How big is your weekly water change?

[abrahamavelar]

i do 50%+ every week due that its planted and want the best out of my plants and every 2 weeks i do a 80-90%

 

[00youknowit00]

I've never done a water change in any of my 5 breeding tanks in 3 years.

What!?!

 

[siva]

I've never done a water change in any of my 5 breeding tanks in 3 years.

Remind me not to buy fish from you! lol No but seriously, how does that work? Are they nicely planted and just have so much evap. that you just top off or what? I can't imagine how that could work.

 

[Rplacke]

What!?!

Yeah. I use guppy grass (najas grass) and hornwort and a combination of ramshorn snails and assassin snails and keep a balanced aquarium in each. Sponge filters house the good bacteria needed to maintain each ecosystem. I have had many prize winning guppies sold from these tanks and have only had deaths due to birth defects. I've never had to clean it or do a water change. All of my water stays where it should be. Just fill up the tanks as the water evaporates out over time. The salt originally put in the tanks doesn't evaporate out so basic tap water I let sit out for two days in an old cleaned out milk jug fills them up. But on my 36 gallon tank I do do 30% weekly changes.

 

[00youknowit00]

Remind me not to buy fish from you! lol No but seriously, how does that work? Are they nicely planted and just have so much evap. that you just top off or what? I can't imagine how that could work.

Yeah, I'm going to guess everyone wants to know whats going on.

 

[ashleynicole]

Yeah. I use guppy grass (najas grass) and hornwort and a combination of ramshorn snails and assassin snails and keep a balanced aquarium in each. Sponge filters house the good bacteria needed to maintain each ecosystem. I have had many prize winning guppies sold from these tanks and have only had deaths due to birth defects. I've never had to clean it or do a water change. All of my water stays where it should be. Just fill up the tanks as the water evaporates out over time. The salt originally put in the tanks doesn't evaporate out so basic tap water I let sit out for two days in an old cleaned out milk jug fills them up. But on my 36 gallon tank I do do 30% weekly changes.

What about the accumulation of dissolved compounds?

 

[Rplacke]

Well I don't have to worry about carbon matter because I don't use a power filter. As far as the organic matter goes the snails do a fine job at cleaning up anything dealing with old broken off plant material to an extent. The guppy grass (najas) does a phenomenal job at taking harmful nitrates out of the tank from the fish waste. I do have some visual waste but it isnt taking over the bottom of the tank. Every few months I do take out the two sponges in each tank and run warm water through them as well as clip off the build up on each air tubing leading to the sponge. As for algae. I swear by moss balls.

 

[eco23]

I've never done a water change in any of my 5 breeding tanks in 3 years.

Please read-
http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html

 

[Tanktop]

I do 15 - 20% weekly-ish. I've a lightly stocked heavily planted tank with reasonable filtration.

 

[barterking85]

Please read-
http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html

Nothing is coming up Eco

 

[adeebm]

Link works, and what is says will eventually happen. I don't want to start a debate about closed systems again though

--Adeeb

 

[barterking85]

Link works, and what is says will eventually happen. I don't want to start a debate about closed systems again though

--Adeeb

Ahhh balanced systems I stayed out of the latest thread many others voiced my opinion for me lol Eco was right in there though lol

 

[eco23]

Yeah, that thread was enough to last a lifetime, lol. People...please do water changes.

For the record, I do 2x 30% changes per week.

- Thursday is a normal pwc and gravel vac
- Sunday is more intense cleaning (clean filters, churn sand, trim plants, algae removal, etc...). I clean my canister hoses once a month.

 

[abrahamavelar]

U do the algae scrapping every two weeks and filter clean up once a month and trimming well that depends

 

[Slade]

I do 50-60% weekly on all my tanks. That's about the time it takes to vacuum and lets me rearrange rocks and decorations. Then I rinse filter media in tank water.

 

[Ice Man]

I do about 20% once a week and vacuum sand.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I do 20-50% every 5-10days on my 4 tanks. All except one are well planted. Nitrates rarely get over 5ppm. I don't vacuum my 70 gallon but do the rest.

 

[Tigroscr]

I usually do one 40-50% pwc and gravel vac on all my tanks once a week (take everything out ornaments and rocks etc once a month and clean) my 75 gal I sometimes do a 40% pwc and vac twice a week (if I see a lot of poo) oh! and I clean filters and media in tank water every other week.

 

[abrahamavelar]

i do big pwc like anywhere between 50 and 80% the day im getting new fish usually an hour or two before i head to the lfs so it settles all in ang looks good for the new fish!!!!

 

[sholi]

I only do a 10% change...the water and parameters are perfect. I even have 10g top fin 10 filter (even if it is not reccomended) with 6 guppies...i really want to replace them with 1 ranchu goldfish already, but turns out my guppies just started growing and is TOO healthy... so i guess its another 2 years