Changing Water

[andyboy!!]

Hi

Do people recommend 25% every 2 weeks or 10% every week water changes?

Cheers!

 

[piper]

I would say smaller and more frequent is better

 

[CFC]

It all depends on what fish you have, how many and how big the tank is.
Every tank is different, 10% per week is a good starting point for a average stocked tank with small to medium sized community fish but larger or predatory fish could require up to 40% per week.

 

[andyboy!!]

Yep.

I have an average stocked and average sized community aquarium.

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

Yep.

I have an average stocked and average sized community aquarium.

not very helpful

 

[saboy]

Yea, not very good,

you need to tell what fish ? and how big they are, the tank size, and what filtration is on the tank

all of these will depend on the amount of water changes neeeded

 

[andyboy!!]

Yea, not very good,

you need to tell what fish ? and how big they are, the tank size, and what filtration is on the tank

all of these will depend on the amount of water changes neeeded

Okay, I have:

- 2x Longfin Zebra Danios
- 2x Pearl Danios
- 1x Betta
- 3x Platy's
- 1x Khuli Loach

All average sized for their breed. I can't see them getting much bigger.

- Internal filter
- 58 litres

 

[Araxen]

I have a 15 gallon tank and I about a 4gallon water change once or twice a week. I can't stand seeing fish poo and stuff sitting on top of the sand substrate n my aquarium so I end up doing it twice a week changes usually just so I can clean off the bottom of the tank.

 

[SamUK]

i do 25% a week on all tanks.

 

[saboy]

I would say that you can do 25 % a week,

 

[toebash17]

i do a water change like once a month. i know people say that, that is horrible but actally for me its ok. becuase i was doing like 25% water changes ever two weeks and it was screwing up my tank so now i go to once a month and i havent had a problem since.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

i do a water change like once a month. i know people say that, that is horrible but actally for me its ok. becuase i was doing like 25% water changes ever two weeks and it was screwing up my tank so now i go to once a month and i havent had a problem since.

How was doing one a fortnight water changes "screwing up your tank" ?


Regular once weekly water chnages apparently help prevent PH crash, which can happen in older tanks.

 

[Bignose]

i do a water change like once a month. i know people say that, that is horrible but actally for me its ok. becuase i was doing like 25% water changes ever two weeks and it was screwing up my tank so now i go to once a month and i havent had a problem since.

Yeah, I've got to chime in with Tokis on this one. How could doing water changes less frequently be beneficial? This requires much further explaination, since there are a whole host of reasons (Tokis already alluded to pH crash for one, nitrate build up would be another huge issue) to do water changes pretty much as frequently as possible.

There are only two resons never to do large water changes that I know of. Firstly, if tank has a low pH and lots of ammonia present, adding new, higher pH water would shift the ammonia-ammonium balance to the much more dangerous (for the fish) ammonia side. The other is if you are still using an undergravel filter and while changing water you root around in the gravel a lot. It is possible to disrupt the beneficial bacteria too much, but so few people are using an undergravel filter anymore, that this is not usually an issue.

So long as the pH, hardness, and temperature of the replacement water is the same as the tank water, you can replace almost as much as you want. There are so many benefits from giving them fresh water, I try to do mine as often as I can. One of the neat things that my fish sometimes do after a waterchange is start spawning, so sometimes frequent water changes let you observe an entirely new behavior of your pets.

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

I changed 10% of my water weekly, and then if I ever do miss a change I do a 25% change the following week. Of course, it all depends on your tank and the livestock you have in it. Mine is a community tank, mainly stocked with Corydoras.