Optimal water change schedule

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Yea ODing on water conditioners isn't usually a problem from my experience, because it can be used to maintain already treated water as well. As for adding my conditioner I use Prime, and I usually pour the prime into the last gallon of water and then distribute it throughout the aquarium. I usually only add prime 3x a week, assuming the leftovers will sort of "carry over" to the next days water change.


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I don't think there is an issue of over WC as long as you prepare the water right. Discus keepers do daily water change, sometimes as much as 95% down to level the fish are flipping sideway.

Dechlorinizer is an immediate chemical reaction and works instantly. So you can dose into the tank before filling up with tap water. I always use twice the recommended amount to safeguard fluctuation of the chlorine levels as I read that water company occasionally over chlorine the water system in storm events or piping repair work.

With messy big CAs, I do 50% to 75% WC in my 125 weekly and would do more if I have the time.
 
Thank you for correcting me on the conditioners, for some reason I assumed they weren't instant because when I started there was a guy that put the new water into a tub a few days before a water change to let the "dechlorinaters work." For some reason it made sense to me at the time lol.


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Michael6945c said:
Thank you for correcting me on the conditioners, for some reason I assumed they weren't instant because when I started there was a guy that put the new water into a tub a few days before a water change to let the "dechlorinaters work." For some reason it made sense to me at the time lol.


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Click to expand...

I am constantly learning new things I thought I already knew about. Things I learned from people I thought really knew their stuff, but apparently didn't. It's easy to come across as someone who knows what they are talking about in this hobby, but not know much at all.

Then there are topics that affect the fish very little, but are still very controversial in the keeper hobby (sort of like water changes LOL). Everyone has a different method of changing their water or dosing conditioner, but almost all of them work. I have been planning a large discus tank I want to have up, running and stocked in a year to year and a half, so I have been doing a lot of research and I am finding that discus care almost always works no matter what method you use (or so all the reading would have me believe LOL).


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If doing the 10% daily water changes makes you feel good, knock yourself out. But they're not necessary.

Unless the tank is polluted with lots of excess food, a good 50% or so water change weekly is plenty.

Exactly what parasites would aquatic fish get from terrestrial earthworms? I bought (from a local bait store) and fed earthworms to cichlids for years before figuring out how easy it is to culture my own red wigglers.

Also, powerfeeding cichlids by feeding them every day can and will shorten their lives (fatty deposits on their livers and other impacts of obesity). Skip a couple of days of feedings per week and your fish will live longer.

Matt
 
dogofwar said:
If doing the 10% daily water changes makes you feel good, knock yourself out. But they're not necessary.

Unless the tank is polluted with lots of excess food, a good 50% or so water change weekly is plenty.

Exactly what parasites would aquatic fish get from terrestrial earthworms? I bought (from a local bait store) and fed earthworms to cichlids for years before figuring out how easy it is to culture my own red wigglers.

Also, powerfeeding cichlids by feeding them every day can and will shorten their lives (fatty deposits on their livers and other impacts of obesity). Skip a couple of days of feedings per week and your fish will live longer.

Matt
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Sorry. I got my articles confused. I had to go back and look it up to make sure I got my info correct. It's not disease they carry, but pesticides. Chances are that if you buy them from a bait shop, they are harvested from an area free of pesticides. Sorry for the confusion and misinformation.

I have been looking into feeding schedules and noticed several people who recommend a day of fasting once or twice a week. I think once my cichlids are clearly out of baby size, I will give them a day of fasting.


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So it IS ok to feed night crawlers as long as they're not from a treated garden? Out of curiosity, what are wax worms? Same thing? My jag suddenly decided he hates Hikari, so I'm looking for an occasional alternative, I hear night crawlers are high in protein, but until now haven't really thought to feed them as potentially as a main diet


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For a predatory fish like a jag, fasting longer than a day or two is probably more natural and suited to their alimentary system.

He won't hate Hikari after a couple of days of fasting...

Night crawlers are fine. Check out culturing red wiggler worms (google red wiggler worm cluture).

Most pesticides are lethal to earthworms and red wigglers. So if the worms that you collect on the street are alive and healthy looking, then they most likely haven't been treated with pesticides. The impact of trace amounts (sub-lethal) of pesticides in worms on fish that consume them is at most going to maybe, possibly...over years contribute to some bio-accumulation of these chemicals in the fish. Certainly much less than anything you eat that comes out of a natural body of water. And you're not planning to eat your jag, I don't believe.

Matt

Matt
 
dogofwar said:
For a predatory fish like a jag, fasting longer than a day or two is probably more natural and suited to their alimentary system.

He won't hate Hikari after a couple of days of fasting...

Night crawlers are fine. Check out culturing red wiggler worms (google red wiggler worm cluture).

Most pesticides are lethal to earthworms and red wigglers. So if the worms that you collect on the street are alive and healthy looking, then they most likely haven't been treated with pesticides. The impact of trace amounts (sub-lethal) of pesticides in worms on fish that consume them is at most going to maybe, possibly...over years contribute to some bio-accumulation of these chemicals in the fish. Certainly much less than anything you eat that comes out of a natural body of water. And you're not planning to eat your jag, I don't believe.

Matt

Matt
Click to expand...

You raise an interesting point with the street thing, though I don't think you intended to. :) Worms collected near streets have often been exposed to things like oil, antifreeze and other chemicals commonly found in cars that I personally wouldn't want in my body in any concentration.

And there are strains of worms that have developed immunities to some toxic chemicals just like how many bugs are not effected by chemicals that use to kill them. Over generations of being exposed to these chemicals (and a worm generation is WAY faster than a human one, which is why many insects evolve faster than large mammals), there would be a very small percentage of worms would become immune to the pesticides they were exposed to (mostly on accident as other bugs were being targeted). They would pass that gene on to their offspring who would continue to thrive while those without the gene suffered and became weak or died. In the animal kingdom, the strongest of the species gets to mate and even worms are no exception. So eventually those without the immunity gene would die out or become incredibly rare to find.

If you are going to feed earthworms, I would recommend either getting them yourself from a wooded area at least 1000 years from anything man made or buying from a local fish store. I did some research after my last post here and found out that worms are harvested locally about 75% of the time because earthworms don't last long in those refrigerators at the store because of temperatures below what they are use to and poor soil they are kept in (apparently worms ingest a lot of feces, but secrete only the worst parts they can't handle and when concentrations of those secretions gets too high because they continue to run it through their bodies, they die). And most of the folks who collect them do it in the woods to ensure there are no chemicals that could likely be passed on to the fish and then potentially to you if you keep the fish to eat. There are FDA laws that require worm collectors to inform the seller where the worms were collected from and with what methods.


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