Water change with ray's
- Thread starter Whynot91
- Start date
PeteLockwood;5083053; said:
100% right Pete!!!
There are many things removed by good water changes that cannot be easily tested for but still accumulate anyway.
There are entirely to many variables for ANYONE to tell another person how much water to change on a regular basis without knowing there system and doing water tests for them self.
Doing 90% water changes is fine if your not shocking the fish with drastic differences in perams and of course the new water would need to be better than the water you took out. And anyone that is going to argue that, when so many are having great success doing so, is just arguing for the sake of arguing.
Does PeteLockwood NEED to do 90% water changes so frequently??? Probably not. Is it working for him??? Obviously it is. Are his fish healthy??? Obviously they are. If anyone is saying what he is doing is wrong, than you are also saying, doing a little extra work and in the mean time keeping healthy fish with a little overkill is also wrong. So with that logic, you better not put a filter on a tank that is to large for it, you better not get a tank that is to big for the stock, you better not over build a stand just to MAKE SURE it will hold the weight of the tank, you better not have a backup generator on any system. These would all be wrong with such ridiculous logic. Good luck with that argument....
I have a degree in biology, have been keeping fish for about 20 years and I know more about water than most people know about there own face. And I will tell you 2 things.
1. Is 90% water changes needed on a given system? I would have no idea without doing testing myself on the system. So for anyone other than Pete to say what he is doing is OK or wrong is ridiculous. You can give your THOUGHTS and OPINIONS based on assumptions but nothing more. I can tell you that if you are changing that much water and you are putting equal or better water back in, as to what you are taking out, than you are doing no harm assuming your perams stay relatively consistent.
2. Water changes have nothing to do with a tank being under filtered. If you have made a comment about this than you should to review the nitrogen cycle again and maybe learn what you have missed in the past. If you are changing water to get rid of sold waist (vac gravel or just sucking out crap) than that is different and would not apply to this discussion.
With that said, I do not do water changes very much at all. I actually have a tank that has gone about a year with no water changes and all the perams are great. I use plants in my filter systems and let nature do most of the work for me. All my fish are healthy in every way. My water quality is excellent. I admit I do not keep rays at this time but am planning a large ray tank in the near future that will be using the same type of filter system but simply designed for ray waist production.
If anyone would like to tell me that what I am doing is wrong, than I will be happy to enlighten you on biology, chemistry and nature and how wonderfully it can all work together.
Doing 90% water changes is fine if your not shocking the fish with drastic differences in perams and of course the new water would need to be better than the water you took out. And anyone that is going to argue that, when so many are having great success doing so, is just arguing for the sake of arguing.
Does PeteLockwood NEED to do 90% water changes so frequently??? Probably not. Is it working for him??? Obviously it is. Are his fish healthy??? Obviously they are. If anyone is saying what he is doing is wrong, than you are also saying, doing a little extra work and in the mean time keeping healthy fish with a little overkill is also wrong. So with that logic, you better not put a filter on a tank that is to large for it, you better not get a tank that is to big for the stock, you better not over build a stand just to MAKE SURE it will hold the weight of the tank, you better not have a backup generator on any system. These would all be wrong with such ridiculous logic. Good luck with that argument....
I have a degree in biology, have been keeping fish for about 20 years and I know more about water than most people know about there own face. And I will tell you 2 things.
1. Is 90% water changes needed on a given system? I would have no idea without doing testing myself on the system. So for anyone other than Pete to say what he is doing is OK or wrong is ridiculous. You can give your THOUGHTS and OPINIONS based on assumptions but nothing more. I can tell you that if you are changing that much water and you are putting equal or better water back in, as to what you are taking out, than you are doing no harm assuming your perams stay relatively consistent.
2. Water changes have nothing to do with a tank being under filtered. If you have made a comment about this than you should to review the nitrogen cycle again and maybe learn what you have missed in the past. If you are changing water to get rid of sold waist (vac gravel or just sucking out crap) than that is different and would not apply to this discussion.
With that said, I do not do water changes very much at all. I actually have a tank that has gone about a year with no water changes and all the perams are great. I use plants in my filter systems and let nature do most of the work for me. All my fish are healthy in every way. My water quality is excellent. I admit I do not keep rays at this time but am planning a large ray tank in the near future that will be using the same type of filter system but simply designed for ray waist production.
If anyone would like to tell me that what I am doing is wrong, than I will be happy to enlighten you on biology, chemistry and nature and how wonderfully it can all work together.
Honest it it all depends on the quality of the water you are adding in. If it's perfect, even 100% is ok.
The need for it depends on your bioload. If the ray eats well and regularly and is growing fine, Maintain the water change regime.
The need for it depends on your bioload. If the ray eats well and regularly and is growing fine, Maintain the water change regime.
I do 50% once a week, somethimes more often, works good here. 20% once every 2 weeks sounds little? But offcourse, if you have 180 gallon tank, good filter, and 1 ray,20% seems enough. I had 1 6" ray alone in 50 gallon tank with heavy filter, think i changed 50% every 2-3 week, worked great.
I have read around that with very large changes, your bacteria culture can get shocked?
I have read around that with very large changes, your bacteria culture can get shocked?
I think we can all agree that not doing water changes at all is not really a good thing even if the params are "perfect".
@ Earthstudent- would you like to live in a bathtub full of water for a year with no changes, just a filter? No.. so why should your fish?
@ Earthstudent- would you like to live in a bathtub full of water for a year with no changes, just a filter? No.. so why should your fish?
Tor-Eriik;5084290; said:
Sounds like an old wives' tale. What would shock the bacteria that wouldn't shock the fish? And my tanks never mini-cycle after their changes.
Only way I see it happening is the same way the fish could be upset, which would be zero changes for long period then huge change. This is not what I do - or advocate.
Tor-Eriik;5084534; said:
If the water in the newly filled tank is more or less identical to the water from the tank the canister camed from, - what could possibly kill the bacteria? I have done this so many times... never been a problem.
