Are Water Changes Actually Necessary?

[J double R]

I agree WC's are needed but at what percentage and what interval. I really dislike it when it is said that 50% WC's have to be done every week because everybodies tank is not the same as everyone elses tank.

I here it is needed because my fish are happy when I do them, can somebody tell me how you can tell if a fish is HAPPY.

I also here my fish grow faster when I do them but what is the growth rate in the wild, are we forceing faster growth than nature does.

I here my fish spawn more when I do the 50% WC's but can someone tell me how often fish spawn in nature, are we forceing them to spawn more often.

I wont say this is true for everybody but I know my brother does about 15% monthly WC's on his tank and his Fronts are 15 years old and going strong.

I take out my trash bin every day... Does that mean I'm forcing my house to smell good? that must not be natural. You cannot, with water changes alone, force a fish to grow FASTER or spawn MORE often than in the wild, and if you do, it's because your tank (though this is highly unlikely) would have better water than the particular water they are in. This doesnt take into account that some fish spawn due to rainy seasons, and water changes can simulate rainy weather due to water parameter changes.

providing clean and ideal water parameters isnt forcing anything but good care on your fish.

as for WC percentages.. Of course it varies. You have tank volume vs stock vs bioload vs filtration vs planted or not, etc. so many variables, that nobody can make an accurate graph or gauge to do water changes. It's just easier (and foolproof, no less) to recommend 50% or more each week, or to go by measurable nitrates (if your tank doesnt need to be dosed with them due to plant life).

 

[GoldLenny]

I agree WC's are needed but at what percentage and what interval. I really dislike it when it is said that 50% WC's have to be done every week because everybodies tank is not the same as everyone elses tank.

I here it is needed because my fish are happy when I do them, can somebody tell me how you can tell if a fish is HAPPY.

I also here my fish grow faster when I do them but what is the growth rate in the wild, are we forceing faster growth than nature does.

I here my fish spawn more when I do the 50% WC's but can someone tell me how often fish spawn in nature, are we forceing them to spawn more often.

I wont say this is true for everybody but I know my brother does about 15% monthly WC's on his tank and his Fronts are 15 years old and going strong.

God's or Nature's aquariums are usually never stocked at a high level compared to most of our tanks. Also, He has snow, rain, streams, tides, currents, etc. that are constantly doing partial to full water changes on His aquariums. He's been doing it for millions of years with a pretty good success rate so He must be doing it right! ;-)

The most likely reason your fish are spawning when you do a PWC is due to too much of a change in water temperature. In the wild, the spring usually brings on warming air temperatures which melts the snow and the melting snow adds a rush of cooler water into many fish's normal water temperature and this triggers spawning. Also, April Shower's, also usually brings on a change in water chemistry and temperature which triggers spawning. If you DON'T want to trigger spawning in your tanks, then make sure the incoming fresh water is close in temperature to your tank's water so it doesn't change your tank's temperature by more than 1F. This means, with a 25% PWC, your incoming water can be up to 4F lower and that would only lower the tanks temp by 1F. With a 50% PWC, the incoming water can be up to 2F lower.

EDIT - I should add that some fish will be prompted into spawning by this inflow of fresh cooler water whereas other fish will be prompted into spawning by other things... like feeding live foods, which I compare to when the heavy spring rains wash a lot of bugs into their waters in the wild so after the fish get a lot of fresh yummy bugs, they're ready for a little lovin! ;-)

The reason your fish grow faster is because you are removing growth inhibiting hormones from their tank when you remove the old dirty water. As far as whether this should be done or not, lets compare it to humans. Would you underfeed your child because you don't want them to grow as much as possible? (and I don't mean in width or girth, I mean in height) Of course not! You would want to feed your newborn baby or child as much as they should get so they grow at an optimal rate without getting fat. The same should be done for our fish, IMO. There is a LOT of bad info given out where folks say you should only feed your fish once or twice a day and then fast them from time to time and while this is OK for full grown adults, it should not be done with fry or juvi fish. Just like you would never intentionally underfeed or fast your own baby or child.

This bad info is probably perpetuated because it makes it easier on the fish keeper so they don't have to clean up the poop as much or as often... or do PWC"s as often but that would be comparable to not feeding a newborn child as often because the parent doesn't want to have to change diapers as often.... and if you tried that excuse, child protection services would probably take your child away.

Newborn fry should be fed every few hours.... just like a newborn baby. Juvi fish should be fed several times a day.... just like growing kids.
Adults can cut back to a couple meals a day so they don't get fat.... just like us.. oops.. I meant them, not us! LOL

I could go on and on but I think you get the point.

 

[J double R]

is there an echo in here or something?

 

[GoldLenny]

is there an echo in here or something?

LOL>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>LOL
LOL<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<LOL

Maybe! ;-)

We were both replying at the same time. You obviously type faster... or I bloviated too much. LOL

 

[J double R]

bloviated? My brain is not in gear for that kind of vocabulary today.

 

[archer772]

I never said mine grow faster with many large WC's J double R and GoldLenny what I said is thats what is being said. I still didnt here anything about growth rates in nature or spawning rates as this is what many people are claiming.

I have 3 mated pairs of angels and they are spawning every 14-16 days and are 10 months old and the males are very close to 4 inche bodies and the females are 3+ inches.

I do about 10-15% WC's every 2-3 weeks on all my tanks with a plus or minus 2 degree temp difference and with tanks any where from 40 to 120 gallons I dont believe that would make much of a difference. I have been told that I have to do 50% WC's every week in order to get good growth rates and to promote spwaning. I think some of this is being said because it works for some but it could be because of there setups.

 

[J double R]

What are your measurable nitrates in between water changes? after?

 

[archer772]

What are your measurable nitrates in between water changes? after?

Zero

 

[GoldLenny]

I never said mine grow faster with many large WC's J double R and GoldLenny what I said is thats what is being said. I still didnt here anything about growth rates in nature or spawning rates as this is what many people are claiming. .

OK. I'll answer paragraph by paragraph to make sure I cover it all... but if you read my above LONG reply, I did discuss spawning in nature. As far as spawning rates, livebearers spawn all the time.... usually regardless of water parameters. Certainly, giving birth and raising fry (for parents that do) is hard on fish so I wouldn't push fish to the extremes but as long as a fish keeper isn't doing things to push fish to extremes, the fish should be fine. This is why we try to match water temperatures and keep other parameters like pH, GH and KH at levels so that a PWC doesn't change their water too much, too fast.... so we don't artificially create spring every week when we do tank maintenance. As far as growth rates, this has been proven scientifically and by hobbyists... doing frequent partial water changes, either weekly, twice a week, daily or hourly, will allow your fish to grow at their maximum natural rate, instead of being stunted by the dirty, polluted tank water with excessive levels of hormones in the water. You can't make the fish grow faster than their natural growth rate unless you are adding some kind of growth hormone or steroid to the tank. You can stunt their growth by underfeeding/overstocking and then not removing the hormones and other pollutants from their dirty tanks.

I have 3 mated pairs of angels and they are spawning every 14-16 days and are 10 months old and the males are very close to 4 inche bodies and the females are 3+ inches. .

If they are spawning naturally, then they are probably doing OK. If they are spawning due to your water changes causing them to think it's spring every two weeks, then it may not be OK. As you may or may not know, Angelfish should grow to 6"+ long and 8"+ tall and are BIG fish so they need lots of water volume... at least 35G per fish for long term housing. Breeders will put a mated pair in that size tank but they usually don't stay in that size tank all of their lives... and this is usually once they are full sized adults. Once a fish has reached full size, it won't get stunted, so keeping them in a slightly undersized tank is OK as long as there is proper maintenance being done and the fish has enough swimming room. It's the fry and juvis that absolutely MUST Have adequate sized tanks and water changes and nutrition to allow them to grow to full size so they aren't permanently stunted.

I do about 10-15% WC's every 2-3 weeks on all my tanks with a plus or minus 2 degree temp difference and with tanks any where from 40 to 120 gallons I dont believe that would make much of a difference. I have been told that I have to do 50% WC's every week in order to get good growth rates and to promote spwaning. I think some of this is being said because it works for some but it could be because of there setups.

As I and others have said, how much water you need to change out every week and how much tank maintenance is needed is dependent on the overall ecology and bioload of the tank. For example, if you have a single neon tetra in your 120G tank, you could go months without doing a PWC or filter maintenance without a problem. However, if you have two full sized Oscars being fed lots of protein rich foods every day, you would have to do weekly or more frequent tank and filter maintenance to keep their tank from becoming a polluted cess pool. While no two tanks are alike, most newbie fish keepers, unfortunately, overstock and under maintain their tanks which is why more experienced fish keepers strive so hard to try and get them to fix things before they are broken. Some of them hang on to the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" slogan but once a fish gets stunted, you can't fix it and stunted fish have a much higher rate of illness and a much shorter life span than *normal* sized fish. Most folks have no clue about how long their fish should live which is why I've worked for many years on my blog article about fish lifespans. People think goldfish can live in bowls and only live a few months or years where goldfish should grow to be BIG fish and live 20-40 years or more. Most people think a Betta can live in a small vase and only lives a year or two... but they should be in larger tanks and can live 8-10 years. I could go on and on.

Folks have to decide if they want to listen when someone who is more experienced and knowledgeable tells them that 1+1=2. It always does and always has and it doesn't matter if someone else, somewhere, feels sorry for a them and says 1+1 could equal something other than 2 and gives them partial credit if they answered 3. I regularly see "what works for you may not work for me" type posts. While there are some variables involved in the hobby, as explained above, fish keeping is not an art, it's a science and there are scientific facts that affect almost every phase of our hobby.... not feelings. Folks can feel whatever they want but the scientific facts are exactly that... facts!

 

[GoldLenny]

Zero

This is why the nitrate test, while a good guideline, isn't the ONLY thing that we should base our water changing schedule on. I do doubt that your nitrates are zero though. If you have lots of live plants, they would be suffering and if you don't have live plants, then you don't have a *normal* aquarium and you must be using advanced filtration methods. You should disclose these FACTS instead of wasting our time.

You know... I'm going to start looking at the stats on members before answering questions. You have over 1,000 posts so you're not likely a newbie and not likely a dummie so I'll presume you're just jerking people off with your posts. Quit being a troll!