thank you. i figured at least 3 added at a time would work best. my personal tanks (not the ones that are technically my dad's) generally get 50% weekly water changes. assuming i used the proper salts in the proper doses and didnt throw off the chemistry in that respect, that schedule would simply be that much better than 20% weekly, correct?
35 gallon malawi
- Thread starter reptileguy2727
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I am personally a little concerned by doing such a water change. I would rather do smaller changes more regularly. The only time I would consider a 50% change is if something dramatically went wrong and I lost a number of fish.
Do you not upset the water equilibrium by doing 50% changes? Why I say this is that this is the way I start up a new tank. I remove water from my existing tanks and then add in about 50% new water. I find the tank settles fairly quickly but there is an increase in Nitrite/Nitrate levels during the second week. Ammonia stays low.
Would love an expert opinion, by someone who knows what they are talking about, on this subject!
Do you not upset the water equilibrium by doing 50% changes? Why I say this is that this is the way I start up a new tank. I remove water from my existing tanks and then add in about 50% new water. I find the tank settles fairly quickly but there is an increase in Nitrite/Nitrate levels during the second week. Ammonia stays low.
Would love an expert opinion, by someone who knows what they are talking about, on this subject!
ive been doing 50% water changes on all my tanks for months now. i have the 75 jaguar cichlid tank, 40 breeder turtle tank w/ fish (actually gets almost 100% water change), 55 goldfish, 10 gallon platies, 10 gallon baby convicts. i havent had any problems by doing the larger water changes. the nitrifying bacteria are mainly in the biological media, so it shouldnt throw off the biological filtration. the other possibility is water chemistry from the tap being too different than what is in the tank. but if you are dong sucj large frequent water changes the tank's water shoudl stay pretty close to what is coming out of the tap. for tanks that require something different than your tap requires, you simply need to add the right salt or buffers and hold the water overnight before you do the water change. in a malawi tank you may simply add a little malawi salt and some buffer and let it circulate overnight. use a heater in the water holding rubbermaid container and it should be able to go straight into the tank. i used to think the same about large water changes, but after talkign to a very experienced aquarist onlien i tried it and ive never had such great health and growth in fish.
