Water changes

[Dano01]

I have noticed that a number of members are advising large water changes (greater than 25%) as the solution for almost everything.....People are being instructed to change as much as 75% without inquiring where the change water is coming from or what the quality of the change water is.

The practice of changing water for any reason should be done with the quality of the change water as the first consideration....It makes no sense to use water that is not significantly better than what it replaces.

You cannot dilute a high ammonia level significantly with tap water that has a moderate ammonia level even after it has been treated with a water conditioner......In any case big water changes cause some degree of shock to the fish and bio system.

These things should be presented to the person being advised before they do the big water changes being advocated by many.

 

[jsoong]

Agree with you to a point .... I always warn that the change water should be temp & parameter matched when doing a large water change. I do, however, assume that clean water is being used as the change water!

However, I can't really think there would be many cases where a big water change is harmful. I don't think fish would be stressed if the water parameters match.

 

[black hills tj]

I have never seen any degree of shock in any of my tanks, and I do 50% PWC's on all my tanks weekly. I often change 75-95%. I've had fish nearly flopping on the substrate, and as soon as I fill it up they are happier than ever.

As long as you are paying attention to what you are doing with a PWC, it will never hurt anything.

 

[Copepod]

That makes me laugh !!! I used to do the same thing...we had a Pacu and she was huge...too big for the tank...I used to empty her water way down and she would wait for the water hose from the cistern and fill her tank up and she loved it !!!! How crazy were we back then? BTW she went to a lady that had a 300 gallon tank.