Water changes- can you over do it?

[Goldie82]

Change my 40 gallon twice a week. 50% changes. Is this too much? Guy at the fish store thought so

 

[Oscarr19]

Change my 40 gallon twice a week. 50% changes. Is this too much? Guy at the fish store thought so

Depending on stocking, the norm is a 15-25% water change once a week. I'd say you're overdoing it unless you have a huge bioload.

 

[Mebbid]

Change my 40 gallon twice a week. 50% changes. Is this too much? Guy at the fish store thought so

As long as you temperature match the water and dechlorinate it properly, then there isn't really any problem with changing it that often.

Depending on stocking, the norm is a 15-25% water change once a week. I'd say you're overdoing it unless you have a huge bioload.

I honestly wouldn't even bother with a water change that small. 50% weekly is the standard for most tanks.

Think of it this way, if your nitrates are at 30ppm a 15% change will only remove 4.5ppm of nitrate which is a miniscule amount.

 

[Hobgob]

I change like 10-30% everyday.. I like to make sure I get over 100% and on grow out is 50% every 1-2 days.

 

[Catfish Lover]

As long as your consistent with how often and the % of water you change their is no such thing as over doing water changes. The fish will appreciate fresh water. They will get use to whatever regimen you do. Just be consistent like I said earlier. For instance don't do a 75% WC one week and then decide you only want to do a 15% change the next week. Water chemistry will start to fluctuate and that's never good for fish.

 

[Catfish Lover]

As long as your consistent with how often and the % of water you change their is no such thing as over doing water changes. The fish will appreciate fresh water. They will get use to whatever regimen you do as long as you're consistent. For instance don't do a 75% WC one week and decide the next week you only want to do a 15%. Water chemistry will start to fluctuate.
.

 

[bud29]

I change like 10-30% everyday.. I like to make sure I get over 100% and on grow out is 50% every 1-2 days.

Heh, discus keepers


50% weekly is pretty much the standard. If you have a high bioload, you may need to do more. Try as much as possible to have the incoming water be the same as the water you took out - you don't want to stress your fish with a gigantic parameter swing by doing a pwc.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Gold...

A weekly water change of half the tank's volume per week is plenty. This will guarantee safe water conditions for fish and plants. Make sure you're not feeding too much. Feeding a small bit of a variety of frozen, freeze dried and flaked, 2 to 3 times a week is plenty. The water will stay much cleaner. Concentrate on these two things, and you'll avoid most, if not all the reasons for failure in the water keeping hobby.

B

 

[jlk]

Change my 40 gallon twice a week. 50% changes. Is this too much? Guy at the fish store thought so

With your present heavy stocking and health issues, I honestly would consider doing more frequent and/or bigger water changes unless your tap has ammonia or nitrite in it. Without a test kit and accurately knowing your tank and tap parameters, its difficult to make further suggestions.

 

[xtina]

I have been wondering this...
Does a "water change" also mean siphoning some dirty parts of the sand with the siphon suction tube? My boyfriend and I do this every week. We can't get to a whole lot because of all the live rock, but we put the siphon in and out of the sand in the front of the tank to get all the junk out that the c.u.c did't take care off and the power head didn't stir away from the bottom.

 

[Mebbid]

I have been wondering this...
Does a "water change" also mean siphoning some dirty parts of the sand with the siphon suction tube? My boyfriend and I do this every week. We can't get to a whole lot because of all the live rock, but we put the siphon in and out of the sand in the front of the tank to get all the junk out that the c.u.c did't take care off and the power head didn't stir away from the bottom.

For a saltwater tank siphoning up detritus is a good practice although I would probably avoid disturbing the sandbed.

 

[Oscarr19]

As long as you temperature match the water and dechlorinate it properly, then there isn't really any problem with changing it that often. I honestly wouldn't even bother with a water change that small. 50% weekly is the standard for most tanks. Think of it this way, if your nitrates are at 30ppm a 15% change will only remove 4.5ppm of nitrate which is a miniscule amount.

Huh, I see your point. I guess I never really thought of it that way. I've continuously read here and on other sources that 15-25% weekly was the norm except in certain circumstances like an ammonia spike, discus, higher bioload, etc.

 

[Mebbid]

Huh, I see your point. I guess I never really thought of it that way. I've continuously read here and on other sources that 15-25% weekly was the norm except in certain circumstances like an ammonia spike, discus, higher bioload, etc.

Yeah, there's a lot of mixed information out there. I started out with 25% changes myself and since I was stocked to the limit I was forced to do multiple changes weekly which got old fast.

 

[Oscarr19]

Yeah, there's a lot of mixed information out there. I started out with 25% changes myself and since I was stocked to the limit I was forced to do multiple changes weekly which got old fast.

Although I don't do 50% water changes unless in my QT, I'm always doing well over 25% but hey it's always good to get into the practice of doing more, especially since I wanna setup a discus tank eventually.

 

[BBradbury]

Water Changes

I have been wondering this...
Does a "water change" also mean siphoning some dirty parts of the sand with the siphon suction tube? My boyfriend and I do this every week. We can't get to a whole lot because of all the live rock, but we put the siphon in and out of the sand in the front of the tank to get all the junk out that the c.u.c did't take care off and the power head didn't stir away from the bottom.

Hello x...

Everything that goes into the tank water will eventually dissolve. This includes all fish and plant wastes. When it dissolves, it feeds your plants. Any excess nutrients that may foul the tank water can be removed via the water change. Sand tends to compact in areas and in other areas, bubbles or voids are created. These can cause water problems. To avoid this, cover the syphon with a piece of ladies' nylon hose or a piece of fish netting and secure it with a rubber band. Then, you can gently pass the syphon over the sand and remove some of the waste material. This works for any substrate.

B