How Often do you water change>?
- Thread starter SteveR
- Start date
If you have a large cannister with lots of room for plenty of BIO activity I doubt anyone can say that 50percent is too much to remove. The fish get used to the clean water fast and appreciate it. Plus when you have a big tank ive only cleaned about HALF the gravel and 25percent of the water in my tank is gone - poo everywhere remember and hormones flying about in there! Roll on the 50!
My fish love and appreciate 50% weekly. I think that you can definitly get by with less. I have a neighbor who has kept fish for years, but only changes the water every few months. Her tank is not in ideal looking condition, but her fish actually looked pretty healthy. They looked pretty good considering that they lived in the fish equivalent of a toilet. I have no idea about her nitrate levels, but I hear that fish can survive pretty high levels.
Whilst fish can just "survive" high levels, words like "survive" and "get away with" are terms you don't want to be aiming for when keeping a pet.
There is a tank in a hospital I work in that has NEVER had the gravel vac'd in over 2 years, there is a layer of poo everywhere the tank must have nitrate through the roof. It is 20 gallons and has a red tail shark abotu 6 inch which just sits hiding under a rock hardly moves and a few guppies - they have poor colouring. I wouldnt be surprized if it was living hell. It was donated to the hospital as a gift. I think im going to take my siphon along next week and see if i can help the poor fish.
There is a tank in a hospital I work in that has NEVER had the gravel vac'd in over 2 years, there is a layer of poo everywhere the tank must have nitrate through the roof. It is 20 gallons and has a red tail shark abotu 6 inch which just sits hiding under a rock hardly moves and a few guppies - they have poor colouring. I wouldnt be surprized if it was living hell. It was donated to the hospital as a gift. I think im going to take my siphon along next week and see if i can help the poor fish.
steverothery;1961084; said:
Being that it's a hospital, I hope they don't give you grief about rules and regulations, telling you that it's against hospital policy to do what you want to do with the fish tank. Best of luck to you!
Hopefully not. They have a fluval 2 in it 2 months ago no water was coming out it i cleaned it out and the nurse came along and said wow how did you do that - none of them have any idea how to care for the fish its poor. I think i'll take it upon myself to vac, and waterchange, in between seeing patients!
