Water change

[Jpb1216]

Best to change the water in a 100 gallon tank? Maybe 20 gallon change a week

 

[DavidAl]

I prefer 40- to 50% per week, whether planted or not. I see the difference it makes with my fish, and actually feel guilty if I change less than that...

David

 

[Cynic]

As above I try to do 40-50% a week and also can see the positive effect this has on my fish.

 

[StripedBandit]

Does this apply to all tanks or just larger ones? I usually change around 25-30% every week in my 29g. Should I bump it up to 50%?

 

[stingrays4]

Hi I usually do between 20 and 25% a week,but i am finding more and more people change more water? I do this on my smaller tanks but find its not needed in my opinion on bigger tanks. I am tempted to try this though as I have two similar sized tanks and would be curious to see if I could see a difference.

 

[DavidAl]

Does this apply to all tanks or just larger ones? I usually change around 25-30% every week in my 29g. Should I bump it up to 50%?

Thirty percent is good, and if it works for your fish and the nitrate levels are maintained at <20ppms, keep at it. As I stated above, I personally do 50% on my tanks (every Sunday). Truth be told, though, I probable get more out of it than my fish do. I seriously enjoy knowing my fish are swimming in clean water. And this applies to any size tank.

David

 

[Cynic]

Tank size is irrelevant, stocking level however is. An under stocked tank needs less water changes than a fully stocked tank and in theory a fully stocked tank needs the same water changes regardless of size.

 

[StripedBandit]

Okay then I think I should be good right now. I'll start doing 50% once I add the school of tetras.

 

[Jpb1216]

Yeah my tank is only 50% stocked so I figured 20% water change would be fine. I just didn't want to have to go pick up 4, 5 gallon jugs every week...

 

[Rivercats]

My largest tank is a 220g planted and believe it or not I do a 50% WC weekly. I've tried smaller WC's more often and honestly the plants and fish seem to do much better with the one large weekly water change.

 

[Jpb1216]

But I started this thread to see how you guys did it.... What kind if water did you use to refill?

 

[Teakwood]

I did a semi fish-in cycle on my 55... I lugged way more then 4 5 gallon buckets a week like everyday.... Now I use a python to change my water and gravel vac. I do 50% every week, if I skimp on it I can tell by my fishes behavior/coloring that they are not as comfortable as they could be. So maybe try it one way and try it the other and see if you see a difference and decide what works for you?

 

[Rivercats]

I use tap water for WC's and RO water for top offs.

 

[Jpb1216]

Wanna define top offs?

 

[Rivercats]

When your tanks water evaporates and gets low when you add water to fill it back up this is called topping it off.

 

[Jpb1216]

Oh I didn't know it had its own technical term. I have a glass cover that is slanted so it collects and runs off into the tank...

 

[Jpb1216]

Alright well thanks guys... I'm walking around my house measuring all the faucets now... Looking into either the python or whatever knock of my LFS sells

 

[Coyote251]

Python rocks! So much better than lugging water jugs and sucking on the hose to start the syphon. I found that with a smaller tank for me to clean enough of the gravel that I felt that I was properly caring for my fish I was doing like 40-50%. Now with a larger tank and using the Python I am probably doing like 35-30% cleaning most of the gravel around the decorations and the water is good and the fish seem happy. Water parameters are steady and always have been good so I have just kept up with the same routine.

 

[Jpb1216]

Does python connect to a garden hose as well?

 

[phin]

I saw a video yesterday on YouTube, DIY Fishkeepers. he has a drip method that keeps him from doing water changes, but is constantly changing 2ghp in his tank.

Basically, he hooked up a pressure regulator to a spigot on his well pump (could do it from any dedicated faucet or spigot), hooking airline tubing to it (to move water), and setting it up to drip into the tank @ 2 gallons per hour. Heating the water is unneccessary, as water dripped in at that rate warms to the tank temp. Also, if you aren't on a well he says you can put an inline filter (like for household drinking or automatic ice makers) to remove chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals.

An overflow on the tank allows water to be dripped out of the tank at the same rate it drips in. You can run this either to a drain or bin that will hold twice the daily volume of water and empty daily.

I thought it was genious and really the only way to do it for large tanks.