Is it okay to do a 50% water change in one day??

[Camogirl28]

Was thinking about doing one, and wondering if it is okay

 

[Masha]

The reason people were suggesting smaller changes in the other thread is because your nitrare levels are so high.

It may be better to do several small changes over a few days, than one big change- less shocking for fish.

Once you have nitrates under control, doing weekly 50% changes will be fine

 

[Camogirl28]

If I put in stress Zyme will it be okay and vacuum the water out slowly .

 

[Masha]

Refer to that other thread - I can't remember who it was now, but they suggested you do smaller changes - e.g. 25 or 30%, every second day. It really is better to do that than add a substance.

 

[Camogirl28]

Refer to that other thread - I can't remember who it was now, but they suggested you do smaller changes - e.g. 25 or 30%, every second day. It really is better to do that than add a substance.

So would it be okay to do a 25% water change today, add plants , refill with tap water, then treat with Prime

 

[Masha]

That sounds fine

 

[Camogirl28]

Ok thank you

 

[mrvincent]

If your nitrates/phosphates are not high, I'll not recommand to do 50%WC. Just do little WC.

50%WC can be usefull when weekely fertilizer dosing, or help with ammonia/nitrite spike, or for treatement, or diluating green water, etc. But that's stressing fish for nothing if you don't need to...

 

[mrvincent]

You can check on AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor what they recommand you for WC.

 

[flitabout]

I must be a be crazy as I do 50% water change without any issues. I am not worried about how they will react to a larger water change. I worry more about how they will react to the high nitrates. But then again I have a GBR and they are very sensitive to high nitrates.

 

[mrvincent]

I already did 80%WC (when I didn't know how to care for fishs) and I got 2 death on 20, even if the temperature was the same. Maybe the PH wasn't the same because of CO2 injection...

I'm doing 50%WC in my main tank weekly because i'm dosing a lot of ferts and I don't want to have a build up over the time. I'm doing 25% on my secondary tank, because I don't add any ferts. You need to change water only to drop nitrates/phosphates, and for remineralizing the tank...

So big WC is not required until you have high nitrates. Fish will be less stressed.


It's like when I was young and my mother was doing housework in my bedroom, the more she was changing objects of place, the more I was frustrated. Same for fishs...

 

[Mebbid]

I honestly wouldn't even bother with a water change less than 50%. Unless there are serious issues with your tap water there isn't any reason you shouldn't do large water changes.

 

[Rare]

Every aquarium is different on what one has and what one does. I do big water changes because I go through ever section of the aquarium and I'm getting out as much poop as I can from the 130g. About 80% every week with no death and they all seem fine. I even have a yellow lab that is holding right now so it's working for me.

 

[Aqualady40]

I honestly wouldn't even bother with a water change less than 50%. Unless there are serious issues with your tap water there isn't any reason you shouldn't do large water changes.

+1 agree^^

 

[threnjen]

They are recommending in another thread that she do a few smaller water changes a few days in a row because her parameters are very out of whack right now. Generally I think everyone is ok with 50% water changes, it was specific to her situation.

 

[Thumper828]

I honestly wouldn't even bother with a water change less than 50%. Unless there are serious issues with your tap water there isn't any reason you shouldn't do large water changes.

This!!! Dont subject the fish to stress ever other day...if you have to do 2- 50% WC back to back...fine...get their nitrates down... and be done...then perform weekly WC to keep pH, nitrate, and trace minerals there... Doing this is the key to having a healthy tank......

 

[Paul1792]

small frequent water changes are best

This!!! Dont subject the fish to stress ever other day...if you have to do 2- 50% WC back to back...fine...get their nitrates down... and be done...then perform weekly WC to keep pH, nitrate, and trace minerals there... Doing this is the key to having a healthy tank......

This is exactly right. Why stress the fish with unnecessary high volume water changes. Here is a good summary of the reasons:

Cleaning Your Aquarium - The First Tank Guide - Why Small and Frequent Water Changes

 

[Mebbid]

This is exactly right. Why stress the fish with unnecessary high volume water changes. Here is a good summary of the reasons:

Cleaning Your Aquarium - The First Tank Guide - Why Small and Frequent Water Changes

If I'm not mistaken Thumper was agreeing with my suggestion about doing 50% water changes.

I see what the guy is saying in the article you posted but imho his suggestion of a weekly 10% - 15% water change is waay too low to pull enough nitrates out of the water.

Lets assume a tank produces approximately 10ppm of nitrates weekly which is a fairly low amount of nitrate production for a stocked tank. If you do a 10% water change; the first week will put you at 9ppm of nitrates. Second week will put you at 17ppm. Third week will put you at 24ppm. Following this trend it will just keep increasing by a lot. Doing a 50% change the nitrates will fluctuate at between 10 - 20 under the exact same conditions.

Its complete standard procedure to do a weekly 50% water change in just about any tank and any issues arising from doing those water changes are few and far between. As for the "die off" in filters; BB is nowhere near that fragile otherwise any time the power goes out for any length of time for anyone they would have to completely recycle their tank from ground 0.

Finally, when reading this article I imagine it is talking about HUGE water changes in the magnitude of 80% or larger which I agree completely that those are far too large of a water change for safety of the tank inhabitants.

 

[Rivercats]

Large vs small water changes is and will remain a subject of controversy since everyone has opinions and arguments on both sides.

BUT the problem here is the OP's situation which was NOT MADE CLEAR on this thread as to her particular problem as she has other threads that explain the entire situation of why she needs to do a certain type of WC now.

OP you need to post ALL the information about the tank that is in your other thread so you can get proper advice for what is best for your situation right now. Otherwise none of these posts will be giving you the proper advice for your tank. You shouldn't start a thread asking about something that has been discussed in other thread and expect to get proper advice.

 

[Paul1792]

If I'm not mistaken Thumper was agreeing with my suggestion about doing 50% water changes.

I see what the guy is saying in the article you posted but imho his suggestion of a weekly 10% - 15% water change is waay too low to pull enough nitrates out of the water.

Lets assume a tank produces approximately 10ppm of nitrates weekly which is a fairly low amount of nitrate production for a stocked tank. If you do a 10% water change; the first week will put you at 9ppm of nitrates. Second week will put you at 17ppm. Third week will put you at 24ppm. Following this trend it will just keep increasing by a lot. Doing a 50% change the nitrates will fluctuate at between 10 - 20 under the exact same conditions.

Its complete standard procedure to do a weekly 50% water change in just about any tank and any issues arising from doing those water changes are few and far between. As for the "die off" in filters; BB is nowhere near that fragile otherwise any time the power goes out for any length of time for anyone they would have to completely recycle their tank from ground 0.

Finally, when reading this article I imagine it is talking about HUGE water changes in the magnitude of 80% or larger which I agree completely that those are far too large of a water change for safety of the tank inhabitants.

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I agree that very large water changes are in order when nitrates are "out of control." However, under normal situations there are many varying factors including removal of fish waste that reduce nitrates. There is a big difference in just changing water versus doing a complete vacuum of the substrate while making the change. I have a 38 gallon that is overstocked with 45 fish. (I have fake plants.) I was doing 25% water changes and vacuum once a month before joining this forum. My water was clear (but not polished).

So with advice I obtained herein, I bought a test kit and found nitrates 40ppm. Then I did the following:

1) I doubled water changes and substrate vacuum to 25% twice a month.
2) crammed my aqua-tech 30-60 with customized media including Seachem Matrix, Seachem Purigen, & 100 micron polishing pads.
3) Added a really big bunch of floss in a bio bag pre-filter which gets REALLY FILTHY trapping waste and debris. I change it every two weeks and it is packed with nitrate rich fish waste.

Since doing that, my nitrates have not gone over 20ppm right before a water change. Ammonia and Nitrites are zero. My water is so clear and polished the fish look like they are swimming in air. The water has almost no odor. The fish are happy and healthy and their colors are vibrant.

I have to pay $1 per gallon for bottled spring water (horrible tap water) so I don't waste my money on unnecessary water changes. I think by vacuuming substrate and removing pre-filter waste before it bleeds nitrates into the water, I keep my nitrates at safe levels when tested.

Note: Petland in Pensacola recommends 25% water changes MONTHLY. Our LFS recommends 20% every two weeks.