Do I change water too much?

[VulcanNinja]

I have a cycled 10 gallon and I have been changing water every other day to keep things clean. Is there any disadvantage to this? See my sig for my fish.

 

[caterpillar5]

i guess it cant be bad, i mean the cleaner it is the better chance your fish will come down with diseases. How much are you changing tho?

 

[VulcanNinja]

20% each time

 

[nightlife20]

god i wish i had time to do that, its do benificial to the fish, the cleaner the water the better it is for them

maybe instead of doin 20% only do 10%

then calm it down a bit later on

how long have u had this tank?


if its a fairly new tank then its a good idea to do plenty of water changes, it helps if the fish are doin the cycling


but be warned.. if it was a bigger tank it would cost u a bomb in dechlorinator...

or if u had more than the one tank... i have 3, i aint got time or money to do water changes every day..

mines once a week now they are cycled and its always more than 50% out of each tank..

 

[canarsie11]

i guess it cant be bad, i mean the cleaner it is the better chance your fish will come down with diseases. How much are you changing tho?

The cleaner it is. The more chance for disease?



I do not agree with that statement, but...........

If your tank is cycled twice a week would be fine, if you are person who likes water changes, Some people swear by them, while others change thier water every 2 to 3 weeks.

IMO I swear by them and twice a week on all my tanks is standard procedure. 20% is fine

 

[caterpillar5]

sorry for the typo... i meant WONT not WILL...

 

[guppymonkey]

You can change as much water as you want as many times a week as you want and it won't hurt your fish as long as the water is dechlorinated. Water changes bring in clean water and dilute harmful chemicals and hormones. These chemicals and hormones can stunt the growth of fish, so doing water changes can make your fish grow faster. It can cost you a bundle for water conditioner though, try buying it online its much cheaper that way.

 

[VulcanNinja]

Yeah I mainly do the changes just to get all the yucky stuff out from the bottom of the tank. Also, I don't use dechlorinator, I sit the water out, and make sure it is at least a day old (usually 2 days). That has to be safe because my water tests fine all the time. The tank is about 2 months old so it is cycled. And it's only 10 gal.

 

[yhbae]

More the better as long as the water you are introducing is similar to the one that is already in the tank (minus the fish waste of course). I do 30% every two days for the grow-up tank, and the fishes do great there.

 

[Elisabeth83]

I'm glad to know you can't change the water too much...because I've been wondering the same thing...thinking 3 times a week was too much.

I put a piece of driftwood in my tank and it's tinted my water a bit brown so I'm glad to know I can change my water often and get rid of the color sooner.

I did soak the wood but it still turned the water a bit brown.

 

[gadazobe]

Clean water is always good for the fish - but if you have any real plants in the tank, then do the changes just once a week. The plants need some of the minerals found in the "gunk" at the bottom of the tank and they also need the nitrates produced.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

The only time I do every other day changes is during a cycle with fish. It takes the cycle a bit longer but is much better for the fish. Once Im done cycling I go back to once every week. If I were trying to breed I think I would step them up again, but otherwise once a week is fine. I personally wouldnt go any longer than that though. Its too easy to forget when you did one if you dont commit to every weekend.

 

[yhbae]

For a typically well maintained tank with reasonable stock, you shouldn't need to do more than a weekly water change of 25-30% and it should be fine for all species except few realli difficult ones, or trying to raise super small fries.

In fact, I went to once every two weeks on one of my tank, and it was fine as well until the bristlenoses decided to spawn, so I switched back to weekly schedule.

 

[guppymonkey]

Yeah I mainly do the changes just to get all the yucky stuff out from the bottom of the tank. Also, I don't use dechlorinator, I sit the water out, and make sure it is at least a day old (usually 2 days). That has to be safe because my water tests fine all the time. The tank is about 2 months old so it is cycled. And it's only 10 gal.

You should check your water for chloramines. Letting the water sit for a couple days can get rid of the chlorine but chloramines can still be in the water and are very harmful. Plus letting water sit for days is dangerous because you could stumble and knock it all over the rug and ruin it.... oh wait I was the one that did that!

 

[shrks1fan]

Yeah I mainly do the changes just to get all the yucky stuff out from the bottom of the tank. Also, I don't use dechlorinator, I sit the water out, and make sure it is at least a day old (usually 2 days). That has to be safe because my water tests fine all the time. The tank is about 2 months old so it is cycled. And it's only 10 gal.

You should check your water for chloramines. Letting the water sit for a couple days can get rid of the chlorine but chloramines can still be in the water and are very harmful. Plus letting water sit for days is dangerous because you could stumble and knock it all over the rug and ruin it.... oh wait I was the one that did that!

That's exactly what I was going to warn about when not using dechlorinators. In my area, the water company does use chlormamine, so I have to dechlorinate, but even before they started, I dechlorinated just to be safe. Adding dechlorinator doesn't hurt anything and can only help if the water company starts using something you don't know about.

Linda