More no water change successful aquariums.

[Stan510]

I think that with the interest in aquarium plants higher than ever before,some rules can be changed..like no water changes. See,with many fewer fish than most community tanks and with the better lights and many more plants aquarists are learning..Why am I draining out water that is aged and safe? Why send that down the sink and then have to add more fertilizer to make the newer water fertile?
I finally made a small water change in my aquarium and after many weeks of no scum hard gray algae on the front glass? There it was again..just dots. Watch,when I wipe down the aquarium,clean the filter and make NO water change in the process? bad algae disappear.

 

[GaryE]

Fair enough, but whether this works depends on your water source, your choice of fish, etc. It's too often presented as a miracle solution, when like everything we do with tanks, it has a limited application.
No water change tanks come around online very regularly, and I have zero doubt they work for certain set ups. I kept fish in no water change tanks for almost 20 years, before people started to suggest water changes might be good, and I tried the 'new' technique to see. In no water change set ups, over time the fish stayed smaller and "difficult" fish did poorly, but they didn't all die from ammonia or dirty water. They moved more slowly, grew more slowly and weren't as vital looking as they are now, with my regular water change routine. My fish live longer now, by a lot, something a fairly new tank like yours won't show.
I like fish from extreme environments, and fish that are demanding. And so, I adapt my fishkeeping to them.
It's a matter of different approaches to different puzzles, and there is no one size fits all solution.

 

[Stan510]

Its for certain types of setups no doubt. For near 50 years I made 30-50% water changes per week. But! I had fish only aquariums then. Big fish in my big aquarium and fish that ate plants in the 55 and 100 gallons usually. I had a fishroom for many years.
Only that now with the biggest aquarium having smaller fish and lots of plants,I see now that not only is there no need to make weekly water changes,my plants improved when I stopped the weekly drain.
Not to beat it to death..but I was beat up by THREE aquarium plant boards who pandered openly to the huge water change crowd in planted aquariums. All,then ran to their test kits to see,no surprise, that they then needed more money spent on water additives and doser systems. What a waste.
So as an alternative for low tech as I have and I would not doubt for the high tech crowd who I see are just cowed by status quo to do big water changes.
Weekly water changes with water that's been soaked in chlorine and chloramine and flouride..Why do it the hard and wasteful way? Because Tom Barr and UKAPS say so? I have my own proof and plenty more on youtube.
At the very least make water changes a monthly thing IF NEEDED. I wonder.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Take note that all fish require Calcium and other minerals in the water for good health.

See here:

Aquarium Chemistry | Calcium & KH & GH & pH & Electrolytes (ions)

Aquarium Chemistry; The Most IN DEPTH internet article on the subject of pH, GH, KH. The need for positive mineral ions such as calcium. Freshwater or marine aquariums. Researched article from fish keeping guru Carl Strohmeyer

www.americanaquariumproducts.com

Just a suggestion:
Perhaps, you can dose some Seachem salt(minerals) once in a while if you seldom change water.
There are a few types of Seachem salts depending on the types of fish that you keep.

Read under the "instructions" for the different types of fish requirements:

Seachem - Brackish Salt

www.seachem.com

Seachem - American Cichlid Salt

www.seachem.com

Seachem - Cichlid Lake Salt

www.seachem.com

 

[GaryE]

I don't have a single additive on my shelf. I do dechlorinate some tanks, but since my water doesn't have the curse of chloramines, I only worry about breeding tanks. Seachem products are nice containers I see in stores. I have little to no use for them.

I am designing a fishroom, set to be heated and provided with soft tapwater within 2 weeks. Those tanks, all 50 of them, will have 25 to 30% changes every 7 to 10 days, if I'm not travelling. The changes will take 2-3 hours a week, but I'm recently retired, so bring it on.

I own no test kits, and don't see that as a lack. Prevention is the key, and routine. Every tank will be planted, and some will be jungles like yours. It depends on what fish will be in there. A Congo rapids cichlid won't be in a slow moving weed choked environment.

The great majority of species here are under 6cm in size, and I like to stock lightly.

If I were a millionaire, my tanks would be on a continuous drip water change, at 100% a day. I'm not following any incomplete youtube videos or any gurus - I base my approach on 55 years of fishkeeping, and breeding probably 300 species by now. I've run the gauntlet of fads - starting as a kid with bare overcrowded tanks, going to the balanced aquarium era (your approach), playing with test kits for a bit then they were new, working with the terrible idea all fish adapt to our water, working in water changes at various levels, and finally coming to rest, for now, at a sort of evolutionary fishkeeping where I want to look at the habitats that create these creatures and try to replicate them as much as I can. I really enjoy that approach, but I haven't found one fish that thrives in a stagnant puddle. Water moves and turns over. Nutrients arrive (or don't in some habitats).

Fish release hormones to communicate, and they build up and affect behaviour in closed systems (something no test kit tells you). You may someday see poorly packed Corydoras dead from their own fright warning chemicals, which are toxic in small bodies of water. That's an extreme, but 'fright tanks' aren't, where stress hormones send fish darting and panicking for what we think is no reason. Ammonia is important, but ammonia goggles blind us. There is way more to this than little test kits can tell us, and we fixate on the easy to read issues.

I don't see this as an attack on your approach. You are doing something different, and in about 5 years you'll know how it worked. I'll see how my set up works too, and we can stay in touch here and see how it all plays out.

 

[AbbeysDad]

Generally speaking, there's no such thing as too much clean, FRESH water.
Sure, plants, especially fast growing plants help purify water as they use nutrients (aka pollution) as food, converting them into plant tissue. There is also a host of bacteria and microbes (see The Very Best Aquarium Filter) that improve water quality.
But if/when we simply look at nature, we can easily see that nature renews fresh water ALL THE TIME. Are there some cases of stagnant water? Sure, but most fish, at least those not destined to be short lived, just don't live in polluted water.
Can fish survive in bad water? Sure, at least for a time...all living creatures want to survive.
But if we want fish to THRIVE, we need to provide the highest possible water quality. The notion that we can not do routine partial water changes is just fool hardy.

Does routine partial water changes have to be a certain percentage weekly? Well, NO...However, we need to replace the used, polluted water with clean, fresh water with enough frequency and volume in order to maintain a high water quality.

As I have stated numerous times, I have marveled at the edge of the Niagara river at the millions of gallons of water that flows between the Great Lakes 24/7, 365 days every year. And the output of the Amazon river is so great that fresh water can be collected 12 miles out at sea. Nature renews fresh water at an incredible volume and continuous frequency.

So if you keep animals in a small cage, clean the cage as much as necessary to maintain a healthy environment!

 

[emeraldking]

For three years I've kept two tanks on the window sill without a heater nor a mechanical filtration. In there was just gravel, Myriophyllum plants and guppies in one tank and endlers in the other tank. No waterchanges. I only added water when a part has evaporated. Nothing else. Those fish were happy and reproduced without any problems.

Nowadays. I only keep one tank that way. Simply, because it's possible... Without harming your fish. But I wouldn't recommend this if someone is a novice aquarist. Let me be very clear about that.

 

[Stan510]

Food you feed has calcium. This method is not for fish only aquariums. What we have these days with so many plants and higher quality lights is freeing the aquarist from chores. What's the point of aqua soils,great lights,and many plants,Co2..if you STILL need to drain water every week like in your Oscar aquarium?
I don't know why the aquaplant boards are stuck on that mantra of huge water changes,then go angry on how you MUST dose 19 chemicals "required" by plants.
Like I say ..this does not apply to your monster tank of 4' Gars. But for the "natural" aquarium its a gentle way to go.

 

[StevenF]

there are several reasons for water changes

• Bult pof nitrate and phosphate in the water from fish waste.buildup of fish wast can make the water toxic to fish.
• Evaporation of water causing a buildup minerals in the water.. This can eventually change fresh water to brackish water and eventually kill your fish.
• Most fertilizers don't have calcium and many are deficient inmagnesiumm which plants need.Many are deficient in copper and zinc which plants also need. So tapster and fish waiste may be the only sources of these nutrients. IF you don't change the water these will be depleted by plants. This can eventually cause plants to stop growing , algae issues, and prevent reproduction. of your animals.
• For other nutrients fertilizers have way more than plants need. If you don't do water changes the excess will build up and can cause fish health issues and even death.
• Plant fertilizers only conatin nutrients plants need. While fish need all of the plant nutrients they also need sodium, lithium, bromine, cobalt, vanadium, and iodine and selenium.. So the only sources for these animal nutrients are your tap water or fish food.. So doing a regular water change helps to insure your aquarium has these. If your water doesn't have these nutrients animals will not reproduce and may eventually die out.

 

[itiwhetu]

I have stopped water changing my tank just top up. Put about fifteen gallons as a top up into my 150-gallon tank tonight. Water changing can be adjusted for heavily planted tanks and I would suggest the fish do better, with a splash and dash, rather than large water changes in those tanks.

 

[Stan510]

The plants tie up much of what you worry about. So its not building up. When you clean the filter or prune the plants,you remove the harm..or most of it.
Look,I would change water weekly for three years on this aquarium and it wasn't until i STOPPED the BIG water changes that my plants took off,algae went down and the fish look great. I feed them plenty and no problems with waste,no "scratching" fish from a big change in water parameters.
I say- PLANT aquariums do not need big water changes. With those you are hiding the problem and even keep it going as the perpetual new tank syndrome.
I could post quite a few more no - or very small water change vids. But think most get it even if they don't agree.
I think these days aquarists who do very little water changing are outposted by those who make big changes and HAVE PROBLEMS not knowing its the cause not a cure.
Look, if you have 5,000 gallons and Pacu? Keep the water changes.

 

[itiwhetu]

The plants tie up much of what you worry about. So its not building up. When you clean the filter or prune the plants,you remove the harm..or most of it.
Look,I would change water weekly for three years on this aquarium and it wasn't until i STOPPED the BIG water changes that my plants took off,algae went down and the fish look great. I feed them plenty and no problems with waste,no "scratching" fish from a big change in water parameters.
I say- PLANT aquariums do not need big water changes. With those you are hiding the problem and even keep it going as the perpetual new tank syndrome.
I could post quite a few more no - or very small water change vids. But think most get it even if they don't agree.
I think these days aquarists who do very little water changing are outposted by those who make big changes and HAVE PROBLEMS not knowing its the cause not a cure.
Look, if you have 5,000 gallons and Pacu? Keep the water changes.

I put up this Thread some months ago. I agree with the new tank syndrome

Bright Water Tank syndrome ( extension to water change thread.....)

Hi, Firstly I would like to say how much I am enjoying this forum site it is making me think about stuff that I haven't thought about in years. Anyhow years ago the old boys used to talk about Bright water tank syndrome, this is where the tank is too clean, where the aquarist in their best...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Stan510]

Even with Co2 I have to wonder if they stopped big water changes every week? They might not need to pump seltzer water amounts of Co2 into their aquariums and for sure won't need to constantly dose fertilizer every day.
It's not so much never ever make a water change as water changes shouldn't be what you rely on for a healthy PLANT aquarium. Balance is better.