"Almost Lazy" methods

[Dread]

So I'm generally really good about my aquariums. 50%+ water changes four a week for all my tanks (used to do 9 9% water changes everyday for my main tank, and my fry tank gets 100% 2 times a day), everything is filtered, my fish probably eat better foods than I do, never lost a fish to disease or anything, and all this stuff.


However, I've recently noticed how lazy I am about some things. For instance, never once have I ever used a water conditioner/de-chlorinator. All the water I use is straight from the tap. So far, I've kept even the most delicate species alive, and honestly, I don't know how. Cardinals Tetras thrive in my tanks, my german blue rams are active, never stressed, and still have amazing color. Even when I had Discus, they seemed to love my water. All those softer-water loving fish were kept in the same water (albeit different tanks) as African Rift Lake Cichlids, Blind Cave Tetras, and other fish that thrive in harder water. I've never done tests on any of my tanks, except to check if they're cycled. My pH is still unknown, so is my exact gH (although I know my tap is extremely hard water).

Same thing with my acclimation process. Float the bag with the fish, and then scoop out the fish, and plop it right into my tank. No quarantine (although I have a hospital tank I could use for QT if I ever saw the need), no drip acclimation, nothing.

So I was curious. Does anyone else here have lax practices that have worked for them? Aquariums in stunning health that haven't had their water changes in months, poop towers in tanks, or other things that have kind of slipped under the radar?

 

[bigspizz]

100% 2x A day? A lil on the high end of things. I leave my lights on to long sometimes....

 

[X24]

sometimes i don't feed my fish but once a day, occasionally i'll skip a w/c but that leaves the very least a 80% w/c every two weeks, with normal being around a 70% weekly.

hmmm, for acclimation, i float the bag to match temps then just throw the fish in (i actually think this is a very good method as i've lost no fish like this)

 

[ewo]

nothing but leaving lights on to long, 50% water change weekly, well i do lax on cleaning but hey it gets done

 

[Dread]

100% 2x A day? A lil on the high end of things. I leave my lights on to long sometimes....

It's pretty easy on a 20g tank. Takes like 5 minutes, and my fry grow like weeds.

 

[Wolf3101]

As long as the temps are close. (we have a pocket TDS / temp meter) I don't even bother with floating the bag I just dump in the new fish. Water changes are another story. We dont use tap water because its not that great here. We rely on a very elaborate RO/DI system with a 6 stage prefilter for aquarium water so I use the test data to determine when it's time for a water change and how much to do. It averages about 30% every other week to keep things in prime shape. (under 10ppm nitrates).

I do tend to let the canister filters go a lot longer than I should at times. Waiting till they start to clog is a bad idea for a number of reasons and I like to clean them out more often than I get time to...

 

[cichlidbuddy]

whats to long for lights being on? i leave mine on for a long time. and theyre on a timer.

 

[Mystix212]

I leave my lights on for about 10 hours weekends, and 6-7 hours wekdays. I would like to have a timer but the one I have gaVE me the sheits so bad when trying to use it that I threw a 14 kilo rock on it (28 pound-ish)

 

[Eupterus]

Last time I did high levels of water changing is when I was fostering all the cichlids my parents bred in my clown pleco's tank without my permission. I fostered about a hundred cichlids in my 55 gal while I tried to find homes for them.

I stopped changing the PH ( except during breeding attempts) because I found the ph was swinging back to the alkaline side and it would be better for the fish to be in less then ideal PH levels then have it corrected and constantly swing back to being alkaline.

Currently I will pick up water at my parents' house to give the apartment fish fresh water, which is a bit of a hassle so I'm trying to figure out how to store a bit of water and water conditioner here in case an emergency comes up. The tanks are small and after quarantine only one is planned to house fish so it goes.
I am unsure about the town water and it's ability to support fish life, assume there's chlorine and maybe one of these days I'll test it.

My general rule is the fish lives in the conditions I provide or I try and find a new home if the conditions I provide are not suitable.

My fish went a few months ( I think it was four) without any water changes at my parent's house because I broke up with them and avoided going to their house. Thing is not sure if it counts because many fish died?.. None of the fish who died were mine, my fish were ok and lived though it. At first I thought the parents decided to rehome some of their fish because I noticed there was less of them and I knew they hated and didn't want them. Then when I was cleaning I was finding their fishy bones in the gravel...I'm like eweee...couldn't you at least take your dead fish out?. It's more of another parent situation then a fish one since it would not happen if my fish lived with me and not in a shared tank situation.

 

[cenecker]

Yeah I just dump fish in... IMO fish are so stressed out by the time you get them home that you might as well just get them in the tank where they can relax.