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Aquaponics Vs Walstad Method Vs Water Changes

Aqua Hero

Aqua Hero

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Joined
8 May 2015
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274
i have been looking into the first two methods of taking care of our underwater ecosystem.

for years people have been doing water changes and we all know it works BUT does that mean its the only method of taking care of your aquarium. i would like to know your thoughts and opinion about which of these three you prefer, why you prefer it, whether you use combinations, why one may be better than the other and so on.

its an open discussion
 
Can't beat a good water change though. You really seem to not want to do your water changes. It takes me about an hour a week possibly two if I doing other stuff on the tank. Usually I'm watching TV while doing it. If you really don't want to do weekly water changes then it can be reduced two once a month with the right conditions, ie lowering the PAR levels in the tank.
 
no no no :lol: for years now i have been doing water changes and it has worked miracles. but ever since i have started going into more depth with planted tanks i have been revealed to so many new things i didnt know was in this hobby. im just trying to get the opinions of different people on certain things that are causing me confusion. A basic example, people say you should have live plants because they act as a bio filter in aquarium. also having a low stocking of fish means there will be less waste in the water. In theory that should mean i can do less water changes (instead of 35% each week i can cut it to 15% each week or do 40% every 3-4 weeks etc). its not that im lazy but if there is another way of maintaining an aquarium that fits my daily life style better then by all means why not.

im sure you can understand where im coming from
 
i still dont mind doing weekly water changes i just dont want to do massive ones like 25%+ because im afraid of massive ph fluctuations. thats why i got the plants, over filtration and light bio load of fish cause from all the research i have done. these things help make maintenance on your aquarium light. im also gonna be going to uni next year so im trying to make things as easy as possible now so that when i will be very busy, the tank will only be affected at the bare min or not affected at all by the neglect it might get.
 
Why are you worried about the massive pH swings? Water comes out of my tap at around pH 8. 24 hours later it's at a pH of 6.4. Inject CO2 in my high tech tank where I do anything from 50%-90% water changes it goes to around a pH of 5.4.

My water change day would give most traditional fish keepers a heart attack with my pH swings.
 
Hmmm Im gonna be using peat granules and peat balls. I tested the peat and it lowered the ph from 7.6 to 6.2 in a bucket. Maybe I shouldn't worry so much
 
Am always concerned when folks want to raise/lower their pH.
Is clear at that point to me anyway,that they do not fully understand the relationship between GH.KH and their effect on pH. and likely problem's with instability.(stress for fishes)
I could for example use peat or pH up or down product's in my tank, but what happen's when I perform weekly water change with water from the tap that is much different GH.pH ?
I would need to store a large tub or barrel of water depending on tank size so that water I use for water changes is same/same as water in the tank.
 
+1 on the water changes. As far as fish are concerned, regardless of the type of setup, water changes are beneficial to fish long term well being.
If you only have plants, then no water changes will do but a few of us keep plant only tanks.
Plants and similar setups just provide more stable and healthy conditions in the tank, especially if one slacks on water changes from time to time, but that's about it, redundancy for temporary neglect. The neglect should not be permanent as it will bite back.
I think there's a thing such as striking the ideal balance with your fish/plants/filtration/bioload and not needing much water changes without affecting the long well being of fish but how would one know they've stricken that balance unless they wait out the life span of fish and see if they fare well or not. It's a test that would last years(or possibly not as fish may die sooner from different health issues) and even if it works, reproducing the same environment(plants to bioload ratio, etc...) will be very hard as each setup may develop differently.
So to be on the safe side, do water changes as much as you can as this will not hurt and will possibly be essential to your tank balance and fish well being.
At least that's my logic. At the same time, I keep a tank on which I don't do much water changes and it does fairly well but it's only populated with cherry shrimp. This tank has developed a different chemistry than other tanks I've tried this way so I am confident it can do this way in the long run as the stats are very stable, even the TDS doesn't rise up at all. But other tanks in time have had rise in TDS, rise in Gh, dropping Kh, etc...so they get quite polluted without water changes.

Also, if you want to make life easier for yourself, it's better to keep fish in straight tap and not to play around with tank water altering the stats. Keeping fish suitable for your tap water helps with that. Otherwise one needs time and dedication and that's not suitable for one that has a busy lifestyle which will indirectly affect their fish pets.

And buy a python for water changes :) Doing a 50% water change is as easy as doing a 10% water change.
Fluctuations during water change will only be a problem if one doesn't do water changes often enough and big enough to keep both tank and source water nearly the same or one has altered the stats of their tank via other means and tap water greatly differs.
 
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