re ..water change how often ?

[dan dan the fish man]

how often does everyone do a water change ? i do it every second week i have a 4 foot tank I'm wondering if its wise to do it every week i have 2 golder Grammies 2 sharks 2 rainbow sharks 6 clown loaches 2 bristle noses 1 sail fin 12 rummy nose tetras its heavily planted is it wise to do it every week ? and should i use R.O water or normal tape water ? ( i have and RO system)

 

[clutterydrawer]

most people recommend at least (!) 20% each week.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

I do mine twice a week at 20-25%. ....I wouldn't use dechlorinated tap water.

 

[tstenback]

Thats a lot of fish in the tank (size wise and messy) i would use the nitrate level to determine if you are doing enough water changes. Get the level to below 20 if possible and then monitor how long it takes to get back to that point and when it does do a water change. If it takes only a day or two for this to happen then you are most likely either overstocked or under filtered or both. HTH

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Oops! typo error. I had meant to have used 'unchlorinated'.

 

[Nina7777]

The answer to this question depends on the stocking level of your tank and how many fish you have. For your tank i would do 20% every week.

I personally just switched to 20% every other week. But the way i worked it out I still clean two tanks a week at home. One week i clean my 20 gallon and my 55 gallon and the next week I clean my 30 gallon and my 2.5 gallon. If i noticed anything off in the tank though then I go back to once a week. It was just getting a bit time consuming on the weekends cleaning 4 tanks all on the same day.