Water changes thread

buzz

Not like the sticky.

I just want to know how much water you change per week, and the product you use to get rid of chlorine and chloramine.

I have a 450L tank, with 2 oscars, 2 severums, 2 JDs all only 3 months old.
I usually change about 15% water per week. I have an internal filter running, and the API NEXX external. I dont really like the API and will change it soon for the moment.. I use API stress coat for changes.

So I change 15% per week, but recently reading on american cichlid forums, some people are changing 70% per week!!!

Is it just me or is this complete madness????
I know the % you change is down to factors, ie the stocking level and what fish you have etc. But 70%? I just cant get over that...

The whole bacteria cycle within the water will be gone or replaced every week or two?!:o

m4r10

The amount of bacteria living in the water column is insignifiant as most of it will live in the filter and substrate, so even a 70% wc will remove very little bacteria. I do 50% wc on my tanks and that amounts to roughly 200-220L.

Don't have any chiclids myself, but I know they're messy enough, so I'd say a weekely 50% wc is a must, but you know better than us the parameters and quality of the water in the tank. If you're happy with them (parameters and quality), have no fish loses and fish are looking healty, continue what you're doing.

As for the water conditioner products, I don't use any, just let the water in a container for a day before the wc and didn't have any problems. Because the smaller percentage of the wc you're doing, there's no reason to use any conditioner. I know people which are keeping ciclids as well and use water straight from the tap during wc.

Sleepy

I've 4 tanks up and running. The smaller ones get 25 - 50% changes depending on how much visible dirt is coming up through the gravel siphon, the larger tanks 10 - 20%. Seachem PRIME used for all water conditioning.

fred funk }{

How much water should be changed depends on the amount of fish in the tank and how much food is fed to them.

I change about 30% weekly which includes vacuuming the gravel and cleaning the glass. About every three weeks I'd do a bigger water change, maybe 50%. The filters only get cleaned when I notice them running a bit slower than normal. I'm running two filters, an internal and an external. I always use API Stress Coat to treat the new water.

Denise90

In the Cichlid tank, about 30% every week and use Prime for the new water. The Axolotl tank gets about 10% every week, using Stress Coat to dechlorinate. The marine tank is only 2 weeks old and my partner has been looking after that so I'm not exactlt sure what he's doing with it!

buzz

I have a silica sand substrate and it gets very dirty very quickly so I bought a battery powered (****e) gravel cleaner. It does what it said on the tin, but goes through batteries like no ones business. But I have to clean teh substrate every single night, otherwise it looks terrible. Is this removing a lot of the bacteria? I usually only change about 60L of water per week in a 450L tank, and 20L in a 125L tank. Should I be doing more?

Water is crystal clear and with cleaning the sand with the electric cleaner keeps it looking very tidy. Granted my SA cichlids are still only 3-4 months old and when they mature it will be a different story...

Denise90

We have silica sand in two of our tanks too, but it doesn't get that dirty? Do you have a cleaning crew?