How often do I change water in 6.5 gallon tank?

[pettygil]

How often do I change water in 6.5 gallon tank? I only have 1 betta in the 6.5 gallon tank. Do I change once a week? Do I check for Ammonia and Nitrates?

 

[Andy Sager]

How often do I change water in 6.5 gallon tank? I only have 1 betta in the 6.5 gallon tank. Do I change once a week? Do I check for Ammonia and Nitrates?

You always check for ammonia and nitrates even tho there is only 1 fish as uneaten food, unfiltered poo, decaying matter, etc can deteriorate the water quality. Getting into a routine of changing water once a week will not hurt the fish and can help avoid buildup issues that may be lurking.
You change water for more reasons than just a high nitrate level and in a cycled tank, there should be no ammonia. The fish absorb the minerals in the water so doing routine water changes will replenish those minerals that keep your fish healthy. In a 6.5 gallon tank ( which holds less than 6.5 gallons of water btw ) you can get away with only changing 1 gallon a week so that any water parameters would not change drastically all at once.

 

[pettygil]

You always check for ammonia and nitrates even tho there is only 1 fish as uneaten food, unfiltered poo, decaying matter, etc can deteriorate the water quality. Getting into a routine of changing water once a week will not hurt the fish and can help avoid buildup issues that may be lurking.
You change water for more reasons than just a high nitrate level and in a cycled tank, there should be no ammonia. The fish absorb the minerals in the water so doing routine water changes will replenish those minerals that keep your fish healthy. In a 6.5 gallon tank ( which holds less than 6.5 gallons of water btw ) you can get away with only changing 1 gallon a week so that any water parameters would not change drastically all at once.

I have been checking the Ammonia, and Nitrates in my 6.5 gallon tank and there is no Ammonia, and very little Nitrates. I can do water change once a week of 1 gallon. I was doing 75 percent water change, but I can cut back on that. I ran out of my Api test kit. I should be getting my test kit, by tomorrow. I had to re order. I have to test all three tanks and the api test kit doesn't last long, cause i have to check water every few days on all three tanks. Thank you for your help.

 

[Colin_T]

I did water changes on all my tanks every week. I just did it as a routine, every Wednesday I did water changes.

If the nitrates go above 20ppm between water changes, do more water changes.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Andy Sager]

I have been checking the Ammonia, and Nitrates in my 6.5 gallon tank and there is no Ammonia, and very little Nitrates. I can do water change once a week of 1 gallon. I was doing 75 percent water change, but I can cut back on that. I ran out of my Api test kit. I should be getting my test kit, by tomorrow. I had to re order. I have to test all three tanks and the api test kit doesn't last long, cause i have to check water every few days on all three tanks. Thank you for your help.

As your tanks get more mature, you will get to the point where you cut your testing to every 3 or 4 days then, if they remain stable, back to once a week. As you get more familiar with how fish act and doing routine water changes, you can eventually not even test unless something doesn't look right. Your fish will tell you if something is not right.
On a personal level, I got to the point where I tested my tap water more than I tested my tank water because the city, ONCE, did a flush without telling anyone in advance and a lot of people lost a lot of fish from doing water changes. So only needing to test one water source made my test kits last longer.

 

[pettygil]

This is what I do

I did water changes on all my tanks every week. I just did it as a routine, every Wednesday I did water changes.

If the nitrates go above 20ppm between water changes, do more water changes.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

This is what I do after a water change, I have a 40 gallon high tank. After the water change. I put in 3 capfuls of water conditioner into my fish tank, then I add Ammonia lock. Then I add Fritz 7. I add water from my kitchen sink into two empty jugs, until I fill up the tank. Then I add 3 or more capful of conditioner into the tank. I do use tap water btw.

 

[pettygil]

What do my test results look like?

What do my test results look like? I know it's hard to get on video, but it would give me some kind of idea of what is going on in my tank. I'm having a hard time reading the results eps on the ammonia and Nitrates.

 

[Andy Sager]

This is what I do after a water change, I have a 40 gallon high tank. After the water change. I put in 3 capfuls of water conditioner into my fish tank, then I add Ammonia lock. Then I add Fritz 7. I add water from my kitchen sink into two empty jugs, until I fill up the tank. Then I add 3 or more capful of conditioner into the tank. I do use tap water btw.

Too many chemicals. If your tap water has ammonia ( I forget if it does ), your water conditioner should be dealing with it or else you are using the wrong conditioner so there's no need for the ammonia lock. Once your tank cycles, there is no need to continually add Fritzyme #7. Your bacteria bed in the tank should handle the ammonium created by the water conditioner. If the amount of ammonia in your tap is high, you would be better to do smaller water changes more often than one larger one to help keep from developing higher nitrates more rapidly.

It's best to either add drops of the conditioner into the jugs before you add the water or add the full amount of conditioner into the tank BEFORE you add the water, then add the water. Products like PRIME and SAFE will work for up to 48 hours so they will still be working if it takes you some time to fill up the tank again.

As for the Fritz #7, the majority of the bacteria in your tank are not floating in the water so you are not depleting it when you do water changes so no need to continually add the #7. The bacteria bed will not grow larger just because you add more bacteria. There will be die off of bacteria until there is an amount that can handle the ammonia being produced ( or added) into the tank. Fritz #7 is not a " If some is good, some more is better" kind of product.

 

[pettygil]

I just did a 50 percent water change a few days ago on my 40 gallon tank. I did an
Ammonia 0 or 025ppm
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5.0

Test. Do I need to do a water change and if so how much?

I did check my betta tanks and the Nitrates were high, so I did a water change and that helped.

 

[Andy Sager]

I just did a 50 percent water change a few days ago on my 40 gallon tank. I did an
Ammonia 0 or 025ppm
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5.0

Test. Do I need to do a water change and if so how much?

I did check my betta tanks and the Nitrates were high, so I did a water change and that helped.

With your nitrites at 0 and your nitrates so low, I'm going to assume your ammonia is 0 as well so NO, you don't need to do a water change yet. I suggest you pick a day of the week and make it a water change day and change water on all your tanks that day. (I know people who do a tank a day kind of schedule then eventually complain that they feel like they are doing maintenance every day. If you do them all on the same day, you just know ahead of time that this day is maintenance day so you have 6 other days to just enjoy the tanks. )

The only time I would change the schedule is if the fish do not look right so water tests should be done to see if a water change will help the situation.