Water Changes
- Thread starter douahe
- Start date
keep it up and dont touch a thing, adding more plants wont hurt though 
I just planted some more wendtii and corkscrew vals. Most of those will end up moved over to my 120 when I get it up and running again, and eventually, sold.The entire left side of the tank is going to be covered in dwarf hairgrass eventually. I only bought one pot of it to start with. I'm thinking about buying another to help it spread faster. I'm going to be adding some christmas moss to at least one piece of driftwood as well. If the dwarf baby tears don't attach and spread well on the driftwood they are on, I will likely put a moss on there.
taksan,
I cycled the aquarium with biological media that had been on another tank for several months. It did go through the appropriate cycling stages. Since then, As I have said, when I test my water (usually once a week), the nitrate test registers at 0. With the exception of adding water when I moved everything over to my 210g and adding water when necessary because of evaporation, there have been no water changes. The tank has now been set up for nearly 2 years.
I cycled the aquarium with biological media that had been on another tank for several months. It did go through the appropriate cycling stages. Since then, As I have said, when I test my water (usually once a week), the nitrate test registers at 0. With the exception of adding water when I moved everything over to my 210g and adding water when necessary because of evaporation, there have been no water changes. The tank has now been set up for nearly 2 years.
i would say just keep doing wat your doing. but yeah just keep an eye on the nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia levels. looks like you found a good combonation of filtration and steady matenece. keep on keepin on. hope its stays good for you.
taksan;4668676; said:
Actually, you know a tank is cycled when the nitrates GO to 0. That means that the beneficial bacteria has grown and is doing its job by removing these things caused by poop and food.
I would recommend changing your water atleast every once in awhile. There are things in the water that no filter can remove. I definitely agree that with a light bioload, awesome filtration, and enough plants, water changes are unnecessary. I also can say that water changes are less needed in larger tanks. It takes a long time for nitrates to build up in that large size of water.
i can confirm from personal experience that nitrates can go to zero if you are understocked , feed lightly ,and are heavily planted . i've done it in my pond .
taksan;4668676; said:
He probably means undetectable, not zero.
I find this interesting, just keep doing what your doing.
The plants in your tank are absorbing the ammonia your fish release, the excess nutrients, and the CO2. I wouldn't be surprised to find that your biological media probably doesn't have any beneficial bacteria on it, the plants are doing most of the work. Since you have found a way of keeping your plants alive, and successful, I'd say you're one of the few fortunate people who really only need to do water changes every 6 months, or so (according to an article I read, but which I can't currently find).
