No Water Changes for 6 Months!

[JardiniBoy]

Wow ... I've really created the proverbial storm in a teacup here

Anyway, harleyk/delgado ... what's the "other crap" that you mentioned. Is this something that you have read/studied or is it just a theory?

1) Does it really detoxify nitrate, or just hide it from the tests?

2) What levels of nitrate are actually damaging to fish?

1. Apparently anaerobic bacteria will convert nitrates to nitrite and then gaseous nitrogen (from what I've read).

2. This is a topic of much debate, but I think it's best to keep them lower in both SW and FW aquaria (especially SW).

As I said before, I still think water changes are necessary, but I found this case interesting for the following reasons:

- the guy used to do regular water changes which resulted in many deaths due to the poor quality of his water.

- he copied his setup from a lfs nearby that had been running similar setups for years with many huge monsters.

- after changing to his current setup, his fish lived and were apparently healthier.


Either he is lying, or this is something that could really help our tanks. I'm interested in at least trying it out to see what effect, if any, it has.

 

[Vince]

Before all these talk about water changes, i never changed water in my 60 gallon wth 5 red bellies around 5 inches. all i did was add or top off with chlorinated water. i did this for about 5 years without any problems. I did not feed them as often as i should, usually going for a weeks without food. eventually, they are eating pellets and goldfish every now and then. i used a wet and dry system. i also never turned on the light. the only reason they all died is because my kids poured all the food in the tank, and when i came back from a business trip, they were all dead. now i do water changes religiously. i've lost more fish changing water, than not changing water....i think, partial small water changes are better than the big huge 75% water changes. i'm down to doing only 20-30% water change in my tanks. i bet if they were other fish, they prollhy would've died.

 

[DeLgAdO]

Wow ... I've really created the proverbial storm in a teacup here

Anyway, harleyk/delgado ... what's the "other crap" that you mentioned. Is this something that you have read/studied or is it just a theory?



1. Apparently anaerobic bacteria will convert nitrates to nitrite and then gaseous nitrogen (from what I've read).

2. This is a topic of much debate, but I think it's best to keep them lower in both SW and FW aquaria (especially SW).

As I said before, I still think water changes are necessary, but I found this case interesting for the following reasons:

- the guy used to do regular water changes which resulted in many deaths due to the poor quality of his water.

- he copied his setup from a lfs nearby that had been running similar setups for years with many huge monsters.

- after changing to his current setup, his fish lived and were apparently healthier.


Either he is lying, or this is something that could really help our tanks. I'm interested in at least trying it out to see what effect, if any, it has.

bacteria, phosphate, excess nutrients, chemicals, etc

 

[DeLgAdO]

Wow ... I've really created the proverbial storm in a teacup here

Anyway, harleyk/delgado ... what's the "other crap" that you mentioned. Is this something that you have read/studied or is it just a theory?



1. Apparently anaerobic bacteria will convert nitrates to nitrite and then gaseous nitrogen (from what I've read).

2. This is a topic of much debate, but I think it's best to keep them lower in both SW and FW aquaria (especially SW).

As I said before, I still think water changes are necessary, but I found this case interesting for the following reasons:

- the guy used to do regular water changes which resulted in many deaths due to the poor quality of his water.

- he copied his setup from a lfs nearby that had been running similar setups for years with many huge monsters.

- after changing to his current setup, his fish lived and were apparently healthier.


Either he is lying, or this is something that could really help our tanks. I'm interested in at least trying it out to see what effect, if any, it has.

water changes are good

but most of use use our tap, which has (or can have) chlorine/chlorimine, lower temperature, heavy metals, etc, etc.

if we all could eliminate all of these problems, it wouldnt matter how much we change, the more the better.

 

[cichlid savage]

I dont believe that you can keep your water quality that on for a whole year with no water changes. I do bi-weekly changes and will continue to do them. I believe it keeps my fish healthier and gives me the opportunity to really get a good look at my fish to check for potential problems/injuries. But if it works for him.

 

[P3R3]

Yea I would never do that.

I have heard of Jack Dempsey that was neglected in a 55G for an entire year (no top offs or WC) and he survived. Pretty crazy.

I think planted tanks really dont need to be changed but once a month, depending on the type of fish. Plants do a good job of absorbing all kinds of crap outta the water.

 

[guppy]

I dont believe that you can keep your water quality that on for a whole year with no water changes. I do bi-weekly changes and will continue to do them. I believe it keeps my fish healthier and gives me the opportunity to really get a good look at my fish to check for potential problems/injuries. But if it works for him.

In my case (I don't know about the authors) the one tank that it worked for only worked because of a relatively low fish load, a high ammount of biofiltration, and the weekly export of nitrogen products in the form of new plant growth,... so it can be done.
Would I try to do it again, I don't think so, that tank was a fluke.
30-35% water changes weeklysounds right to me.

 

[ewurm]

I think I would change water anyway. What would you do to add trace elements?

 

[Fry]

this isn't guaranteed to work but is absolutely worthwhile to look into, plants complete the cycle but the ever intelligent man has gotten around many obstacles and this may be another one that we can overcome (perhaps easily), the truth is this phenomenon has been observed much more than once, lets not be closed-minded and really look into this possibility

 

[rkc772]

maybe water change can be done every 6 months if the tank is extra big and is not over populated, no overfeeding, and tank with live plants.

i say this because... look at the rivers and lakes.. they don't have water change every week. what they have is rain that adds up the water and plants that completes the cycle.

a big filtration and multiple filter can greatly reduce water change. one more thing is that if have a whole house water filter and a separate water filter for your fish it would greatly help. i saw this manufacturer... aquasana they have a rhino 300 that take out the chlorine in the water and they also have a water filtration for drinking (not r/o). they were voted best for several years.

i agree with vince that changing water is very stressful and can even cause fish to die. as long as the water quality (test) is in tip top value i don't see any problem. back in asia we don't even have these wet/dry or canister filter only filter wool with air pump. my first experience in angle fish breeding was when we bought a 100 gal tank and put 5 angels inside with 3 traditional airpump filter with filter wool, bare bottom. they spawned several times untilt he tank was literally full of angels. - we didn't even have water test kits to test the quality.