I thought water changes were important?

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wander what would happen if he added a couple of plants? consider it hypothedicaly, so say the fish won't bother them. I don't think the co2 would be right, but would they bring the nitrates down slowly?
 
Taz2478;555504; said:
Ive known people to just "top off" as well and there fish never had any probs. Pleco grew to almost 2ft, RD was 14+. Only real prob was katrina shuting off the water flow. Only the pleco survived. He said he'd just scoop the poop and flush it.

Me too.. ive even known a saltwater keeper who claims to not do a single water change in a course of a year. His stocks look good. Heck , i used to do that when i was a boy, and i even got some tetras to breed.
 
This is hard to believe! My brother in law has a 75g with about 10 small fish in it. He says he has not done a water change in a year, and his tank always looks nice. I just cant believe how people can do this. I mean, think about it. How would we feel if we had to live in a bowl full of our own pee and poo? This truly disgusts me. If someone that has fish has no intention of keeping them properly, then why the hell keep them? This is nasty.:irked:
 
This sounds similar to the tank of Convicts I "rescued" a couple of months ago - Nitrite off the scale, high ammonia and very low Ph. There was half a tub of uneaten flake in the gravel I reckon! A few days before I moved them and the tank they were in to my house, I did a LARGE water change - like about 50% - and the fish survived, in fact, looked much better when I went back to move them. The Ph was and still is low, so maybe I didn't get the ph swing you are talking about, hence why they didn't die. Mind you they ARE Convicts - tough little buggers - they were even breeding in there before I came along! So the idea that the fish adapt to the conditions over time sounds to have some truth in it.
 
what about the water he adds to cover the loss of evapration, he has atleast done some kind of waterchange hasnt he, its just that all the horrible chemicals stay behind so he should do some waterchanges or add nitrate minus or amquel plus.


or just stop being lazy and do water changes i doubt the ph swing would kill the fish as piranhas are very hardy.
 
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