Water Changes

[F1 VET]

Fish keeping is a hobby, and as such is not an exact science. Bacteria grows on your substrate, plants, decorations, IN YOUR FILTERS, so changing the water is not removing this completely. Fresh water changes that often will highly promote growth and coloration of fish. Next time you are posed with that type of slam, present them the facts of where bacteria grows and lives, then ask them simply "if they had the choice, would they rather bathe, brush their teeth, and eat in week old water filled with their own feces, old left over food, and the feces of their friends, or in fresh clean water?

Water changes are healthy and promote growth. That's the great thing about a hobby is everyone does it differently and results come in all forms of success. If it works for you keep doing it man


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

I know of little BB that host in open water... the only problem is shocking or killing the BB with new water with bad params but that would kill your fish eventually too.

As long as the water introduced to the tank is filtered for chlorine/chloramines/etc. I don't see the problem with it. Clean water is good and the lack of excess nutrient build up would present itself positive, at least I would think so.

I have addressed the facts but oh well. I dechlor w/ prime and he is growing fast and healthy, just wanted to make sure and be reassured, i know little too no nitrates are benificial for a fish!



#1 S. Vettel

 

[eklikewhoa]

To mimic a large body of water is to replenish exhausted nutrients/minerals utilized by the fish and to remove waste in the form of nitrates so it will never accumalate.

 

[F1 VET]

To mimic a large body of water is to replenish exhausted nutrients/minerals utilized by the fish and to remove waste in the form of nitrates so it will never accumalate.

Never looked at it like that, so in the wild evaporation, runoff and rain are natural wc so an aquarium will need fresh water for more then low nitrates and waste?



#1 S. Vettel

 

[eklikewhoa]

There are a lot of things that occur in the wild that we cannot mimic or can only try and mimic but a large body of water in comparison to a glass cage is more than what we can try.

There are also other things like vegetation, natural occurrences and the like

 

[Puffer puffer pass]

So I hear what you guys are saying about the bacteria isn't in the water it is in the gravel and filters and such... (for the sake of understanding more not to undermine what you guys do and friendly conversation) but in the water is where all of the ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and so on sit which than goes through the filters and gravel and such where the bacteria is... And if I remember correctly isn't all that stuff that you remove from the water changes, what the bacteria eats? I mean on my 90g I have two filters running that over filters by "50g" that I pack full of biomax in the extra places I can to make sure that all of that stuff is removed! When I do tests they all come up within the proper areas they need to be... I still do a water change every week but only about 20-30g. So is it really necessary to change that much water that often?


Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[eklikewhoa]

the food source will always be there in the form of your fish's waste.

The bacteria need to host onto something which is why media is sold and it sits there and grabs food (ammonia/nitrite) from the water column but it's a constant cycle as your fish are constantly producing waste. In our enclosed cages the waste builds up faster than it would in a larger body of water so we attempt to dilute the accumulation with water changes.

Water holds little to no beneficial bacteria, just waste water.

 

[anarekist]

i grab my siphon hose and place the end where i want the water to drain too, usually the yard next to the garage (tank's in the garage)
then i go to the top of my tank and place the siphone tube in the water and let it fill then i lift it straight up to let the water start draining, before all the water in the tube is gone i dunk it back in and wha la, siphon.
i stick the siphon farther down in the tank, cover the tank back up incase a fish decides to jump and just let the water siphon out.
then i disconnect my return pump in the sump, this causes the return to also act as a siphon so my sump starts to fill with water but usually the water level gets too low and breaks the siphon on the return before my sump overflows.
I also disconnect all my circulation pumps.
when most of the water has drained from the tank, around 70% i take out the siphon and bring my garden hose and position it at the top with the lid holding it down so the water will go straight into the tank
i double dose safe on some driftwood that's exposed to air then turn on the faucet.
as the water level rises it touches the part of the drift wood that got coated in safe so its like a slow release system of safe, also i like to point the garden hose water into some drift wood to cause it to splatter to help the chlorine gas off as the tank is refilled.

 

[itsKRUDD]

i grab my siphon hose and place the end where i want the water to drain too, usually the yard next to the garage (tank's in the garage)
then i go to the top of my tank and place the siphone tube in the water and let it fill then i lift it straight up to let the water start draining, before all the water in the tube is gone i dunk it back in and wha la, siphon.
i stick the siphon farther down in the tank, cover the tank back up incase a fish decides to jump and just let the water siphon out.
then i disconnect my return pump in the sump, this causes the return to also act as a siphon so my sump starts to fill with water but usually the water level gets too low and breaks the siphon on the return before my sump overflows.
I also disconnect all my circulation pumps.
when most of the water has drained from the tank, around 70% i take out the siphon and bring my garden hose and position it at the top with the lid holding it down so the water will go straight into the tank
i double dose safe on some driftwood that's exposed to air then turn on the faucet.
as the water level rises it touches the part of the drift wood that got coated in safe so its like a slow release system of safe, also i like to point the garden hose water into some drift wood to cause it to splatter to help the chlorine gas off as the tank is refilled.

That sounds a lot more complicated than it probably actually is haha. I siphon into a bucket... Then fill with a hose... Haha win!


Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[Puffer puffer pass]

the food source will always be there in the form of your fish's waste.

The bacteria need to host onto something which is why media is sold and it sits there and grabs food (ammonia/nitrite) from the water column but it's a constant cycle as your fish are constantly producing waste. In our enclosed cages the waste builds up faster than it would in a larger body of water so we attempt to dilute the accumulation with water changes.

Water holds little to no beneficial bacteria, just waste water.

But if we are filtering all of that out with our filters and our gravel which is also constantly cycling out clean water to keep up with the constant cycle of waste being produced... Than why would we need to change that much water? I'm not sure what you filter your tank with... But mine almost is all run off of biomax so that bacteria is able to eat away as much as it can while still keeping my levels all perfectly fine.

 

[ecoli73]

Unless you have living plants or one of those denitrification things, you can not filter out nitrates and some of the other organic compounds.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app