Masha
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Okay, I know this is a little bit of a hot topic, so I hope I'm not stirring up trouble by asking about it.
I see some conflicting advice about water changes. Now - granted - every tank is different, and somebody keeping discus is going to need to have a different water change regimen that somebody keeping a tougher fish like black widow tetras, for example.
But as a general rule - what do you think is the ideal water change regimen?
I see some people say 50% a week. Then I see other saying that will result in drastic changes in the water chemistry which is bad for the fish, and smaller, more frequent changes are better.
I can imagine that if you let your tank stand for a month or so and then suddenly do a 50% change, there would be a big difference between the tank water and the new water coming in. But if the changes are done weekly, is that really something that will stress fish?
And I mean "fish in general" if there is such a thing not special cases of more than usually sensitive fish. Is it this a "how long is a piece of string" kind of question that differs from tank to tank, or is there a rule of thumb that most of us can follow?
I see some conflicting advice about water changes. Now - granted - every tank is different, and somebody keeping discus is going to need to have a different water change regimen that somebody keeping a tougher fish like black widow tetras, for example.
But as a general rule - what do you think is the ideal water change regimen?
I see some people say 50% a week. Then I see other saying that will result in drastic changes in the water chemistry which is bad for the fish, and smaller, more frequent changes are better.
I can imagine that if you let your tank stand for a month or so and then suddenly do a 50% change, there would be a big difference between the tank water and the new water coming in. But if the changes are done weekly, is that really something that will stress fish?
And I mean "fish in general" if there is such a thing not special cases of more than usually sensitive fish. Is it this a "how long is a piece of string" kind of question that differs from tank to tank, or is there a rule of thumb that most of us can follow?