I'm always seeing people posting about a weekly water change of 25-50%. What exactly do you do for a water change? Is it okay to replace your tank water with tap water?
"Water Changes"
- Thread starter Rudmin
- Start date
Water Change - Gravel vaccum debris/fish waste off the bottom of your tank and replace the removed water with dechlorinated tap water that matches your tanks running temperature. 25 - 50% weekly is pretty standard unless your tank needs special care (fry,sensitive fish,medicating tank,overfeeding,cycling,etc.)
Yup, what Reddog said. I do a 10-20% water change in my tanks once a week and a 50% water change once a month.
One of the main reasons for doing the weekly water changes in a cycled tank is to remove the nitrates which build up and which are harmful to the fish in large quantities. Nitrates are produced as the fish waste and leftover foods are consumed/broken down by the benficial bacteria. If you haven't already done so, I recommend you read up on "the cycle". Check out the following thread.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81388
As for using tap water: That's what most of us use. As the others have stated, make sure it's treated with a dechlorinator such as Prime.
I do about 20 - 25% changes weekly.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81388
As for using tap water: That's what most of us use. As the others have stated, make sure it's treated with a dechlorinator such as Prime.
I do about 20 - 25% changes weekly.
