What's more effective. Frequent smaller water changes or single huge ones?

[squint]

You might as well just use a calendar to determine your water change schedule.

Ammonia and nitrite are never zero, just below the detection limits of most tests (about 0.05 mg/L for API ammonia). Given that nitrate is thousands of times less toxic than ammonia and hundreds of times less toxic than nitrite, shouldn't we be more worried about 0.02 mg/L ammonia than 40 mg/L nitrate?

 

[islandguy11]

You might as well just use a calendar to determine your water change schedule.

Ammonia and nitrite are never zero, just below the detection limits of most tests (about 0.05 mg/L for API ammonia). Given that nitrate is thousands of times less toxic than ammonia and hundreds of times less toxic than nitrite, shouldn't we be more worried about 0.02 mg/L ammonia than 40 mg/L nitrate?

Great, that means I don't have to do my next water change until 24th September 2562! (Thai calendar year is different )

But you make some good points too, I'll leave it to those more bio-chemically inclined -- I'm just the guy who innocently started a mini Nitrate war lol, all good for our learning though.