Stupid Question About Water Changes.

[Tonyb111111]

Ok, please forgive my ignorance if this sounds like a stupid question. If all ammonia and nitrIte are zero, and nitrates are continuously below 10, and pH & GH remain unchanged and the fish are all great then why should I be doing a water change. I currently do approx 15% water change a week but am seeing no variation between one water change and the next. I dose a mineral/vitamin supplement with each water change to keep the fish in top condition and also add weekly ferts. Should I leave the change for 2 weeks whilst monitoring the chemistry and alter the water changes accordingly

 

[Cazgar]

Your good water conditions are because you're doing weekly changes, I'd stick with your routine

 

[Torred1771]

Good question, unfortunatly i dont know the answer but i look forward to finding it out as well.

 

[KittyKat]

If one is dosing fertilisers, and especially using the methods where one "overdoses" in combination with large water changes, then I recommend large, weekly water changes, but normally, I would expect the water changes to be larger than you are doing, so I am assuming that you are using some other fertilisation method.

Water changes have a number of benefits, including removing hormones, nitrates, debris and suchlike from the water. Low/irregular water changes do have a disadvantage: the tank water parameters can drift from tap water parameters, in which case a large, emergency water change can harm the fish by shocking them. On the other hand, it is possible to run tanks without any water changes at all, but these usually have high plant content and low (adult) stock.

Personally, I advise 15-25% water changes per week for the average community tank.

 

[Tonyb111111]

Thanks for the responses guys. So been as I am increasing my planting and my fish are generally low waste producers, is it worth me leaving it 10 days and doing daily checks to see what happens. I am also curious to know at what time my nitrates start to rise so that in the future If I can't get to my tank I will know when it starts to become an issue

 

[KittyKat]

Thanks for the responses guys. So been as I am increasing my planting and my fish are generally low waste producers, is it worth me leaving it 10 days and doing daily checks to see what happens. I am also curious to know at what time my nitrates start to rise so that in the future If I can't get to my tank I will know when it starts to become an issue

It's not *only* about waste, it is also about other factors (like hormones, for example). If you are planning to do water changes in the long term, you really should do them at least once per week. If you end up going on holiday for a few weeks, fine, pass on the water changes, such a short time away will not harm the fish in anyway even if the tank is not best suited to handling it, but when you come back, do be careful and start only with very small water changes just in case your water parameters have drifted from tap parameters. Planting and set-up is not something that is easily quantifiable… so it is difficult to predict how one set up or another will react. If you plan to experiment with your set-up, sure, do daily tests, but just remember that there are a lot of things in the water that most of us cannot test for which are impacting the fish as much as the parameters.

 

[Tonyb111111]

Thanks for the responses guys. So been as I am increasing my planting and my fish are generally low waste producers, is it worth me leaving it 10 days and doing daily checks to see what happens. I am also curious to know at what time my nitrates start to rise so that in the future If I can't get to my tank I will know when it starts to become an issue

It's not *only* about waste, it is also about other factors (like hormones, for example). If you are planning to do water changes in the long term, you really should do them at least once per week. If you end up going on holiday for a few weeks, fine, pass on the water changes, such a short time away will not harm the fish in anyway even if the tank is not best suited to handling it, but when you come back, do be careful and start only with very small water changes just in case your water parameters have drifted from tap parameters. Planting and set-up is not something that is easily quantifiable… so it is difficult to predict how one set up or another will react. If you plan to experiment with your set-up, sure, do daily tests, but just remember that there are a lot of things in the water that most of us cannot test for which are impacting the fish as much as the parameters.

Thanks KittyKat, when you say hormones, are these in the tap water or fish hormones (don't laugh please). I am not trying to cause any arguements with anyone, i just like to fully understand the principles of how things work, always been like it

 

[TropicalJuwel]

KittyKat means the hormones that fish release, there isnt any in tap water. It is good that your asking questions that your not sure of, it may sound silly or the easiest question to someone who knows it but when your the person that dont its the hardest question in the world. You have great water quality so I would keep it that way with the water changes, for the sake of a few mins a week its well worth it and could save you alot of time in long run if things start going wrong.

 

[Rummynose]

During one of my researches about ph in aquariums I came across this article. It's a long read but it helped me understand a lot more about the importance of frequent water changes and the many things that go on in a closed system such as a fish tank.

http/www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html

 

[Tonyb111111]

KittyKat means the hormones that fish release, there isnt any in tap water. It is good that your asking questions that your not sure of, it may sound silly or the easiest question to someone who knows it but when your the person that dont its the hardest question in the world. You have great water quality so I would keep it that way with the water changes, for the sake of a few mins a week its well worth it and could save you alot of time in long run if things start going wrong.

Thought I'd ask as lincolnshire is heavy agriculture area and I am sure that hormones get into water courses and may be at a higher level than other places in the uk, this is probably why my tap water has such high nitrate nd phosphates. Thanks for your help

During one of my researches about ph in aquariums I came across this article. It's a long read but it helped me understand a lot more about the importance of frequent water changes and the many things that go on in a closed system such as a fish tank.

http/www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html

Thanks Rummynose, this is a really good and simple article to help the beginner fully understand the importance of regular water changes. After reading this, I now understand why I need to do weekly changes. Cheers

 

[Rummynose]

Tony, I just need to tell you that there is a mistake in the article, as it was pointed out to me on another thread. There is a mention of the toxicity of ammonium which should be ammonia, as well as the influence of the ph on ammonium! I think it was a switch-up of the two (Ammonia/Ammonium).

I'm glad this article helped you as much as it helped me!

 

[KittyKat]

Thought I'd ask as lincolnshire is heavy agriculture area and I am sure that hormones get into water courses and may be at a higher level than other places in the uk, this is probably why my tap water has such high nitrate nd phosphates. Thanks for your help

Well, if you do get run off from the fields into the water supply, then that could be something to consider as well, but it is more likely to be nitrate fertilisers that would be the problem… but I think that it would be not-quite-legal for run off to make its way into your water supply, so it's probably nothing to worry about.

 

[Tonyb111111]

Thought I'd ask as lincolnshire is heavy agriculture area and I am sure that hormones get into water courses and may be at a higher level than other places in the uk, this is probably why my tap water has such high nitrate nd phosphates. Thanks for your help

Well, if you do get run off from the fields into the water supply, then that could be something to consider as well, but it is more likely to be nitrate fertilisers that would be the problem… but I think that it would be not-quite-legal for run off to make its way into your water supply, so it's probably nothing to worry about.

Just for interest, I am getting 50 ppm nitrate and 4ppm phosphate in my tap water so have to alternate between tap and RO

 

[KittyKat]

Just for interest, I am getting 50 ppm nitrate and 4ppm phosphate in my tap water so have to alternate between tap and RO

Sorry, I don't really know much about phosphate as it's not something I have ever had to think about, but 50 ppm nitrate is quite high for UK tap water (I've always gotten around 10-25 ppm in Bath, Oxfordshire and Norfolk), although nothing to worry about if you have plants. It would be a better idea to always use the same mix of tap and RO water (for example 50/50 or 75% of one and 25% of the other) than alternate because RO should have very low GH and KH, while tap water is usually much harder and frequent or fast changes in water hardness will harm fish.

 

[Tonyb111111]

Currently, weekly 15% PWC, one in three is tap water due to these high levels. When I add the tap water the tank changes from 6.5 to 6.8 pH, and the GH goes from 5 to 6. Do you think this is ok?