Are water changes still necessary if Nitrates are low?

D

Dekz

AC Members
Jul 29, 2008
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All of my tanks are so heavily planted that my Nitrates have a hard time getting higher than ~10. If all of my parameters are fine, is there any reason to do water changes?
 
yes, as the water does need to be 'refreshed', so to speak. it has to do with TDS (total dissolved solids) and such, but i'm no expert on any of that.

experts? where are you? lol.
 
i'm no expert either but there're still stuff that's in the water eventhough they are not toxic like ammo/nitrite/nitrate. Think of it like the air you breath, if you live in a close in room the air maybe not toxic ( airconditioned and filtered and everything) but it's so much nicer to have plain old "fresh air" once in awhile, right?
 
There's stuff which is toxic as well, but which you don't have tests for. Not to mention DOC - Dissolved Organic Compounds - hormones and suchlike.
 
yep... it may be ok to do less water changes than on some systems

but I would never go longer than 2 weeks in any of my tanks
 
There are people who do less water changes by putting in just enough nutrients for their plants or by using a method that balances slow growth with low nutrient levels (see PPS pro dosing method and Diana Walstad's el Natural method).

Personally, I'm rather loose with my dosing amount so I do weekly water changes to prevent buildups. And I like CO2 too much to use the el Natural method.
 
Nitrate, nitrite and ammonia can spike very quickly for a myriad of different reasons if the conditions are appropriate. To be on the safe side I would not go more than a week without a partial water change. I tend to overdo it and do a 10-15% water change every 2-3 days. My tank is slightly overstocked so i don't want to risk it. My tank is only 29 gallons though so doing a 5 gal. change every couple of days is not that big of a hassle.
 
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