Water change frequency for Oscar in 75

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 8, 2022
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I am planning on getting an Oscar in a 75 with a delhezi bichir. I have a 3.5” delhezi and I am wondering about how many water changes I should do per month. I do not have access to high quality water. I have to drive 30 minutes to my LFS. What should my water changes be? Looking for people who have successfully kept Oscar’s in a 75.
 
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I guess everyone's level of commitment to the hobby varies; I know for a fact that if I had to drive an hour every time I needed water...especially in the kinds of quantities which you will need...I'd be out of the hobby.

So...have you considered every other possible source? Can you collect rainwater? It's a relatively small initial outlay of cash, and pretty much zero thereafter. Collect from a local natural source? Distillation or RO treatment for your tap water?

When you refer to "high-quality" water, what aspects of the water are you referencing? If you have clean water that is simply not chemically ideal for Oscars...and many keepers fall into that category...you could consider other species more suited to the conditions that you do have.

You are essentially describing a nightmarish scenario where acceptable water is very time-consuming and labour-intensive to provide...but you have opted to maintain a large, fast-growing fish that normally displays a prodigious appetite and is a known poop-machine...and you want to do it in a tank that is really very small for the purpose...and you want to keep other fish in there as well! You seem to be making this as difficult as you can...
 
I guess everyone's level of commitment to the hobby varies; I know for a fact that if I had to drive an hour every time I needed water...especially in the kinds of quantities which you will need...I'd be out of the hobby.

So...have you considered every other possible source? Can you collect rainwater? It's a relatively small initial outlay of cash, and pretty much zero thereafter. Collect from a local natural source? Distillation or RO treatment for your tap water?

When you refer to "high-quality" water, what aspects of the water are you referencing? If you have clean water that is simply not chemically ideal for Oscars...and many keepers fall into that category...you could consider other species more suited to the conditions that you do have.

You are essentially describing a nightmarish scenario where acceptable water is very time-consuming and labour-intensive to provide...but you have opted to maintain a large, fast-growing fish that normally displays a prodigious appetite and is a known poop-machine...and you want to do it in a tank that is really very small for the purpose...and you want to keep other fish in there as well! You seem to be making this as difficult as you can...
Ok then… how about a Jack Dempsey? Would that be less of a bio load?
 
I replied before noticing you had sort of described your water. Chlorine is nothing more than a minor inconvenience, easily and cheaply corrected. The vast majority of aquarists deal with it throughout their fish-keeping careers.

I don't know what you have 20ppm of...but, honestly, unless it's some rare radioactive isotope I don't see the problem here. Either bite the bullet for equipment (RO or whatever) to correct your water, find "better" water nearby or select fish better suited to what you have so that it doesn't require correction.
 
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