I thought water changes were important?

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Sunpoe

Sunpoe

Candiru
MFK Member
Dec 7, 2005
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Toronto, Ontario
This is actually the sequel to the "how can this be" thread. My friend has a tank (150 gallons) of red-bellies ( 5 in total) that have grown and shown good colour eventhough the water has not been changed in 2 years! The tank has no plants besides algae (which, I guess, isn't a true plant). He only feeds his fish once a month and they are between 8" to 13".

Well, he gave me a sample of his water and these were the results:
ammonia = 0.0ppm
nitrite = 0.0ppm
nitrate = over 160ppm ( this is the the limit of my test kit )

Shouldn't the fish be died?:nilly:
 
Well with that nitrate they SHOULD be. But there is a little loop hole to this rule. When the water conditions get that bad over time then the fish tend to adapt. It doesn't mean that it is ok for the fish. It is still very bad it is just they wont die as quickly....That is very sad. You need to get that man a python for christmas!

Chad
 
I am willing to bet that a water change at this point would probably cause a precipitous rise in pH, killing the fish within days.
 
firstly is the nitrates are that high the ph is super low. if he did a significant WC, say 1/3, the the tapwaters ph would be significantly higher thus causing a ph swing killing the fish. sound right ewurm?
 
If he did %25-30 water changes a week within time the p's would adapt to it..P's like really acidic water anyway..Its kinda mean, we all get lazy with water changes from time to time...But 2 years:eek: ...I wonder if he topped it off when it evaporated???
 
I have a feeling the fish could probably take the pH swing in stride, considering that they can tolerate the the nitrate. It just seems that this setup goes against everything I have been told and read and still the fish look and behave normally.:screwy:
 
sabotage;555223; said:
If he did %25-30 water changes a week within time the p's would adapt to it..P's like really acidic water anyway..Its kinda mean, we all get lazy with water changes from time to time...But 2 years:eek: ...I wonder if he topped it off when it evaporated???
Click to expand...
Yea, he tops off the tank.
 
thats it!! im never doing a water change again as long as i live!!!!!!!
 
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