BBradbury
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- May 24, 2011
- Messages
- 5,011
Water Changes
Hi Bill...
Sorry. Your explanation of the water change routine lost me. The water change is the filtration. Everything dissolves in the tank water eventually. This includes fish and plant wastes and everything else you put into the tank water. When you remove the water, you remove the dissolved material whatever it is. The small amount of wastes that are left are diluted in so much pure water, they aren't toxic, like low level nitrates. It's as simple as that.
As I mentioned earlier, by flushing large amounts of pure, treated tap water through the tank, toxins never build up, they are constantly removed. It's the same with freshwater lakes and streams. The water is constantly renewed, so the wastes never build up. The water chemistry is always stable.
B
Sorry, but this statement isn't true. Changing only 50% of the water (even daily), means it will never be clean. You would still get a continuous buildup of waste, albeit at a much slower rate than if you did it weekly. Unless there is some filtration, whether it be colonization of hard surfaces or an actual add in filter, you will have ammonia present.
In Jack Wattley's Miami discus hatchery they changed 50% of the water daily, but the tanks were also filtered.
The combination of filtration to detoxify the most toxic waste products (ammonia and nitrite) and water changes to remove the less toxic nitrate and assorted other metabolic wastes and toxins, as well as pathogens is the way to clean water, and healthy fish. Large water changes are not detrimental to fish. I have the late Dr Joanne Norton on tape talking about her water changes, where her fish have to lie on their sides to stay wet. Dr. Norton was a major contributor to the hobby, especially in the area of genetics.
Here is an example of a large water change for the non believers. Fast water Changing system from Lucky Tropical Fish farm - YouTube
Hi Bill...
Sorry. Your explanation of the water change routine lost me. The water change is the filtration. Everything dissolves in the tank water eventually. This includes fish and plant wastes and everything else you put into the tank water. When you remove the water, you remove the dissolved material whatever it is. The small amount of wastes that are left are diluted in so much pure water, they aren't toxic, like low level nitrates. It's as simple as that.
As I mentioned earlier, by flushing large amounts of pure, treated tap water through the tank, toxins never build up, they are constantly removed. It's the same with freshwater lakes and streams. The water is constantly renewed, so the wastes never build up. The water chemistry is always stable.
B