Two Questions: 1. PWC's 2. Algae

[pitt420dude]

Please feel free to answer one of these or both. My questions are:

1. Is there such as thing as too many water changes? I am going through some diseases on fish right now and do about 25% every 3 or 4 days to help them through it with some extra clean water. I am not worried about my biofiltration or anything and the water I add is treated.

2. What is the deal with Good or Bad Algea? Is there such a thing as either or is any algea pretty much a non factor (of course other than for fish that need algea)?

 

[apotocki]

Please feel free to answer one of these or both. My questions are:

1. Is there such as thing as too many water changes? I am going through some diseases on fish right now and do about 25% every 3 or 4 days to help them through it with some extra clean water. I am not worried about my biofiltration or anything and the water I add is treated.

2. What is the deal with Good or Bad Algea? Is there such a thing as either or is any algea pretty much a non factor (of course other than for fish that need algea)?

Pitt420dude - My understanding is that from reading (I.e. - David Boruchowitz's The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums) and investigating on the net that there is really no such thing as too many water changes. The only limitation is in how often you want to perform them. With that said, however, I think that it is important (I'm not sure why, just my opinion) not to exceed more than 50% in any one change. I also recently went through a 'strange' happening in my tank (not sure if it was disease or water contamination and performed water changes of approx 30-40% for 3 days in a row with no adverse affects. My current regimen is approx 25-35% twice a week.

As to the algae - I'm not sure about that but I don't think there are good/bad algae. Nor do I think that there is any problem with having algae other than the ugliness! (as long as you are maintaining your tank).

alan

 

[malkore]

1. Yes. Too many water changes can stress fish, mainly from all your work inside the tank, and the more changes, the greater the chance of not getting the water temp exactly right and causing more stress. If you're using meds to treat the disease, then you're removing the meds with each water change, making them less effective.

2. If you ask me there's no 'good' algae. Algae is an indication of a nutrient imbalance. In planted tanks, this means the plants are probably suffering. In a non-planted tank, it's not a huge deal unless nitrates or phosphates have hit toxic levels. Otherwise, its really just a nuisance/ugly appearance in the tank.

 

[pitt420dude]

Malkore I have a sump that I add my water to, it is also very close to 78 (the tank temp) so I am not worried about the work inside the tank or temp shock stressing hte fish. I dont use meds to treat diseases.
As far as algea doesnt it help to get rid of some toxins? Does it "add" any?

 

[malkore]

Algae will use nitrates and phosphates a food source. They aren't really 'toxins' unless they hit toxic levels, but you'll have the worst algae outbreak long before that.

Cyanobacteria, 'blue green algae' isn't a true algae, but a bacteria. It can release toxins in the water that'll harm fish, usually when it's disturbed.

 

[pitt420dude]

I am going to cheat and ask another question! What is up with gravel vacs during the PWCs. I have shrimp, 3 cories and a pleco that constantly clean up the bottom. My tank is extremly full of hiding places, plants, driftwood and coral, so moving all of this is extremely burdensome if I was going to do regular gravel vacs. Can I jsut do extra PWC's and get the same result? What are the benefits and bad consequences of just doing PWCs without gravel vacs??? Can I get away with 2-4 gravel vacs a year? (what would you all say the bare minimum for gravel vacs is?) I do 25% everyweek, sometimes more.

 

[Guest]

I have a lot of plants and hiding places in my tank as well. The way I do it is that I only gravel vac about 10% of the gravel at one time, meaning I usually only have to move one or two things. Then, the next time I pick another spot. That way its a much more approachable task. Otherwize, you are going to get too much waste build-up under there that the water changes are not even touching.

 

[mattrox]

Detruits can build up and rot in the gravel. This will not only clog the spaces in the gravel causing them to go anoxic, but the bacteria breaking down the detritus will also use up oxygen causing the gravel to go anoxic. This causes hydrogen sulfide creating bacteria to grow due to the lack of oxygen. In that case, not only do you have a build up of dissolved organic compounds, you also hsve H2S which is toxic.

You do not remove the source of the problem by doing pwcs, only with gravel vacs. As Tony said you don't have to vac the tank all at once. This way you remove the source of the dissolved organic carbons and prevent H2S being produced in the tank.

 

[pitt420dude]

What is anoxic and how long does it take to be anoxic? If I vac 4 times a year will that be enough to not suffer any serious problems? Are fish more prone to disease without gravel vacs?

 

[RoK]

Couldn't you just try what Tony mentioned?

 

[SteveM]

I think opinions may vary on this, but from what I have read on a planted tank you don't really ever want to vac deep into the gravel. Just lightly clean up what's on the surface without disturbing the roots and I think you're fine.

 

[Quake2player]

before I converted to live plants... I used to be religious with deep gravel vacs a couple of times per month ... doin part of the tank at a time so you end up doing the whole tank after a few vacs in 1 month. Pitt420, 2-4 times per year is way too little. I know it's a pain, but all u really need to do is to move that decoration/stone/driftwood over... run the vac where it was, then place it back. Figure gravel vacs might add an add'l 5 mins. to the PWC routine.... so just add it in your arsenal of things to do for maintenace every week or so.

... off a slight tangent here... with new live plants I've added to my converted tank, I don't do the "deep" gravel vacs I used to do before cause I don't want to move/destroy the rooots of my plants. It's also more difficult to do the surface vacs ... isn't anything that decays on the gravel/fluorite surface beneficial for live plants?

 

[pitt420dude]

Yeah allright thanks for the advice. I will start doing my vacs this upcomming weekend. I will probably do it in 3rds. I guess I will just have to vac around my anubias and amazon sword. I hear that they do not like being disturbed is this true? How will disturbing plants while vacuming hurt them? (of course other than breaking things off of it! :?