100% water change good or bad?
- Thread starter The Real 118
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the closer to 100% water change (even all 100) the better! as long as your bacteria is good and you tank is cycled you can do 3 or 4 100% water changes a day. read that in the "animal planets world of cichlids" book. as far as a gravel vac goes juss make one out of a water bottle and hose if you cant afford 1!
If your tap water never changes you are fine with doing a hundred. I have done it plenty of times in the past. Don't do a hundred just really vac real good and leave enough in where your fish are still swiming upright. It's not bad if your tap always reads the same.
You want to keep a constant way of cleaning a tank. I change about 75-90 gallons throughout the week in my 120g and gravel vac the whole thing. Alot of people will say it's bad. I am my aquariums mechanical filtration.
If you do it like this you are saving yourself on alot of things. All I basically have to do is rinse out my filters cartriges on my marineland 400's and 280 filters 2-3 times before I replace them and get a pack of 2 polishing pads for my marineland c-530 every 6 months(don't really need but I like them) and get sponges yearly.
Carbon is useless to me.
You want to keep a constant way of cleaning a tank. I change about 75-90 gallons throughout the week in my 120g and gravel vac the whole thing. Alot of people will say it's bad. I am my aquariums mechanical filtration.
If you do it like this you are saving yourself on alot of things. All I basically have to do is rinse out my filters cartriges on my marineland 400's and 280 filters 2-3 times before I replace them and get a pack of 2 polishing pads for my marineland c-530 every 6 months(don't really need but I like them) and get sponges yearly.
Carbon is useless to me.
yeah, the myth that a big water change when done properly is bad is always out there.
and of course it isn't true at all.
whst IS bad is the people that stripped down their tank, sterilize their gravel, replace all filter media, do a giant water change etc etc all at once.
which of course, leads to a recycling of the tank in most cases.
that is totally different than just a 100% wc by itself..
which is the point most seem to miss...
and of course it isn't true at all.
whst IS bad is the people that stripped down their tank, sterilize their gravel, replace all filter media, do a giant water change etc etc all at once.
which of course, leads to a recycling of the tank in most cases.
that is totally different than just a 100% wc by itself..
which is the point most seem to miss...
whats the difference between a water bottle wit an open end wit a hose attached and ur basic gravel vac? i dont see any. not sayin thats what i did but MONSTER dont be mad cuz u didnt think of it!
FISHY FINGAZ;3243650; said:
Nothing. You can syphon with a bare hose if you have to! I have a half dozen or move gravel vacs, and my favorite is one made from a 1" piece of PVC pipe with a water hose connector attached to the end. Hooked to the water hose, the waste water flows through the hose, right out the door.
Wooowww! So it takes a thread like this to see where everyones head is at. My man, I currently keep all kinds of freshwater. From Wild Discus to Pygocentrus. Bin doin this for 20+ years and I can tell you the ones doing 100% water changes are just plain lucky their tap water closely matches the water in their tank. Thats DANGEROUS! If by mistake your change goes alittle long and youre replacing anything over 50% with tap water make sure the incomming water is crashing against a rock or a piece of wood. This helps dissipate the chlorine thats in your tap water. The chlorine is in there to kill harmful bacteria and can also kill ur fish. You always want some old water to stay in your tank. And you need a good canister filter for your Piranhas. With little to no maintenace youll always have beneficial bacteria to offset that recycle. When keeping Piranhas clean water is paramount. They need clear, cool, oxygen rich water. Anything less and they will think they are in a shrinking pool. Like in their native land and then its elimination time. Although thats inevitable. I dont care who you are, Jack Eves Custou them Piranhas will illiminate each other on they hit maturity. So enjoy the younger years. Is a cool learning experience.
darippa;3243757; said:Wooowww! So it takes a thread like this to see where everyones head is at. My man, I currently keep all kinds of freshwater. From Wild Discus to Pygocentrus. Bin doin this for 20+ years and I can tell you the ones doing 100% water changes are just plain lucky their tap water closely matches the water in their tank.
The water came from the tap in the first place...Why would it not "closely match"?
Thats DANGEROUS! If by mistake your change goes alittle long and youre replacing anything over 50% with tap water make sure the incomming water is crashing against a rock or a piece of wood.
This helps dissipate the chlorine thats in your tap water. The chlorine is in there to kill harmful bacteria and can also kill ur fish. You always want some old water to stay in your tank. And you need a good canister filter for your Piranhas. With little to no maintenace youll always have beneficial bacteria to offset that recycle. When keeping Piranhas clean water is paramount. They need clear, cool, oxygen rich water. Anything less and they will think they are in a shrinking pool. Like in their native land and then its elimination time. Although thats inevitable. I dont care who you are, Jack Eves Custou them Piranhas will illiminate each other on they hit maturity.
It's Jacques
I have heard of many people keeping mature shoals..What are you saying?
So enjoy the younger years. Is a cool learning experience.
Haha..I just read this whole thread and I have to say that nc_nutcase has been 100% right in all his answers. Yes, the OP would do well to purchase a gravel vac and would probably be better off with more biological filtration but his question was can he do 100% w/c to get the tank clean.
nc_nutcase , I could not have explained it better then what you have alread done.
nc_nutcase , I could not have explained it better then what you have alread done.
hi, new here, lurked some but not posted. after viewing this thread i don't know if i'll post much on MFK. you guys seem a lil vicious! lol.
one thing to consider is how long the fish have been in this dirty environment and if the tank has 'old tank syndrome'. if so, a 100% water change could essentially shock the fish and harm them, due to such a large change in the TDS and DOC levels.
i would bring the tank up to a cleaner standard slowly, over the course of at least a few days, by doing partial water changes each day, two per day if you think the fish can handle the change in parameters (TDS, DOC, etc).
(I patiently await the backlash i will receive for this post, as per the thread's common theme.......)
one thing to consider is how long the fish have been in this dirty environment and if the tank has 'old tank syndrome'. if so, a 100% water change could essentially shock the fish and harm them, due to such a large change in the TDS and DOC levels.
i would bring the tank up to a cleaner standard slowly, over the course of at least a few days, by doing partial water changes each day, two per day if you think the fish can handle the change in parameters (TDS, DOC, etc).
(I patiently await the backlash i will receive for this post, as per the thread's common theme.......)
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