Water changes.

[Sir Guppy]

Water changes, water changes, water changes.
I never do them!
I used to, but my tank ran into some problems.
Stoped doing water changes and it they stoped showing up.
However about once a week I do pour some water into both my tanks to replace evaporated water.

 

[MaloK]

Water changes, water changes, water changes.
I never do them!
I used to, but my tank ran into some problems.
Stoped doing water changes and it they stoped showing up.
However about once a week I do pour some water into both my tanks to replace evaporated water.

What do you do ? You setup your tank using the Walstad method ?!?

 

[Sir Guppy]

What do you do ? You setup your tank using the Walstad method ?!?

What’s the Walstad method?

 

[MaloK]

It's a blog , so I think I would be authorized to quote...

The Walstad Method

This would be an introduction to the subject.

 

[Ram419]

Water changes, water changes, water changes.
I never do them!
I used to, but my tank ran into some problems.
Stoped doing water changes and it they stoped showing up.
However about once a week I do pour some water into both my tanks to replace evaporated water.

Interesting. What kind of issues did you have doing water changes? Does the nitrates stay low? I assume you have a heavly planted tank.

 

[Sir Guppy]

It's a blog , so I think I would be authorized to quote...

The Walstad Method

This would be an introduction to the subject.

Similar, but not quite the same.
My tanks each lose roughly about 5% of their water every water each week, which I replace.
The 25 gallon is fairly heavily planted, not so the 5 gallon.

Interesting. What kind of issues did you have doing water changes? Does the nitrates stay low? I assume you have a heavly planted tank.

When I first started fish keeping I was quite keen on doing regular water changes. At the time I my water testing kit was expired, so I did not know the water requirements. Over time something went wrong in my fish tank causing eventually all but three of them to die. (probably was me removing the biological filter, not knowing what it was for at the time).
Eventually I gave up and left the tank alone, and nothing else went wrong. I gave away the two glofish that lived in it, and because I bought a 5 gallon and put the third fish, an endler’s livebearer.
Long story short, now the 25 is reset, has been running since September without problems!

*edited to add quote

 

[Ram419]

When I first started fish keeping I was quite keen on doing regular water changes. At the time I my water testing kit was expired, so I did not know the water requirements. Over time something went wrong in my fish tank causing eventually all but three of them to die. (probably was me removing the biological filter, not knowing what it was for at the time).
Eventually I gave up and left the tank alone, and nothing else went wrong. I gave away the two glofish that lived in it, and because I bought a 5 gallon and put the third fish, an endler’s livebearer.
Long story short, now the 25 is reset, has been running since September without problems!

*edited to add quote

Interesting. Well, I've never had a tank crash (loss of bio-filter) due to water changes alone. And in some cases I do 90% changes.
I do have one tank (a 5 gallon) that has a lot of plants and a hair algae issue and it's constant at 0 nitrates all the time. The only reason I do water changes and cleaning is to keep the hair algae at bay.

 

[MaloK]

I had problems in the beginning with water changes. But when I found out that is was my water that would constantly swing PH from 7 to 8 in a few days, Now I let the water sit a couple days and slightly lower the PH before using it.

Some fish succumb to pH shock immediately. Others may exhibit symptoms including thrashing, darting, gasping, swimming near the water's surface and trying to jump out of the tank.

Symptoms looks the same as those that indicate toxins in the water. And it may take it several weeks for a fish to fully recover from it... So if you're doing weekly water changes without addressing that problem, It is literally Mortal.

 

[lottabubbles]

i have one of those 2 inch vacuum tubes hooked to a long hose that drains half of my 125 gal tank into the garden. veggies love the fishy water. have a large bubble tubs that i treat the water and then pond pump that back into the aquarium. that keeps my back from hurting packing water.