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90% weekly water changes

H

Halley

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6 May 2015
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Hi - I'm just throwing this out there but in my heavily planted tanks I do 90% weekly water changes. The fish seem fine once the temperatures are similar and the plants love it! I think you can do crazy water changes if you have lots of plants as they do the filtering rather than bacteria. Anyone else with me?


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Why do you feel you need such large changes? Do you really heavily dose or have a massive bioload?
 
I have loads of plants and quite a high bio load but the theory is based on the fact the fish are in fresh water the is constantly been renewed


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Halley said:
I have loads of plants and quite a high bio load but the theory is based on the fact the fish are in fresh water the is constantly been renewed


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Click to expand...

If you can match the parameters very closely, then have at it; but why take the risk? If you need to do 90% changes on a tank, that indicates overstocking to me...in my humble opinion
 
I have to do large water changes too because of my high bioload from mistakenly purchasing a pregnant guppy few months ago. They breed like rabbits and faster than I can give them away.

That said my water is soft and only very lightly chlorinated and my fish and inverts don't seem to mind.

The only thing which stops me is I have critters and don't really like having all of them concentrated in only 10% of water with all my fish.

With lots of plants, baby critters may not be fast enough to swim down to where the water is and risk getting eaten if they do.

The better solution is, of course, to do more frequent water changes.
 
I do 50 % water changes out of habit mostly.
Have lot's of plant's and fair bioload with ever breeding bristlenose.
Another heavily planted tank I have with fewer fish, could go a month or more without a water change for the plant's act as biofilter and quickly use ammonia and nitrates.
Hardest part with larger water changes, is source water that changes in chemistry at the whim of local water treatment plant.Thankfully it only happen's a couple times a year in spring /fall and I can store water for a few week's in large barrel.
Have never had need of changing more than 50 % which I might do twice a week with larger number's of fishes or young fishes being fed more than once a day.
Opinion's vary.
 
One of the experts Ceg I am sure I read in one of his posts will do 90% in his 6ft tank no issues.
 
If you want to do a 90% water change then you do that. I don't think we a have a planted tank police force....
Personally I would never do that as part of a regular routine because I feel it would put far to much unnecessary stress on my fish!
Even a 50% water change is going to stress the fish during the actual procedure but just leaving the fish in a few inches of water seems totally unnecessary in my opinion.
 
Easternlethal said:
That said my water is soft and only very lightly chlorinated and my fish and inverts don't seem to mind.
Click to expand...
How do you know, lightly chlorinated ??? If strong enough to keep the water sterile then stong enough to kill bacteria in your tank and burn fishes gills. Always dechlorinate.

Even more so if water company add emergency dosing chloramine. Many many people on this forum have wiped out all their £100's of fish in one water change after water company dose chloramine. Prime and sodium thiosuplhate cosy b*gger all per dose. :)
 
Believe that large water changes are not stressful if they are the norm throughout the tank's life, and...the source water stay's consistent.
It is sudden changes that have negative affect, such as water changes far and few between,sudden increase in chlorine/chloramines .
Discus purist's routinely change large volumes of water daily, and fishes do not seem to mind.
Source water suddenly changing in chlorine/chloramine content would be only concern for me with larger water changes, along with possibly sudden temp change.
Is why many store water and preheat/pretreat before using. No?
 
I think the point is - whatever works for you - then do it.


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Next time I'm going to do a 91% water change just to annoy people


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roadmaster said:
Believe that large water changes are not stressful if they are the norm throughout the tank's life, and...the source water stay's consistent.
It is sudden changes that have negative affect, such as water changes far and few between,sudden increase in chlorine/chloramines .
Discus purist's routinely change large volumes of water daily, and fishes do not seem to mind.
Source water suddenly changing in chlorine/chloramine content would be only concern for me with larger water changes, along with possibly sudden temp change.
Is why many store water and preheat/pretreat before using. No?
Click to expand...


I think most of what you say is true but..... there is the issue of how the water change is done and how long it takes.
For instance - if Fred carried out a 90% water change in his 300lt tank, after around 80% of the water change, his discus would by lying on their side ..... & for how long?
My point is not about the how much water is changed but the fact that any fish will be left in very little water, in my opinion this will cause them stress!
If Fred had a system that allowed 300lt (or 100%) of treated water to trickle in every 24 hours without the tank level dropping, then that would be great....
I think the more standard 50% is set mainly for the benefit of the fish, if we were discussing a 'plant only tank' then I can see no reason to limit any size water change.
 
Ultimately fish are sensitive to sudden changes in water chemistry and temp. In a half filled tank each jug of water added (if that's how you do your changes) will make a very small change to the make up of the water. In a tank with just 10% original water remaining each jug of water will make a significantly bigger change unless of course care is made to make the new water as close in make up as the existing water.

It's an either or situation I guess, with a 50% change you can add water not exactly like the existing water and do it a bit quicker or do a 90% change with water very similar to the existing and do it a bit slower. In the case of the Discus people I find that most will do the big water changes but with water they have took a lot of time matching in both make up and temp. Obviously lowering the water level to a point where the fish are laying on their sides or struggling to find water deep enough is not going to make them happy.
 
I like doing large water changes too - even when there are no fish in the tank :D

I have tall tanks so even though I drop the water level slightly past the 2/3 mark on the glass height, given that substrate has a major volume contribution in that bottom 1/3 of the tank, it's likely my water change by volume is significantly greater than 70%

So why am I stressing my fish?
Because they respond so positively to the large water changes.

I use a Python system & the time lapse between 50% mark on the glass - then 70% - then return to 50% is NOT long (sorry don't have the actual time but I can complete the water change in under 30 min)
I don't move about in the tank or clean walls etc when the water level is below the 25% mark on the glass (ie only slightly lowered water level from full - less splashing this way)

Perhaps others do their tank maintenance at lowered water levels & that is why they find the water changes to be noticeably stressful to fish.

I also offer a favorite food shortly after water change - the wild caught S vaillanti I have in a too small Q tank (ie they already have cause for stress) constantly request food through the water change process, & immediately gather for their expected food after water change is complete.
I plan a 50% water change in this tank as it's only 30cm high (& I keep low substrate height in this tank as well) - when I accidentally drained more like 80% of the water & fish had disappeared into the back areas, as soon as water level returned to even 50%, fish were back out asking after food, water change complete & they didn't act as if I'd turned their water parameters upsidedown or even sideways ;)

In their natural life, fish experience stress as well, those stress hormones generally "activate", increasing metabolism/catabolites - momentary stress is not the same as continual stress (which strongly suppresses fish immune function among other factors)

I do have some fish that display discomfort with water change, but they are already showing stress colors/behaviour before I've removed even 10% of the water ... and they quickly return to life as normal once the water change is completed.


Most freshwater fish kept in aquaria come from natural waters where there are seasonal changes, even significant temperature & pH swings through the course of 24hours (all this is documented in scientific journal articles), fish from these waters have metabolic mechanisms designed to stabilize their biochemistry against change - I'm much less concerned about matching exact water parameters with these species than those that are endemic to very stable waters.

But anyone that is not comfortable doing more than a 25% water changes, is doing just fine too :)
 
Yes - I agree - i use a phython too and have small fish in a juwel vision who have plenty of space even in 10% of water. The water takes about 20 mins to fill back up and is kept at a similar temperature. The benefits to the plants are huge I think. Happy plants generally equal happy fish. There is also some water in the external filter as well. I'd say I do 75% water changes (not really 90%). My fish seem to love the fresh water - after a few minutes the Cardinals tetras are swimming all over the place. Every tank is different and has different requirements. The fish get stressed when I have my hand cleaning but not when the water is filled.


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I used to syphon then refill. But I can tell everyone hates the syphon because as that happens the water level drops and everyone hides / goes very still. I think this stresses them. Then during the refill everyone comes out and plays, sometimes even trying to swim into my hose.

So lately (ppl who disagree with large water changes close your eyes) I have been thinking of attempting a simultaneous syphon / refill with separate hoses. Just like a real life flowing river right?
 
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