Water changes

[ger87410]

This question is of course concerning fully cyled tanks.

 

[~FairyAngelFish~]

Weekly.

 

[JamesTasker]

Where's the never button?

 

[canarsie11]

Is it me or does this poll pop up every week?

 

[bigphesta]

I was at a 'chain' pet store and was talking to the lady behind there and i brought up that I did a 30% change every week and she started going into how that was bad for the fish and this and that and changes should be made once a month - MAX. I directed her to this site and quickly left as it's obvious she had no idea.

 

[canarsie11]

Suprising that many people who are supposed to know about fish are in the dark about things

 

[luxum]

It depends on the stocking to a certain extent. A typical well stocked tank needs about 20% once a week. An understocked tank could go 2-4 weeks depending on the stocking levels and how quickly nitrate builds up. An overstocked tank will require more frequent and/or larger changes to keep up, as often as daily in extreme cases. If daily changes can't keep nitrates at acceptable levels, the tank is beyond overstocked.

 

[ger87410]

Here's my theory going along the lines of what luxum said: If the tank is well planted the plants will eat the nitrates and that will allow you to do less frequent water changes. Assuming you clean the the gravel each water change, you could limit it to every other week without harm. As an example, I give my current 55g brackish. I welcome all comments about this reply. Pro or con.