An end to water changes?

[sharkbait]

Hi folks,
I bought some dechlorination treatment, coming free with it however was a bottle of stuff you supposedly add to the water instead of a weekly water change. the blurb states you can do this for 6 months, without changing the water.

I am sceptical that this will be better than allowing the bacteria in your tank to cycle the waste naturally.

Anybody tried it?

 

[Alien Anna]

How would this stuff reduce your nitrate and phosphate levels? Or reduce the levels of excreted hormones from your fish?

 

[Mollymomma]

sounds a little fishy to me Sorry I just had too.

seriously I have never heard of it, but I don't put to much faith into any quick fixes as far as the tank goes. I try to stay as far away from chemicals as possible. They usually do more harm than good. I would stick with the water changes.
If you decide to try it please let everyone know your results.

 

[caz27]

Is this easy balance your talking about? if it is here are some answers easy balance i... I use it in my goldie tank but that is for algae as it has reduced it alot but i still do W/C every wk

 

[Squimps]

What's the name of this product? Maybe we could all research it a little and give our thoughts. By the way, I'm a sceptic myself but I enjoy checking out all of the latest claims.

 

[sharkbait]

hi,

Correct:
It is "Easy balance"

I'm at home now, (having just bought myself a yellow bubble molly ahhhh. )and I have had a look at the bottle. It aledgedly contains nitrate reduction granules and a PH stabiliser.

it provides a link to www.tetra.net on the bottle. which I haven't seen yet.
I'm still not convinced...

 

[caz27]

Theres a link to tetra on my last post

 

[Alien Anna]

I'm at home now, (having just bought myself a yellow bubble molly ahhhh. )and I have had a look at the bottle. It aledgedly contains nitrate reduction granules and a PH stabiliser.

"pH Stabiliser" = phosphates, by any chance? You'd get some nice algae with that I suspect and the nitrate removers wouldn't do your plants a lot of good (if you had plants).

Why does nobody ever mention the fish hormone problem?

 

[caz27]

Until u mentioned it anna i had never heard of it so i think you should fill us all in cause i would like to know

 

[Alien Anna]

Until u mentioned it anna i had never heard of it so i think you should fill us all in cause i would like to know

Sorry, I just assumed it was common knowledge.

Like all animals, fish excrete excess hormones in their waste, along with ammonia (in humans our ammonia water is in the form of urea). These hormones are natural steroids and if they build up they can badly affect the fish's immune systems and reproductive systems. They can stunt the growth of fish and prevent effective breeding, and also lead to stunted and malformed eggs and fry. This may be one of the reasons that a water change is supposed to stimulate some fish to spawn. It may also be one reason why regular water changes have a good effect on fish's colour (since colour is often associated with breeding, which in turn is affected by hormone levels).

In the wild of course fish have a constantly renewing source of water, either from rain or from streams, so they don't have to deal with this problem and haven't evolved any defence against it.

Other chemicals that can build up include environmental toxins absorbed from the air (carbon monoxide, organophosphates, dioxins and other organic compounds). Although these are in the environment all the time, the warm water of a tank can "fix" them and levels can be far more concentrated then in the surrounding air. Although in minute quantities, a gradual build-up of these toxins is likely to have a bad cummalative effect on the fish's immune system, even leading to things like cancers, and potential shorten the fish's life.

Another issue is that the dissolved gases from the air can gradually displace oxygen and lead to a significant drop in the water's oxygen-carrying capacity.

 

[caz27]

Well i have a couple of books and neither of them explain about it....so thankyou very much for taking the time

Caz

 

[Squimps]

Maybe it's a little off track but I don't understand why many people dread water changes. I made a DIY Python and find water changes very easy and quick. If you don't have the time to make one yourself, then I strongly suggest purchasing one. It attaches to your indoor faucet and drains/fills your tank with the flip of a knob. The only adjustment I made to my setup was to fix together some of the adapter pieces with hot glue; I found that sometimes the higher water pressures would cause the fixture to come loose from the faucet in places.

I really enjoy watching my fish turn somersaults when I bring out the syphon; they absolutely love it! Watching the excitement of my fish actually prompts me to change the water more than is entirely necessary. I changed about 15-20% of the water in my 80 gal this morning and it took less than ten minutes and I didn't get a drop of water on me or anything else.

Many of you already know about this product. For those who don't, here's a link.

http/www.petsmart.com/products/product_730.shtml

 

[cichlidmaster]

Only complaint I have with the python is this..............

Can't see using good water to drain the tank with and then good water to fill it back up.

Seems like a waste.

Instead of using the attachment to drain your tank...why not snake it outside to a flower bed or garden. Free fertilizer and your not wasting good water to remove the bad!!

CM

 

[Squimps]

Instead of using the attachment to drain your tank...why not snake it outside to a flower bed or garden. Free fertilizer and your not wasting good water to remove the bad!!

I already practice this but it's good that you bring it up. I start the drain at the faucet, and when I'm not vacuuming the gravel(requires a higher flow rate than gravity syphoning in my case), I syphon the water into a bucket that I use for watering my plants...they grow like crazy

Either way, it still only takes me ten minutes or less.