Cleanest fish?

[chloe]

just dont go and get 7 plecs like i did lol.

id say go with small fish but ur still guna have the water changes.
i no i will prob get flamed for this but goldfish are an option. i used to clean mine out once a month. as long as their water was ok then they got cleaned once a month.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

i would do a weekly water change regardless of bio load. anything less is lazy and irresponsible.

i hope you never get a monster tank. Do you think the people that have 1000 gallon plus tanks do weekly wc's?

What about indoor pond keepers?

Feel free to pm any of the keepers on here that maintain very large tanks over 1k gallons and ask them how often they do a water change that is bigger than a 10% or so evaporation fill.
I have pmed several of them to get tips maybe you should.

The key is filtration and filter cleaning.

 

[Hayabusa]

i hope you never get a monster tank. Do you think the people that have 1000 gallon plus tanks do weekly wc's?

What about indoor pond keepers?

Feel free to pm any of the keepers on here that maintain very large tanks over 1k gallons and ask them how often they do a water change that is bigger than a 10% or so evaporation fill.
I have pmed several of them to get tips maybe you should.

The key is filtration and filter cleaning.

But surely no amount of filtration is going to keap nitrates down?

Not disputing what you say, and of coarse LARGE bodys of water would require less maintenence given decent filtration, but nitrates are still going to rise regardless how good the filtration is.

Also most indoor ponds will have alot of plants, not all of coarse, but this would take care of some of the nitrates.

The only person I know with a very large tank has a constant feed type system so the water is being constantly changed gradualy.

 

[chloe]

i hope you never get a monster tank. Do you think the people that have 1000 gallon plus tanks do weekly wc's?

What about indoor pond keepers?

Feel free to pm any of the keepers on here that maintain very large tanks over 1k gallons and ask them how often they do a water change that is bigger than a 10% or so evaporation fill.
I have pmed several of them to get tips maybe you should.

The key is filtration and filter cleaning.

thats a whole new level. i understand where ur coming from but for a 125 or something AOT smaller 1Kgals u should really do water changes, mainly to get rid of the rubbish and keep ur water clean (i know u know more than me and this is just my opinion) i have a 125 and 4 filters running off it and i still have to do syphon out the rubbiosh that gets under the gravel.

 

[zennzzo]

you're right, Hilarious!

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

But surely no amount of filtration is going to keap nitrates down?

well not normal store bought filtration. But they do have this thing called a nitrate filter. And also algae scrubbers are said to lower nitrate levels greatly.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

i understand what everyone is saying about doing water changes. I do them all the time. My 220 gets 2 a week 50's to fluctuate temperature and control nitrate for a breeding test.

But saying you have to do this or that is not true.

With enough money and time you can get around anything.

But thats just it to make a tank self maintenancing you would have to spend way more money on the set up then you did on the tank set up.

So to the op, if you want to make it to were you never have to touch your tank again for months you need to look into
drip systems
sand filters with electronically controlled back flushing
electric feeders and timers
and or a nitrate filter

Oh and have a couple of grand ready

 

[chefjamesscott]

i will have to join in on the weekly waterchange, sometimes 2x weekly if the tank is larger with larger fish

i also have to join in on the over filtration side

severums will be a nice fish for ya

 

[zennzzo]

Of course there are those who keep fish in totally filtration free enclosures and do not do water changes per se...
They use nothing but plants.

It comes down to what was said above... At what level do you want to take your fish keeping, because the SKY's the limit

 

[Retuks]

to the guy who feels like hes under siege by MFK, don't. once you become acustomed to REAL fish keeping like a good amount of people here have, you will know this is really good advice, but just realize that there is no such fish you are looking for unless you get sea urchins or starfish.. shrimp do fairly well too.

NOW TO BE HELPFUL: for now, to make it easier on you, why don't you just get a large cup (like the 7 eleven ones), and ONLY take out that much water from the tank every day. it takes 2 seconds to do. just open the lid, take out one cup, fill in replacement water, and be off. do it every day. not that hard.

people on this site might not agree with me, but you are at LEAST changing a small and manageable amount of water every day rather than feel like you are doing an overhaul each week (which is how your describing the difficulty" of water changes).

water being changed constantly, though in a small simple cup of water is still MUCH better than no water changes at all. you hearing me?

and also, why not just add some monster filtration to your tank? like if its a 125, put like 10x filtration on that sucker, much more expensive but at least you can afford to be a bit lazier right?