Water changes....
Hi all,
I've been wondering how many times I should change my fry tank? I've been doing 25% changes every day, but I think that many be harsh on some of them, since a few have been dying..
For what it's worth, if you are needing to change 40%-50% of your water every week, your filtering system may not be adequate.
As a hobbyist /breeder, I routinely changed only 10% of the water on a weekly basis and "vacummed" small areas of the gravel every 3-4 weeks in my display tanks.
I was trained by a certified Ichthyologist who told me that drastic changes in an aquarium are a recipe for disaster. "Fish need stabilty to stay healthy and grow." This water changing schedule produced thousands of fish and had my fish living for a high number of years.
As a commercial breeder, the water changes were still small for the fry but more often due to the uneaten food in the tanks. The breeders remained at 10% per week. This schedule produced millions of fish.
I know there are a number of you on here who subscribe to large water changes but I think you are doing more harm than good and opening yourselves up for major disasters. (IMO)
For the poster about the benificial bacteria, They are found in the gravel and adhearing to whatever surfaces they can find. They are not usually "floating" in the water so changing large volumes of water won't really effect them. HOWEVER, an example where it can hurt them: take a tank that has a high load of ammonia and the bacteria bed has now grown to consume it. Rapidly taking that food source away leaves the bacteria bed with more organisms than food so it shrinks by some of the bacteria dying off. This is not a good scenario. Yet another reason for smaller water changes.
Remember: Aquariums are an ecosystem. You don't have good results when you drastically change an ecosystem ( That's not just my opinion
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