Hi, I was just wondering if the 10 gallons I do a week of water changes is enough for my 90 gallon tank. There is a 1" oscar, 3" firemouth, and five, 1-1.5" clown loaches. For filtration there is a powerhead and fx5 for filtration. Pool filter sand for the substrate and when I vacuum there is never any debris in the sand. I have not seen any growth in the past month since I've gotten the oscar and I thought by now I should've seen some? My old oscar grew atleast 7 inches in half a year? Thanks for reading and hopefully replying?
Enough Waterchanges?
- Thread starter Liba
- Start date
Hi what are your nitrate readings prior to the water change? As long as they are below 20, you're doing enough water changes. If they were over 20, then you'd need to be doing more.
i was just going to say as the above poster mentioned if all your water perimeters are right where they are suppose to be.. your doing fine.. if not you need to do more frequent water changes.. get a test kit if you do not have one.. this way your always sure...
you would be better off doing closer to 20-30 gallons WC. its a bit more work, but in the long run your fish are less prone to stress which helps them avoid numerous health issues. If it were my tank, I would do larger volume each WC and still stick to the weekly WC schedule
Increasing the amount of water changes only equals more time, not more work. There is a really good article in the November issue of TFH (out now) about percentages of water changes and philosophies behind water changes. If you change 10%, you are leaving 90% of the built up organic waste in the tank. Whether or not you can visibly see it, it is still present. I would bump of the volume of the water change but monitor nitrite levels when doing so.
as for more time and work, im running a 90 gallon as well, i just got a python style siphon and it makes it so much easier. not to sound like a salesman but there is no more bucket work, no more spills, no more water to deal with period, just hook it up to the sink and your good.
to me it makes it so much easier
to me it makes it so much easier
the amount of debris in the water has nothing to do with the water parameters. Id say bump up the volume bump up the jams.
justonemoretank;3506679; said:
I agree. Water changes shouldn't be a guessing game. Testing your water and knowing exactly what your water parameters are will make it very easy to know how much and how often water changes need to be done. Keeping nitrates low is the biggest purpose for water changes.