100% water change good or bad?

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nc_nutcase;3242711; said:
The bacteria that makes up our "biological ecosystem" lives/grows on surfaces and does not live free floating in the water... therefore changing 100% of the surfaces is a bad idea, but changing 100% of the water is not...

Naturally if you neglect to add dechlorinator then the high level of chlorine may harm your bacterial colony, but this is the result of not adding dechlorinator, not the result of a 100% water change...
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my water is GREAT for my fish .. never had a problem .. also did a 90% w/c once and most of my fish lived .. but it was because of a leak .. but its still not something that i would suggest people do all the time .. why not do smaller but more frequent w/c?
 
im not saying i am right .. i am def. not the most experienced fish keeper here .. but i just dont see it as being the best ideas .. again .. i could be 100% wrong
 
do NOT do 100% water changes man, that is SO bad for the fish, i would never do more than 50% at a time, unless the fish are sick and its an emergency
 
Twisted Penguin… I confess seeing people give inaccurate advice to others on a forum makes me grouchy…

Iffrat… I am not promoting that we should all be doing 100% water changes on a regular basis. I am saying labeling them “a bad idea” is inaccurate. There are a couple of precautions that should be taken, but if they are, then a 100% water change is completely safe.

You are correct in the idea that we should be doing smaller, regular water changes. But when something does go wrong (such as a tank leaking in your case or the tank being overly dirty in the OP’s case) we should be able to get accurate information as to if it is safe to do 100% water changes if/when necessary.
 
Polyptasaurus;3242829; said:
do NOT do 100% water changes man, that is SO bad for the fish, i would never do more than 50% at a time, unless the fish are sick and its an emergency
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Please explain how it is bad for the fish...

If it is bad for the fish, then why would it be acceptible if they were sick? That kinda sounds the opposite of rational logic...

I do hate seeing such bad information spread with such passion... and yes it makes me grouchy...
 
100% every now and again will not hurt, as long as the tank is healthy in the first place. If the tank is in it's first year, or improperly cycled for any other reasons, I would not recommend it.
 
nc_nutcase;3242837; said:
Twisted Penguin… I confess seeing people give inaccurate advice to others on a forum makes me grouchy…

Iffrat… I am not promoting that we should all be doing 100% water changes on a regular basis. I am saying labeling them “a bad idea” is inaccurate. There are a couple of precautions that should be taken, but if they are, then a 100% water change is completely safe.

You are correct in the idea that we should be doing smaller, regular water changes. But when something does go wrong (such as a tank leaking in your case or the tank being overly dirty in the OP’s case) we should be able to get accurate information as to if it is safe to do 100% water changes if/when necessary.
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like i said .. i have done close to 100% w/c before and most the fish lived .. but its not something i would EVER do again unless i HAD to .. and only if i had no other option
 
The original poster's problem is dirty water because he (admittedly) has literally never gravel vac'd the bottom. Instead of us most of us telling him to go easy and don't do 100% & nc_nutcase telling him to DO 100%.....why don't we just agree that he needs to gravel vac 3 or 4 days in a row and be done with it? Nutcase, just because YOU think a 100% water change is perfectly safe does NOT mean it is. You don't know exactly what his water is and the chemistry. You can't tell someone on the 'net to do something and assure them it's safe when you don't know.
 
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