Water Change Frequency

[bitteraspects]

50% every week on a wednesday although im currently riding out a nitrite spike with 3*75% changes a day with buckets

i must have had a freak die off

i test once a week (good job i spotted the spike!) and act accordingly

I am only home from school on the weekends.

When I come home, I check the levels, and based on my findings do a X% water change.

-FHM

I do 25-50% every monday, depending on the readins and i test every two or three days

I do 50% a week. Sometimes I might go 8 or 9 days.

I do a 30% water change and vac religiously every week although not always on the same day.

I change 50% every week regardless of stats. I only test if I see any other indication of a problem

 

[silverrabbit]

Excuse me, but the loss of a fish is just as painful whatever it cost - it is a LIFE that is lost, not just money, and if you ask me the life is far more important.


Sorry - off topic

 

[doresy]

There are too many good people here justifying themselves to you Personally I just think that you are opinionated.

Oh and continue....please..... as I won't be returning to this wooly thread

 

[bitteraspects]

My goldfish tank gets 40% every 5 days (pooper troopers indeed!!)

My community tank gets 25-30% weekly

All betta tanks have a 50% WC each week, as they are smaller and I don't want any trouble.

All tanks get tested before water change, and also at any time where my paranoid mind thinks it picks up a trace of disease on a fish, lol.

Everyone has their own system with water changes - and that system works for them. If it isn't working then i'm sure they'd have changed it by now. I really don't understand why people get so wound up in their own underpants when someone else's regime differs to their own, and it's offensive to say people are bad fishkeepers when you are basing that opinion on a few lines of a post.

i might agree if its was just me saying it. looks like youre on your own.

try google.

Excuse me, but the loss of a fish is just as painful whatever it cost - it is a LIFE that is lost, not just money, and if you ask me the life is far more important.


Sorry - off topic

ABSOLUTELY. i agree 150%
however, unfortunately in this hobby, a lot of people dont take it seriously because "well, i can always get another one if it dies". and thats just plain wrong. but thats also why the LFS brings in goldfish 100 pieces at a time. its sad, but true. and quite frankly, theres nothing we can do about it.

 

[silverrabbit]

Try google for what exactly?! I don't need to google it to know that i'm happy with my water changes. My point is, you have your opinion and everyone else has theirs.... in life we have to accept differences in opinions and not get on a high horse and declare everyone who disagrees is below standard.

 

[three-fingers]

plain and simple. if you cant maintain a weekly upkeep of your pets, why have them?

Because you don't need to...
I could just as easily say, if you can't do over 9000 water changes a day on your tanks, why have them?

if you look back in this thread, youll notice everyone says about the same thing, less one or two people.
if you do a search online, you will find that just about everyone says the same thing.
if you ask experts, they will also tell you the same thing.
hell, if you go to your lfs. even the people who dont seem to know much about fish will tell you the same thing.

Simply put...not really.
It's recommended that people do weekly water changes just to be safe really, but a lot of the time tanks really don't need that.
It depends 100% how the tank is set up, and how experienced the owner is at judging when something needs to be done.

normal practice is 25-30% weekly. and anything less in my professional experience, is not only "not enough", but poor husbandry.
while you might not care about your fish that cost you $1.00 or less, maybe you should spend some real money on fish and see if you dont spend a little more time worrying about upkeep.

For a "professional" you seem to a very closed mind when it comes to fishkeeping .

What makes it "not enough", may I ask?

Some people I would consider experts only do twice yearly or even less water changes.

All depends on the tank .

 

[bitteraspects]

Try google for what exactly?! I don't need to google it to know that i'm happy with my water changes. My point is, you have your opinion and everyone else has theirs.... in life we have to accept differences in opinions and not get on a high horse and declare everyone who disagrees is below standard.

look up water change frequency on the web. you will see, as all the other people quoted above, that weekly is common practice.
its not like im the one throwing out a ridiculous number here. lol, even you do weekly wc.
it has nothing to do with being a matter of opinion, less of all my own opinion. this is common practice WORLDWIDE.

plain and simple. if you cant maintain a weekly upkeep of your pets, why have them?

Because you don't need to...
I could just as easily say, if you can't do over 9000 water changes a day on your tanks, why have them?

if you look back in this thread, youll notice everyone says about the same thing, less one or two people.
if you do a search online, you will find that just about everyone says the same thing.
if you ask experts, they will also tell you the same thing.
hell, if you go to your lfs. even the people who dont seem to know much about fish will tell you the same thing.

Simply put...not really.
It's recommended that people do weekly water changes just to be safe really, but a lot of the time tanks really don't need that.
It depends 100% how the tank is set up, and how experienced the owner is at judging when something needs to be done.

normal practice is 25-30% weekly. and anything less in my professional experience, is not only "not enough", but poor husbandry.
while you might not care about your fish that cost you $1.00 or less, maybe you should spend some real money on fish and see if you dont spend a little more time worrying about upkeep.

For a "professional" you seem to a very closed mind when it comes to fishkeeping .

What makes it "not enough", may I ask?

Some people I would consider experts only do twice yearly or even less water changes.

All depends on the tank .

im not going to bother picking out points that have already been covered twice over. do yourself a favor. or better yet, do your fish a favor, and do some research. everyone but one person is saying weekly... probably a reason for that.

 

[stang1]

You are wrong in thinking it's common practice and that every fish keeper performs weekly water changes.
It doesn't matter whether you have been keeping fish for twenty months or twenty years, everybody has their own way of doing things.
To judge people by how they do certain things is what is wrong with this world.
Sadly, we never give people the chance or get to know anyone before forming an opinion.

 

[bitteraspects]

thats where i think youre confused. this has nothing to do with my opinion of YOU or anyone else for that matter. i was never speaking directly to you.
furthermore, as i have stated NUMEROUS times, this isnt MY opinion. not only are there 10 other people in this thread alone saying they do weekly wc, but if you would bother to research it before responding, youd see that it is common practice everywhere.

 

[silverrabbit]

I do weekly WC's because that is what I want to do to keep my fish tanks in order. That doesn't mean to say though, that someone who only does a water change every couple of weeks etc is not maintaining their tank properly.

"Common practice", yes fine, but it is not set in stone. A common practice comes of a collection of opinions. And if people have deviated away from the "common practice" and have found their regime to work, why are they in the wrong?

It is a "common practice" to keep rabbits and guinea pigs together. This has not worked for me and I would not recommend it. I am deviating away from common practice, so therefore am I wrong? I don't think so - it's my opinion. It might work for others, but not for me.

Bah, I am losing my trail now, but my point is that common practice doesn't always suit all people or all circumstances.

 

[stang1]

thats where i think youre confused. this has nothing to do with my opinion of YOU or anyone else for that matter. i was never speaking directly to you.
furthermore, as i have stated NUMEROUS times, this isnt MY opinion. not only are there 10 other people in this thread alone saying they do weekly wc, but if you would bother to research it before responding, youd see that it is common practice everywhere.

I spend seven days a week researching and speak to numerous fish keepers on a daily basis. Just because "google" comes up with it being common practice, doesn't mean that everyone adheres to it.
And as for it not being an opinion of ME, criticising people and accusing them of neglect does lead me to believe the opposite.
With regards to common practice, it was common practice to keep goldfish in bowls for many years but it doesn't make it right.

 

[Tolak]

I believe this was the topic;

OK I know at least a handful of people will jump and say they do x% water changes religiously every n days.
How often to you do your water changes?
How many do water changes based on stats?

Depends on the tank & stocking level. Fry tanks get 50% to 75% daily the first week, every other day the second, twice weekly the third week.

Once they get switched to a larger tank, 50% to 75% twice weekly for a few more weeks. After that it's 50% to 75% weekly, sometimes every 5 days or so. This is during the winter months, into spring when I'm putting out fish like mad for shops, auctions, swaps, and brokers.

Starting about April it slows down. Folks don't do indoor activities such as aquatics as much during the summer. I'll shut down tanks, do upgrades & major maintenance during this time. Also during this time I may have a 150 gallon tub stocked with a couple half dollar size angels, this might get a water change every 2-3 weeks. 40 gallon tanks with a few nickel size angels get the same. There is no reason to do 50% to 75% weekly on an incredibly understocked tank. There is all the reason in the world to do 75%+ a few times weekly on a really heavily stocked tank.

It's been at least a couple years since I've done any water tests. My fish tell me when to do them.

One thing you learn if you have been at this long enough is that there are no cut & dried rules to many aspects, just a series of often wide ranging guidelines.

 

[Johnlenham]

Im laughing at the fact that that 5% matters that much

I test first, all things being fine I take two full buckets out of my 64L (which is roughly 30% but im just eyeballing it)

and a bucket out of the Bettas (27L)

Sometimes I take 3 out of the bigger tank but that's mostly to get all the bloody otto poop up.

Gets done the Friday or thursday of every week depending on if im going to my Gfs or shes coming down to mine.


Oh and this isnt google telling me but the fine people on here guiding me

 

[three-fingers]

thats where i think youre confused. this has nothing to do with my opinion of YOU or anyone else for that matter. i was never speaking directly to you.
furthermore, as i have stated NUMEROUS times, this isnt MY opinion. not only are there 10 other people in this thread alone saying they do weekly wc, but if you would bother to research it before responding, youd see that it is common practice everywhere.

That's where I think your confused.

It is your opinion.

It is not other peoples opinions, the other people have merely stated that they do weekly water changes, not that they need them.

Even if it was other peoples opinions too, that does not make it fact.

 

[rdd1952]

I think a very good topic is turning into something less than good. Bitteraspects, I understand that you and most everyone else on here do water changes weekly. That is probably the norm. We tell beginners they should do that and we try to do it ourselves. I will say that since my tanks are very understocked and over filtered that I don't do WCs weekly but usually every other week. Even in that time frame, my nitrates will still never reach 5 ppm so not a lot of waste being processed.

thats where i think youre confused. this has nothing to do with my opinion of YOU or anyone else for that matter. i was never speaking directly to you.
furthermore, as i have stated NUMEROUS times, this isnt MY opinion. not only are there 10 other people in this thread alone saying they do weekly wc, but if you would bother to research it before responding, youd see that it is common practice everywhere.

Anything less then 25-30% weekly is poor husbandry. If someone can't make time AT LEAST once a week to make sure their fish arent swimming in their own waste, then they have no business keeping fish imo.

I would totally have to disagree with you about it not being your opinion. The only way I can read it is exactly what you stated. That is definitely an opinion and a very strong one at that. As mentioned, everyone is entitled to their opinion but just because a hundred people do it one way and another does it another way doesn't make that way wrong. What would your opinion be on keeping fish in an unfiltered tank? I'm sure at first thought you would say that was totally insane but it seemed to work very well for Diane Walstad.

And while speaking of Diane Walstad, here is a quote from an article I read about one of her 45 gallon tanks (a google search will probably find it if you want to read the entire article): "Maintenance: I change about 50% of the water every 3-6 months. I clean the filter cartridge, trim plants and remove mat algae about every month."

So let's get back to posting about how often we do our water changes and not dwell on how wrong someone is for not doing it exactly the way you do.