I read that the maximum percent of water change you can do is 50% ? Is there a reason why you can't change 70% of the water? Can someone explain to me why you can't.
maximum percent of water change?
- Thread starter Death03
- Start date
I read in another forum and here is what it says:
"Depends on the bioload of your tank, some tanks would need the 70-75% weekly to keep safe levels. Waterchanges do not effect your biofiltration if you do an appropriate waterchange for your bioload. If your tank is producing enough waste to warrent waterchanges that large to keep the nitrates low and everything in top condition then to keep healthy fish you honestly dont have an option but to do the large waterchanges(well outside of upgrading the tank and filtration). Your tank is a human made human controlled ecosystem, you are essentially "god" over your tank. You can pack it down with fish and filtration but for your little creatures to survive your going to have to do the work necessary to promote survival.
For instance my 100G SA/CA tank is overstocked, it also has a ton of filtration to grow the bacteria needed to keep the ammonia and nitrite low, in consequence if I didnt do about 50% WCs every weeks my nitrate level would creep beyond my preference of under 20ppm in a weeks time. So I do either 1 50% change or 2 25% changes in a week depending on my time frame.
Point being let *YOUR* tank tell you how much it needs, sure doing a large WC for the hell of it every so often isnt going to hurt anything. But doing constantly large waterchanges on tanks with a low bioload will hinder the growth of bacteria simply because they are not going to have enough food ie fish waste to grow to approrpiate colonies."
Is this correct?
"Depends on the bioload of your tank, some tanks would need the 70-75% weekly to keep safe levels. Waterchanges do not effect your biofiltration if you do an appropriate waterchange for your bioload. If your tank is producing enough waste to warrent waterchanges that large to keep the nitrates low and everything in top condition then to keep healthy fish you honestly dont have an option but to do the large waterchanges(well outside of upgrading the tank and filtration). Your tank is a human made human controlled ecosystem, you are essentially "god" over your tank. You can pack it down with fish and filtration but for your little creatures to survive your going to have to do the work necessary to promote survival.
For instance my 100G SA/CA tank is overstocked, it also has a ton of filtration to grow the bacteria needed to keep the ammonia and nitrite low, in consequence if I didnt do about 50% WCs every weeks my nitrate level would creep beyond my preference of under 20ppm in a weeks time. So I do either 1 50% change or 2 25% changes in a week depending on my time frame.
Point being let *YOUR* tank tell you how much it needs, sure doing a large WC for the hell of it every so often isnt going to hurt anything. But doing constantly large waterchanges on tanks with a low bioload will hinder the growth of bacteria simply because they are not going to have enough food ie fish waste to grow to approrpiate colonies."
Is this correct?
Depends on the sensitivity of the fish. Too rapid of a parameter change can stress some fish leading to problems, so smaller more frequent changes are recommended.
With my goldfish I usually do 75% water changes, it's more time efficient for me and they are tanks that don't mind it.
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With my goldfish I usually do 75% water changes, it's more time efficient for me and they are tanks that don't mind it.
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I did an 80% water change on my 55 once and ended up recycling it so I only do a 50% max once a week.
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there is nothing saying that you cant. but unless your situation warrents making that bbig of a change, i wouldnt. first reason that is mentioned above, water parameter change. better to keep them as constant as possible as to not stress your fish out. the second is money. if it is not needed, why waste the money on water, heating that water, the chemicals and treatments that have to go into your water. doing more water changes than is necessary is kinda like throwing money down the drain.
I regulatory change as much as 90% of the water in my tanks. I do it weekly. Most of the work/time is just getting started so once I am going it is easy enough to leaving it draining for another 15/20 minutes and refilling. I used to do about 50% but eventually I saw how much better the fish were doing, how much clearer the water was, and how I no longer had any algae, with the 90% so I have stuck with it. I have never had a cycling issue in many years. As long as you have lots of good biomedia (I use Matrix) and treat (I use Prime) the amount of water you change should not affect your cycle. The only argument I can think of for smaller is that you don't want to have a sudden massive change in water parameters. If I missed a few weeks of changes, I would likely build up to 90% again rather than do it right away.
I once came across a person selling Discus cichlids. He had a 125 gallon tank, filtered by Eheim 2262 and a 30 gallon refugium. He told me he did 80% WC EVERYDAY !!
He can get away with it as he had the refugium, so he stated.
Anyways, that ended my curiosity about keeping Discus cichlids.....geez I want a life !!
He can get away with it as he had the refugium, so he stated.
Anyways, that ended my curiosity about keeping Discus cichlids.....geez I want a life !!
Ya I do huge w/c's up to 80%. I think having a sump really holds a lot of bb so the tank does not recycle.
I've seen this done with discuss (and fry) a lot...huge water changes. But the fact that you mentioned he was selling them is the reason for the seemingly drastic water changes. By changing the water everyday he is eliminating growth stunting hormones which all fish release. Basically, he was making his discuss grow faster so he could sell them for more money. You wouldn't need to do 80% water changes everyday if you ever got discuss. Don't be discouraged, lol.
