how often......

[e-cat]

how often do you do water changes/vacuming the gravel and how much water do you change % or gallons?

 

[e-cat]

i change the water and vacum the gravel once a week and change 5 gallons of water.

 

[Techboy]

vacuum gravel until the water level gets to 25% of the tank then fill it with new water. do this every week

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi,
How big is your tank? My tank is small, 5 1/2 gallons, and it holds 4 1/2 gallons of water. I vacuum 1/2 of the gravel (just one side of the tank) once a week, and change 1 gallon of water. That's about 20% for my tank.
The next week, I'll vacuum the other side, and change 1 gallon of water again. This keeps my nitrates at an acceptable level. This is just regular cleaning and maintenance. If your tank is finished cycling, this is probably all you need to do. If your tank is still cycling, you need to do your tests every day and change your water based on what the test says.

If your tank is bigger, you may not need to change some water or sweep every week. Also, see how much waste you are vacuuming out. If you see a lot, you may have to sweep a little more frequently (and check your ammonia too if you're seeing a lot of waste). Do your water tests so that you can see when the nitrates start to rise. When they rise above 40ppm, then you should change the water. Then you could do a 20% change to bring them down. They may not rise as quickly in a big tank as in my small tank. You could get away with every 2 or 3 weeks, maybe. Just do your tests and keep an eye on your parameters. I hope this helped!

 

[e-cat]

if your asking me, my tank is 70 gallons, i change it every week because an electric catfish is an carnivor and eats meat and witha high protien diet he leaves rather larges craps in the tank and my ammonia, is 0 and so is nitate and nitrites.

 

[An t-iasg]

You said you change 5 gallons a week? A 20% change for your tank would be 14 gallons. But if everything is ok, I would just continue with your 5 gallons a week. I don't have a big tank, but some friends do and they only do about a 20% change every 3-4 weeks. But if your 5 gallons a week change is working for you, then stick with it. If it's helping all your parameters stay at 0, even with the electric catfish, then that's good.

 

[e-cat]

well if 20% of my tank is 14 gallons and i change 5 gallons a week then thats about the same as doing 20% every 3 weeks, and doing less more frequently is better IMO because it is less of an shock on the fish its self.

 

[TankGirl]

This depends upon how heavily stocked your tank is, but I generally do twice-weekly 20% water changes, because I work at home and am a little anal about my tanks. Basically small frequent water changes are a good idea.

 

[Punkymom]

I plan on doing 50% once a week...and only vacuuming the parts of the gravel I can reach with the hosey thingy (I have a LOT of plants). I have a 55 gal.

 

[silvi-p]

I do weekly water changes of about 33%, that's for the small tank ~30-40 litres (help me with the gallons here.... 7-10 gallons?), and for the big tank (~100l - 25gals?).
I stick with this because I see that the fish are really happy campers and as I always have guppy fry, I occasionally (1x, 2x per week) feed a bit more, so no risk.
definitely small water changes, done more often, are better. parameters are more stable that way. however, I think no matter how often you do a 10% change, it won't do so much good - except you do it every day. 20% in two weeks will not be enough, no matter what tank size or stock.

~my 2 cents 8)

 

[tkos]

I keep understocked and heavily planted tanks and do about 10% per week. But I keep small fish that produce very little waste and have lots of good snails to keep things clean and the plants use the excess.

I would definatley suggest 20-30% per week for most normal tanks as I know that most people tend to stock on the high side.