you always need to swap water at some point. Firemedic has gone 90days without water changes on his systems but he has 600+ gals i believe AND he utilitizes hydroponics to battle nitrates
Do I need to do water changes??
- Thread starter heatha
- Start date
Hydroponics are great for nitrates, but they don't help DOC's which we can't even measure and are very problematic.
In natural ecosystems, the sheer quantity of water compared to fish is staggering. Natural systems contain anaerobic bacteria in the substrates that thrive on the DOC's, nitrogen fixing plants that consume the nitrates etc... An aquarium is a small scale model of a small part of an ecosystem. They kind of represent the centers of rivers or lakes with out including the marshlands and swamps that do all the chemical and biological filtering for them. Since we lack that, we are under obligation to do the water changes that the centers of these bodies of water receive naturally.
I do 60% water change every 8-10 days on my 450 gallon tank. It takes 2.5-3 hours. When I have the time, I do 40-50% every 5 days, but lately the best I can do is the larger change every 8-10 days.
Why get a pet and not care for it? That is something I just don't understand.
In natural ecosystems, the sheer quantity of water compared to fish is staggering. Natural systems contain anaerobic bacteria in the substrates that thrive on the DOC's, nitrogen fixing plants that consume the nitrates etc... An aquarium is a small scale model of a small part of an ecosystem. They kind of represent the centers of rivers or lakes with out including the marshlands and swamps that do all the chemical and biological filtering for them. Since we lack that, we are under obligation to do the water changes that the centers of these bodies of water receive naturally.
I do 60% water change every 8-10 days on my 450 gallon tank. It takes 2.5-3 hours. When I have the time, I do 40-50% every 5 days, but lately the best I can do is the larger change every 8-10 days.
Why get a pet and not care for it? That is something I just don't understand.
Hi,
Yes, you do need to do water changes. I am sorry you have been attacked on here, if you stick with the hobby and rays you will understand why....later.
Keep testing the water, nitrates will build at an alarming rate and ph will drop, let these become your enemy and change water to keep them stable.
Snails do not come in with Angels either, snails come from snail eggs, they do well in sumps of rays tanks due to uneaten food which is hard to avoid but rays eat them and they will stay out of the main tank.
The rays in the pictures look like they need feeding up a lot, they don't have any fat reserves, they should build this in a month of good feeding or maybe they need worming or another parasite cure.
High nitrate kills any fish, do not believe anyone who says that it does not, if you get above 100ppm then your filters are doing a great job but you need to change more water, test the tap water as sometimes it is too high and does nothing to help.
Also....always use a dechlorinator.
Water change at the min every two weeks or the water will gradually slip in quality and kill the rays.
Yes, you do need to do water changes. I am sorry you have been attacked on here, if you stick with the hobby and rays you will understand why....later.
Keep testing the water, nitrates will build at an alarming rate and ph will drop, let these become your enemy and change water to keep them stable.
Snails do not come in with Angels either, snails come from snail eggs, they do well in sumps of rays tanks due to uneaten food which is hard to avoid but rays eat them and they will stay out of the main tank.
The rays in the pictures look like they need feeding up a lot, they don't have any fat reserves, they should build this in a month of good feeding or maybe they need worming or another parasite cure.
High nitrate kills any fish, do not believe anyone who says that it does not, if you get above 100ppm then your filters are doing a great job but you need to change more water, test the tap water as sometimes it is too high and does nothing to help.
Also....always use a dechlorinator.
Water change at the min every two weeks or the water will gradually slip in quality and kill the rays.
I was one of those posting that type of info. I can back that up with over a decade of working with (and breeding) many species of FW rays.
A great percentage of how we judge fish's health [B[IS[/B] based on how they look. Every aquarist who has ever worked for me will tell you one of the first things I train a rookie to do it LOOK AT THE ANIMALS. Animal behavior is a key component in understanding fish in our care. And be careful before rattling off about petstore people before you know them. Sure, some aren't the greatest... but there are many out there who would put EVERY member of this forum to shame with their knowledge.
I totally agree with everything you say on here!! I've had my biggest female ray (7.5 inches) for over a year and she's doin just as good as the first day I got her and has grown ALOT. But I don't want to put anything else on here until I come back with my water tests....and yes my lfs owner doesnt use strips....i live in a very small town (pretty far away from any cities) and so the test kits i've seen aren't $25 they're $50 but I will be gettin one anyways!!! and I will be doing a 60% water change once every 2 weeks and cleaning floss, pots, and moving sand around once a week....I wasnt saying that I was never gunna do WC again, I was asking if it would work out for a while.... which some did answer yes....and i do know that the bigger they get the more bioload i have and i do occasionaly scoop out stingray poo when it hasnt already been broken up in many pieces....this whole thread has been a disaster because i cant seem to word things the way i am thinking and people take it in a different way then what i mean....but i will be getting my water tested tomorrow so we will see how this first 2 months has been on all the fish.... my discus seem to be in breeding mode idk..i put a post in the discus part of MFK and only got 2 responses....but my 2 wild blue tefe discus (about 4") we're just roaming around and then ended up gettin close to eachother and then swiming right next to eachother pretty much touching started changing orange and yellow with their black stripes fading in and out. i dont think this would be a bad thing but idk
5 years, 10 years, a million years? Sure it can last that long for 14 guppies in a swimming pool.
But you will still need to change water eventually. Nuff Said.
OK!! yes i am goin to do WC's, please read post #62!!!! but i will be back later with my water test results after no WC's for 2 months and hope they are A+++++ and i think they will be cuz all of my fish are doing, eating and look AMAZINGLY!!!!
by the way im not a guy....my name is Heather and I live in a small town in Colorado. Not a troll, just thinking my tank was doin really good and did not expect to NEVER have to do a WC just was wonderin if i was ok with how it was goin and if the water was GOOD if i really needed to do a WC!! We will find out later on today how my water is...read my post #62 in this thread also please...sorry for what i have said to any of you even while u/me, we're/was bein rude...my fish are going to be ok and i am NOT gunna quit this hobby cuz it has been one of mine since i was very young
