100% water changes

[MustangMan]

a 100% will not harm your fish if done properly. ive done about 10 100% wc's with no ill effects at all. as long as all the perams are the same or damn close i see no problems.

I don't see much point in changing all of the water just to have the parameters the same as before. I'd only change all of the water if I had to move my aquarium or something crazy like if someone poured a bucket of bleach in it (in which case the person doing it would be dead really soon) and in the case of moving the aquarium then I'd put the same water back in and keep the gravel and filter cartridges wet during the move. I think the first couple of times you change all of the water the fish are really going to be freaked out and if the fish are really sensitive then you might have a few casualties, but I've never done this, so I'm just saying what I think would happen.

 

[channarox]

you are plainly affecting the fish by suddenly changing its surroundings.
thats all there is to it.

 

[Pufferpunk]

90% is fine, if done on a regular basis. the water will always remain the same as your tap. If by 100% you mean taking the fish out of the water & totally draining the tank, that's stressful.

 

[xander]

I don't see much point in changing all of the water just to have the parameters the same as before. I'd only change all of the water if I had to move my aquarium or something crazy like if someone poured a bucket of bleach in it (in which case the person doing it would be dead really soon) and in the case of moving the aquarium then I'd put the same water back in and keep the gravel and filter cartridges wet during the move. I think the first couple of times you change all of the water the fish are really going to be freaked out and if the fish are really sensitive then you might have a few casualties, but I've never done this, so I'm just saying what I think would happen.

thanks, i really needed to know all that.....

you are plainly affecting the fish by suddenly changing its surroundings.
thats all there is to it.

oh thank you i didn't know that.....which part of details dont you understand!

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

Water changes should not destroy your beneficial bacteria. If your filter media is kept in tank water and not allowed to dry out, you are not going to lose your bacteria. We sometimes do the equivalent or more of 100% water changes by changing out 60+% of the water in back to back water changes. We cannot change out more than 200 gallons at a time from our 300 gallon tank, as the pacu start swimming on their sides with just 100 gallons left in the tank. The primary reason we change out the water is to get the nitrates below 20 ppm. We usually do 66% changes on two consecutive days each week.

We can do two back to back changes (changing out 400 gallons from our 300 gallon tank) because we never let the nitrates get sky high. The problem with doing large, massive water changes occurs when the nitrates have been sky high for a long time. A condition called "old tank syndrome" can occur. In the nitrogen cycle, the end product is nitrate and hydrogen ions. When the buffering capacity of the old water is completely tied up, the pH lowers. The water can get very acidic. Some fish are very hardy and can tolerate this. However, if you should do a large massive water change on such a tank, there will be a radical change in the pH when you add the new water. This would be extremely shocking and stressful to your fish, even though the water you added was at the same temperature as the water you removed. What can also happen in Old Tank Syndrome, is the nasty water can kill of the beneficial bacteria. The end result is that you can have ammonia building up in the tank, too.

The best thing you can do is use a Freshwater Master Test Kit and routinely test your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. In a cycled tank, there will never be an ammonia or nitrite reading. If you keep nitrates below 20ppm, you will have a great environment for most fish. How frequent and how much water you change out, will depend on your nitrate reading. You should change out as much water as frequently as necessary to keep the nitrates below 20ppm. We came up with our water change scheme, because if we do two water changes, we get the nitrates super low and don't have to do another change for a week. We usually do them on two consecutive days, because at 200 gallons, we are out of hot water, so we either wait until we have more hot water, or we do the second one the next day.

The best thing is to never let your nitrates get too high. You can safely change out as much water as you want then.

I completely agree with you about the 'old tank syndrome'. This makes perfect sense.

However, on your first point about how taking out all the water won't kill your BB off because it's safe in your bio-media, I will have to disagree. True, the BB is safe, but as Oddball pointed out, if you take all the water out of the tank, you are taking away all the food source for your BB, and will subsequently kill them off. One may argue that the fish are constantly adding to the bio-load, but it would take some time to build up enough of a bio-load to accommodate your colony of BB.

 

[xander]

I completely agree with you about the 'old tank syndrome'. This makes perfect sense.

However, on your first point about how taking out all the water won't kill your BB off because it's safe in your bio-media, I will have to disagree. True, the BB is safe, but as Oddball pointed out, if you take all the water out of the tank, you are taking away all the food source for your BB, and will subsequently kill them off. One may argue that the fish are constantly adding to the bio-load, but it would take some time to build up enough of a bio-load to accommodate your colony of BB.

thanks this's finally starting to sound like an answer

 

[Pufferpunk]

I disagree. What about breeders doing all those constant water changes then?

 

[Mike fail]

i'd comparing it to but some chance everything was removed from your house by a giant hand. including the air. im pretty sure you would probably go into shock.

 

[TimTheBadass]

hmmm that is really detailed!!! thanks!!!

to those that gave detailer ans, thanks, but i still didn't get what i was looking for.

all i really want to know is WHY 100% water changes are bad. i don't need to know what YOU do with yr tanks. sorry if im sounding naggy but some posters on here are merely dropping by to piss n the thread.

Why bother answering this kid if he can't appreciate anybody's input. Xander get a book and quite wasting people's time.

 

[jcardona1]

Why bother answering this kid if he can't appreciate anybody's input. Xander get a book and quite wasting people's time.

seriously! xander if you think people are pissing in your thread, dont ask questions on a forum and do your own damn research. i have read more than enough good answers here bet yet you continue to whine like a little kid.

and since you probably cant read too well, read pacu mom and oddball's responses again. if that doesnt answer your question, nothing will