Water changes

[stinnettjosh]

If i do a 10% water change every other day is that the same as doing a 30% weekly wc?

 

[Brookster123]

What's the tank in question? Size ?stock? I do small frequents on my fry tank while doing one larger weekly change on my displays..

 

[stinnettjosh]

Its a 55 with an angelfish, bolivian ram, 9 rummynose tetras, 7 black skirt tetras, and 4 bronze cories. The tank is moderately planted and the parameters are always good.

 

[Brookster123]

As long as your nitrates are not continually getting higher and higher than whatever works!

 

[Pleco1415]

I would not recommend doing water changes every other day because your not giving the beneficial bacteria enough time to colonize. I do a 25% water change on all of my tanks once every week. I have a 40g, 29g, 20g, and a 3.5g. People say with smaller tanks you have to clean them more often and larger tanks you can clean less often but I personally just do 25% water changes once every week. And to answer your question no doing 10% water changes every other day is not the same as doing a 30% water change every week.

 

[stinnettjosh]

Ok thanks guys.

 

[Brookster123]

I would not recommend and doing water changes every other day because your not giving the beneficial bacteria enough time to colonize. I do a 25% water change on all of my tanks once every week. I have a 40g, 29g, 20g, and a 3.5g. People say with smaller tanks you have to clean them more often and larger tanks you can clean less often but I personally just do 25% water changes once every week. And to answer your question no doing 10% water changes every other day is not the same as doing a 30% water change every week.

I'm going to have to disagree.. Taking 10% out daily will not hinder your bb growth in any way.. Water changes are not going to be the sane on all tanks, it should be determined by your nitrates, if your nitrates are 40, do a 50% and they're 20.. If they stay lower than 10 all the time than a smaller change is fine.. I just like giving my fish fresh water regardless of where my nitrates are at, plants like some nitrates so that should be taken into account as well..

 

[Paul1792]

I'm going to have to disagree.. Taking 10% out daily will not hinder your bb growth in any way.. Water changes are not going to be the sane on all tanks, it should be determined by your nitrates, if your nitrates are 40, do a 50% and they're 20.. If they stay lower than 10 all the time than a smaller change is fine.. I just like giving my fish fresh water regardless of where my nitrates are at, plants like some nitrates so that should be taken into account as well..

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+1
You are correct, Brookster123, on all counts.

 

[Pleco1415]

I'm going to have to disagree.. Taking 10% out daily will not hinder your bb growth in any way.. Water changes are not going to be the sane on all tanks, it should be determined by your nitrates, if your nitrates are 40, do a 50% and they're 20.. If they stay lower than 10 all the time than a smaller change is fine.. I just like giving my fish fresh water regardless of where my nitrates are at, plants like some nitrates so that should be taken into account as well..

Don't mean to be rude but everyone has different ways of caring for there aquatic species. My synopsis is by doing a 25% water change on the exact same day every week you are maintaining consistent water parameters without any major fluctuations. I am NOT disagreeing with the way you care for your fish in fact your way is more accurate then mine. All I am saying is I've been caring for fish and other aquatic life for 10 years and I rarely ever have any casualties so I think I'm doing something right. A neat fact is my first fish was a clown Pleco and he is still alive 10 years later.

 

[Brookster123]

Don't mean to be rude but everyone has different ways of caring for there aquatic species. My synopsis is by doing a 25% water change on the exact same day every week you are maintaining consistent water parameters without any major fluctuations. I am NOT disagreeing with the way you care for your fish in fact your way is more accurate then mine. All I am saying is I've been caring for fish and other aquatic life for 10 years and I rarely ever have any casualties so I think I'm doing something right. A neat fact is my first fish was a clown Pleco and he is still alive 10 years later.

thats Exactly what I'm saying!! Whatever works for your setup.. I don't test unless something looks off.. Having tested so many times in the beginning of the tanks setup I've found a rhythm that works as have you!! To each tank's own

 

[jlk]

Unfortunately, I am not at home to link this calculator but if anyone is interested in how much water (or how little) they are actually changing, please google "hamzasreef.com effective water change calculator". You may discover that the actual amounts of water you are changing over days, a week or a month are not what you may have thought. It's handy calculator but just keep in mind that it does not take into account that nitrate accumulates on a constant basis.

 

[stinnettjosh]

The hamzasreef.com site says what im doing is equal to 25%, is that enough?

 

[Khuligirl93]

If you do 3, 10% water changes a week, the first day you take out 10%, the second time you take out 10% again, but it's still 9/10 the original water, so the second day you will have taken out (1/10)(9/10)=9% of the original water, totaling 19%, and the third time the old water would make up (81/100). The water change would remove (1/10)(81/100)= 8.1%, totaling 19%+8.1%= 27.1% of the original water if my math is correct. Which I'm starting to think it may not be...
If your tank is not cycling you shouldn't have to worry about water changes disrupting the BB. Even if you are cycling, water changed that small should not cause an issue.

 

[gilpi]

Since you're changing water that often, I would do a bigger one, like 20-25% every other day. Nothing better you can do to your fish than water changes and besides 30% a week as far as I'm concerned is not enough. The more water changes the better.

 

[treemanone2003]

As far as WC's go, a lot of people have told me my 50-80% changes 2x/per day are absurd. Then again, those folks don't spend the money on 30 fish that I spend on one. And that's what it really boils down to. If you've got fish that live in stagnant ponds, then once per month is fine. If you've got fish that live in high flow running streams, you need to adjust accordingly. That's the best education I can give from from personal experience.