Water Change

How often do you guys change your water??? And What Percent???

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by PaducahFishFan on August 22, 2011 at 9:28pm

I do 25 - 50% once a week. If I have an over feed issue. It's happened twice lately. Someone recommended a food my fish didn't like for example. I will do a water change on the spot.

Then it just depends. I've got over 20 ghost shrimp and 5 crystal, 4 cory cats, 3 Twig, 1 whiptail and 4 glass cats. So I try to leave a little on the ground for them.

I can post a video if you want to see it. I also posted a video of the tool I used for water changes. Great tool and easy to use.

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Permalink Reply by PK on August 23, 2011 at 8:44am

Video = 10000 words!

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Permalink Reply by PaducahFishFan on August 23, 2011 at 8:57am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEAwCEOrk4k

Here is a video of me changing the water. Really simple to do. I use PRIME to treat it from the tap straight into the tank. If you use it that way you have to put in enough PRIME for your total tank size not what your putting back. Haven't lost any fish doing it this way and the directions explain it so I'm not too worried.

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Permalink Reply by PK on August 23, 2011 at 9:22am

thanks for the share!

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Bingamon on August 29, 2011 at 1:33am

I consider myself lucky with my water. I do 30-50% every week and 90% In my 40 once a month to help with tannin stain and I don't use any conditioner. My water all comes out of a natural aquifer.

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Permalink Reply by Martin Seel on August 29, 2011 at 10:43am

90% water change are you mad ? you should only do something like that in an emergency I would still use a conditioner to ad stuff thats good for the fish like aloe vera

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Permalink Reply by PaducahFishFan on August 29, 2011 at 10:50am

Go watch Dustin's video where he does back to back 80% changes on the 220 after rescaping with the drift wood an Anubias. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Martin Seel on August 29, 2011 at 11:44am

yeah in an emergency , but does he do 90% water changes every month nope cause it will throw the water chemistry all over the place

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Permalink Reply by PaducahFishFan on August 29, 2011 at 12:30pm

If your using Prime and you have a live planted tank and you do NOT change your filter media it's not as bad as it sounds. In my mind the temperature change is the biggest issue. Has a lot to more with the fish you have in mind. I wouldn't advise it with a discuss tank for example. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Martin Seel on August 29, 2011 at 12:58pm

I would never change my filter media I use sponge and plastic bio balls , no need to unless you use carbon , amonia remover or ceramic bio rings

everytime you add water no matter how much it changes your water chemistry the more water you change the more your water chemistry changes and longer it takes to settle back to what it was before

but if it's working for you them do as you please

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Bingamon on August 29, 2011 at 1:53pm

Ya temp difference is a pain in the ass with that much water. It has to be exactly the same. I also have really hardy fish. But I also haven't lost any of my fry from it either. As far as the filter media I use a marineland bio wheel filter and an aqua clear both I can stuff three sponges in, when I do my water changes i rotate them around and change out one sponge per filter. The bacteria keeps the harmful perameters to near zero with as little fish to the size tank I have so they don't get thrown largely out of wack. And I do it like that once a month because of the huge peice of wood and dirt leaking tannins in the water after 4 or 5 smaller water changes the concentration is so high my smaller and bottom layer of plants start wilting from lack of light being able to penetrate. I also probably wouldn't try it if I used city water that was treated but like I said my water comes out of a natural aquifer. It's all ground water from rain probably thousands of years old.?

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Bingamon on August 29, 2011 at 1:55pm

oh yea also I like to try to mimic nature. And in a flowing stream the water gets changed 100% hundreds of times a day. In my outside garden tank I have my garden hose just trickling in allowing the water to overflow the tank all day and my gold fish in there are loving it.