No Water Changes for 6 Months!
- Thread starter JardiniBoy
- Start date
Water changes replace a portion of "dirty'' water with an equal portion of clean water, SO effectively diluting the concentrations of undesirable substances in your tank. In an established tank, nitrate is the primary toxin that builds up. Regular water changes are the cheapest, safest and most effective way of keeping nitrate concentrations at reasonable levels. The benefits of water changes must be balanced by the stress caused by a sudden change of your tank's water chemistry.PH etc. Also The water changes will bring fresh mineral rich water into the tank. The fish, plants and bacteria use up the trace minerals in the water and by adding new water weekly you replace these minerals. Remember that most tropical fish live in environments where currents or rainfall regularly bring fresh water and remove waste.
But again A sudden, large water change causes such a drastic shift in the makeup of the water that the fish often cannot tolerate it.
You must do regular water changes they are important for the long term health of your fish. The dissolved wastes in the water, which are not apparent to the naked eye, won't kill the fish outright, but the stress reduces their immunity to disease.
But again A sudden, large water change causes such a drastic shift in the makeup of the water that the fish often cannot tolerate it.
You must do regular water changes they are important for the long term health of your fish. The dissolved wastes in the water, which are not apparent to the naked eye, won't kill the fish outright, but the stress reduces their immunity to disease.
Howdy,
: Walk your dog and collect the poop. Put it in a blender with some water, then filtrate it thru a coffee filter (make sure you don't have a shake or coffee at home for at least a few months). Whatever runs thru the filter is dissolved organic matter, which stays in an aquarium with heavy bioload, few plants, and no water changes. The DOC (dissolved organic carbon) is actually monitored in waste water treatment plants. Besides that, ions are accumulated from food (mainly alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, halides and phosphate), dramatically rising to affect osmotic pressue, detectable by increasing conductivity.
Bottom line: try out the test above and see for yourself.
Anyhow, if that data was available, this thread would have ended a long time ago ... with a few laughs...
You say it has been reported more than once ... maybe you can find data on conductivity changes over time. I am always willing to consider solid data in order to shape my opinion.
Consider it a humongous drip system.
And most lakes have either surface waters (creeks, streams,..) or sub-surface water flow (springs, groundwater,...). Put on a wetsuit and find out - you'll be surprised what you find under water.
The aspect with plants has been mentioned before, and it only works in a low-fish, high-plant tank...
Some of you guys almost sound like the inventors of Tetra EasyBalance ....
and remember: no coffee
HarleyK
.
It's common sense. Try thisJardiniBoy said:
: Walk your dog and collect the poop. Put it in a blender with some water, then filtrate it thru a coffee filter (make sure you don't have a shake or coffee at home for at least a few months). Whatever runs thru the filter is dissolved organic matter, which stays in an aquarium with heavy bioload, few plants, and no water changes. The DOC (dissolved organic carbon) is actually monitored in waste water treatment plants. Besides that, ions are accumulated from food (mainly alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, halides and phosphate), dramatically rising to affect osmotic pressue, detectable by increasing conductivity. Bottom line: try out the test above and see for yourself.
I am not being close-minded, I am being realistic. For some reason, the guy did not monitor or report the conductivity in his tank (FYI this is standard procedure in environmental limnology). Obviously, he was serious enough about it to sell his red & gold aros, but did not put much thought into his study design
Anyhow, if that data was available, this thread would have ended a long time ago ... with a few laughs... You say it has been reported more than once ... maybe you can find data on conductivity changes over time. I am always willing to consider solid data in order to shape my opinion.
Lots of water changes in a river.
Consider it a humongous drip system. And most lakes have either surface waters (creeks, streams,..) or sub-surface water flow (springs, groundwater,...). Put on a wetsuit and find out - you'll be surprised what you find under water. The aspect with plants has been mentioned before, and it only works in a low-fish, high-plant tank...
Some of you guys almost sound like the inventors of Tetra EasyBalance ....
and remember: no coffee
HarleyK
.
I definately wouldn't wanna put my fish through that
Remember ... I was just sharing something I read online that I found interesting. I wouldn't ever consider not changing water for 6 months, mainly because my current system is working and I have never had fish die due to a water change.
Another interesting spin on the situation is this post from a different thread:
I find this contradictory to some of the things I have read online about denitrators. He got significant results with his goldfish tank after only 2 weeks, but other sources say that it could take months for a denitrator to cycle properly.
Hmmm..
P.s. The above post if from a different person than the original quote.
I just had to register to reply on this thread. This guys name is Phil he owns a packaging company in Sydney. Ive seen this setup in person and its amazing pretty amazing that he never changes his water. The fishes he has seems really healthy and aggressive. When I asked him about water changes he just said its the filtration and how you manage your filtration.
Cool ... no worries mate (as you guys would say down there
)I found it an interesting case and kinda got shot down in flames here for posting it. Anyways, I probably wouldn't ever consider not changing water unless it resulted it problems as it did in your acquaintance's case.
You also into fish keeping?
