water change
- Thread starter hle_81
- Start date
I voted between 25-50% i think that anymore can remove too much bacterior and make conditions more unstable.
Since the majority of our beneficial bacteria reside in our filtration system, I have no problems removing 60% of the water at a time to get our nitrates low. We can't remove any more than that at a time because the pacu have to swim sideways with the water low, and we run out of hot water at about 200 gallons. We change out another 60% the next day, and that keeps our nitrates < 20 ppm for 6 days
Depending on your stock and tank type, you should be able to keep nitrates at acceptable levels with weekly 25-50% changes. Every tank will have it's own need though.
How do large weekly water changes make your tank unstable? Your beneficial bacteria is not free floating, so you are not removing it with water changes.
Bogwoodbruce;1265582; said:
How do large weekly water changes make your tank unstable? Your beneficial bacteria is not free floating, so you are not removing it with water changes.
I voted 25-50%....it really varies tank per tank....and how much time I have and how much I feel like doing that day. As long as I do some form of waterchange every week-ten days my tanks levels stay great. If I see alot of detrius Ill do more, if I see less i probably wont take out as much at a time. And every so often Ill give them a really good cleaning and take all decore out and do like a 80-90% waterchange.
I said less than 25% I base it on nitrate tests. I do a 50 maybe once every 2 months to help with the DOC. I run carbon in low amounts to get rid of the DOC but the 50 doesn't hurt.
I vacuum more frequently, so there really isn't much poo to break down.
I vacuum more frequently, so there really isn't much poo to break down.