water changes

[rallysman]

When your nitrate levels reach an unacceptable level, change enough water to get them to an acceptable level. Buy a test kit and you'll figure it out Every tank is different.

 

[ohiodave]

I change once or twice a week but my tanks are stocked HEAVY. I don't use test kits much you can smell if the water is getting out of hand. If you change 30-50 percent a week there will not be a problem.

 

[Bud8Fan]

Here's what you do (I'm assuming your tank is cycled):

Get test kits for nitrate and phosphate. Test.

Determine what levels you can live with and replace the necessary volume of water to achieve that.

Example:
Let's say your nitrate level is 40 ppm and you want 20 ppm. You would change 50% of the water (assuming your tap water has 0 ppm).

Example:
Let's say your nitrate level is 80 ppm and you want 20 ppm. You would replace 75%. Or, you could perform 2x50% water changes back-to-back.

That is the best answer.

 

[ShadowBass]

When your nitrate levels reach an unacceptable level, change enough water to get them to an acceptable level. Buy a test kit and you'll figure it out Every tank is different.

Exactly. There's no other way to tell someone how many water changes to do. Anything else is just guessing on someone elses situation, and we don't all keep the same species and stocking levels.

Acceptable nitrate levels will largely depend on species as some are more sensitive than others.

 

[princess]

i do every 14 days a 50% ....and at day 5 i clean the filters but its sorta lightly stocked with 2 filters
my nitrate never goes above 20

 

[piggy67]

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR YOUR INPUT.i HAVE A GG IN A 100GAL WITH A BULLHEAD CAT,A 90GAL WITH A RED DEVIL,JACK DEMPSEY,STRIPPED CONVICT...i WENT TO A FRIENDS HOUSE TO DO A TANK CLEAN.USED A PYTHON,PRIME,CHECK THE TEMP.EVERY THING I ALWAYS DO TO MY TANKS.NEXT DAY HE CALLED AND SAID ALL HE'S FISH DIED AND WANTED ME TO REPLACE THEM.I'LL NEVER DO A TANK CLEAN/WATER CHANGE FOR ANYBODY AGAIN.

 

[jdm885]

i do percent twice a week but i do heavy gravel vacs im not into keeping fish poo

i usually do 40-50% every week, but i also do the heavy gravel filters which really helps out the tank.

 

[Headrush]

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR YOUR INPUT.i HAVE A GG IN A 100GAL WITH A BULLHEAD CAT,A 90GAL WITH A RED DEVIL,JACK DEMPSEY,STRIPPED CONVICT...i WENT TO A FRIENDS HOUSE TO DO A TANK CLEAN.USED A PYTHON,PRIME,CHECK THE TEMP.EVERY THING I ALWAYS DO TO MY TANKS.NEXT DAY HE CALLED AND SAID ALL HE'S FISH DIED AND WANTED ME TO REPLACE THEM.I'LL NEVER DO A TANK CLEAN/WATER CHANGE FOR ANYBODY AGAIN.

If your buddy couldn't even change his own water in his tanks, I'm going out on a limb here and saying it probably wasn't your fault they died.


Get a python they're worth EVERY penny...unless you like the muscles you get from carrying all those buckets

I have a GT, JD and FM in my 90 with 2 AC110 HOB's and change around 30% once per week. I use the syphon to vac the gravel really well too

 

[Nic]

3 or 4 50% waterchanges a week....

 

[Chris_leo]

I had problems with my tanks when I did water changes weekly. I used to use tap water & treat the water immediatly after thinking that was OK. BAD IDEA!!! I always had ammo spikes & all sorts of problems AFTER water changes, which is what happened at your friends place. The biggest mistake was that the chlorine in the water distroyed all the good bacteria as soon as it went into the tank. Finally what I did was, get a big enough submersible pump, treat the water in a sink/large bucket, and keep pumping it in. That finally solved my problem. Now I can even go 2 weeks in my large tanks without a problem, depending on feeding.