OUT Complete takes care of that completely for you. All you have to do is start it and finish it.
Regularly exchanging smaller quantities provides the necessary balance and dilution of waste products. It is better than exchanging large quantities less often.
Ultimately, it's a matter of taste. For small aquariums, lugging a bucket might be just as quick as connecting the JBL PROCLEAN AQUA IN OUT Complete . For larger quantities of water and for avoiding mess, the In-Out set offers the greater convenience.
Water treatment at the right time
Now you are surely asking yourself: how do you add the water conditioner and other important additives? Since you cannot prepare it in a bucket beforehand, add the water conditioner directly when you fill up the water so that it spreads directly and can develop its effect. If the water is not filled up within 15 minutes, you can split the dose and add it in half the time. Water conditioners such as JBL Biotopol are thus added before and during the water change, fertilisers ( JBL PROFLORA Ferropol or JBL ProScape Fe +Microelements ) and other care products ( JBL Denitrol , JBL Acclimol or JBL Clynol ) only 15 min after the partial water change.
