few questions about guppies

[pettygil]

My guppies arrived from ebay. Well two fish were missing, so I have 4 guppies, split up by 2 guppies in each sep tank.
one of the guppies is swimming up and down the tank walls. I read it could be stress, or illness, or boredom. What should I do? Also a friend of mine who owns fish, say that every week tank cleaning is too much and could cause stress. I read here to change tank water once a week for all tanks. I mean I can change tank water once a week. I just do not want to stress out my fish, k thanks. Also do I need 3 guppies, do they school? Or is 2 guppies fine for my 6,0 gallon tanks?

 

[Andy Sager]

My guppies arrived from ebay. Well two fish were missing, so I have 4 guppies, split up by 2 guppies in each sep tank.
one of the guppies is swimming up and down the tank walls. I read it could be stress, or illness, or boredom. What should I do? Also a friend of mine who owns fish, say that every week tank cleaning is too much and could cause stress. I read here to change tank water once a week for all tanks. I mean I can change tank water once a week. I just do not want to stress out my fish, k thanks. Also do I need 3 guppies, do they school? Or is 2 guppies fine for my 6,0 gallon tanks?

With all do respect to your friend, I have raised millions of fish by changing water weekly and even daily for some fish so if once a week is too stressful, they are doing it wrong. The more often you change water, the less amount of water you need to change at each water change. The less you change, the less drastic the chemical change will be so the less stress on the fish. Don't forget, you are not just changing water to reduce nitrates. There will be less change in Ph, less reduction in KH and less accumulation of detritus in the tank the more often you do water changes. Because you are talking about such small tanks with a small load, you only need to do any gravel cleaning every 2 or 3 water changes, not every change. Don't forget, you don't want to clean all the gravel at one time so just 25% at most of the gravel when you clean. At once a week, you would only need to change 3/4 to 1 gallon of water at the most. That will be close to 20%. More than adequate for a small tank.

Guppies are not schooling fish so the 2 in each tank should be fine. Make sure you have enough plants or decorations in each tank for them to hide behind if they get spooked.
The fish are too new to be concerned about them " Glass Surfing". They are probably just learning their new habitat. Don't forget, they can see outside the tank just as you can see inside the tank so it/they could be seeing something outside the tank that they want to check out but can't get to. It should settle down in a week or so after the fish get used to your schedules.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Just so you have another voice as a kind of deciding vote between your friend and Andy.

If doing a water change is stressful for your fish you are doing water changes wrong. You can change water daily. Fish dont like rapid changes in water parameters. The more frequent the water changes are the more consistent your aquarium water will be. If you are doing them frequently you dont need to change as much. If you are doing them monthly you are either changing a lot of water to get the water back to a good level of quality which causes a big swing in parameters, or you arent changing much water and the water will still be poor after the water change.

Either way a monthly water change is going to be more stressful than a weekly change.

I hear this "changing water regularly is stressful" a lot. And its just what people tell themselves to excuse laziness. They want to justify not changing water regularly and find a reason not to. Honestly if you are only changing water monthly you are probably better off not changing water at all. Zero water change aquariums are a thing, but you need to know what you are doing and do other things to make that work. Its probably more work to not do water changes. One of our members from a while back was very keen on zero water change aquariums, but he set up his aquariums in a particular way to make that work and he really has very good in depth knowledge about water chemistry. Making a zero water change aquarium successful is more than just not doing water changes.

 

[pettygil]

Well since you both say to change water every week, then that is what I shall do. What do I do if my water evaporates to 50 percent? I do have a lid on my tank, but my water still evaporates, do I just cap the water off? Or should I do a WC, even though it is 50 percent evaporated? This is in my 40 gallon.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Top up water as you feel is necessary. If you are topping up with tap water remember to use a water conditioner every time you top up. And topping up doesnt replace a water change. You still need to be removing water and replacing it with clean water.

Are you seriously saying that you are seeing 50% of the water evaporating between water changes?

 

[pettygil]

Top up water as you feel is necessary. If you are topping up with tap water remember to use a water conditioner every time you top up. And topping up doesnt replace a water change. You still need to be removing water and replacing it with clean water.

Are you seriously saying that you are seeing 50% of the water evaporating between water change

More like 25 percent in a weeks time. I will still do a WC like 50 percent for my 40 gallon tank.

 

[pettygil]

More like 25 percent in a weeks time. I will still do a WC like 50 percent for my 40 gallon tank.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Well this is new information.

@Andy Sager what do you think of this info. Might explain a lot of whats going wrong. Topping up after evaporation will gradually increase water hardness as the evaporation leaves the disolved minerals behind. 25% evaporation per week is a huge amount. Even with water changes the hardness will gradually creep up unless RO water is used for topping up.

 

[Andy Sager]

Well this is new information.

@Andy Sager what do you think of this info. Might explain a lot of whats going wrong. Topping up after evaporation will gradually increase water hardness as the evaporation leaves the disolved minerals behind. 25% evaporation per week is a huge amount. Even with water changes the hardness will gradually creep up unless RO water is used for topping up.

Absolutely!!! No tank should be evaporating that much in a week. If it is, it should be addressed more often. As you stated, only the H and the O evaporate ( chemical formula for water is H2O) , none of the minerals do so the GH is rising while the water level is lowering. With that, doing a large water change would be drastically changing the water's parameters and stressing the fish. IMO, the OP needs to make sure there isn't a leak somewhere, a pet isn't drinking the tank water or there needs to be a better lid to control the level of evaporation.

 

[pettygil]

I just order a 40 gallon tank cover, the other cover I have has a crack in the middle, just a small crack that is prob where my water is going to. There is no crack in the tank.

 

[Andy Sager]

I just order a 40 gallon tank cover, the other cover I have has a crack in the middle, just a small crack that is prob where my water is going to. There is no crack in the tank.

Evaporation in fish tanks is basically from steam so if the crack in your lid is not an open crack, it's probably not the cause of the evaporation. If there is water around the crack, that's a different story. Water can be escaping the tank through the crack then either drying or spilling out of the tank. Make sure the area around the tank is dry or not moist. With a solid lid, the water may condensate on the underside of the lid then fall back into the tank since it has nowhere else to go. You might want to discuss these things before spending money first. A simple crack in the lid could have been remedied with some saran wrap and tape for a lot less cost than a new lid. Just sayin'

 

[Aiken Drum]

Are you seeing significant evaporation in your smaller aquariums too?

 

[pettygil]

Are you seeing significant evaporation in your smaller aquariums too?

The answer is yes to both smaller tanks. I have a lid for those tanks as well.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I think that the infrequent water changes, combined with the need to frequently top up due to evaporation will have been causing dissolved solids to build up and increased mineral content in the water.

Hopefully a more frequent water change schedule will lead to more consistent water. You may want to get a general hardness test to add to your regular testing. If you find your water hardness creeping up, then using RO or distilled water when you top up from evaporation will help.

But see how things go with more frequent water changes first.

25% water evaporation in a week is very high though. Do you live somewhere that has a very cold atmosphere outside? Or perhaps you use a dehumidifier? Either of these could cause higher than normal evaporation.

 

[pettygil]

I do not have a dehumidifier, and the weather is fine right now, it is very dry in my place. I will do weekly water changes and see how that works out. My lid does not fit right, and there is some gaps in the tank cover. That is why I want to order a lid that fits my tank. On the smaller tanks the lid fits but I get a lot of evaporation.

 

[Andy Sager]

That really is unusual for that much evaporation in a closed tank. That was an issue when the first wet/dry systems came out because they had so much open spaces where water was evaporating from but that was easily rectified by closing them up more.