Water Changes?

[p0tluck]

sorry to the op if i posted something that distracted others from your post was not my intention.

 

[tackful]

For me, not a problem. Willing to follow wherever it leads.

 

[ProjectMaro]

I don't do water changes except for cleaning every one to three months. I just add water that's evaporated. This is in a non planted tank. In my opinion, most people over feed. I feed once or twice a week. Fish in the wild may go weeks not feeding. I realize this can be very species specific. But the extra load from waste and non eaten food is what's causing bad water parems in a correctly stocked tank. All this is just my opinion and experience of course. Only science I have is a gold fish I had as a kid for 15 years and the current pictus I have had for 11 years. Both very Hardy fish. I could have just gotten very strong fish. I will say, minus some glass algae, my water is always crystal clear.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Mario, that's true that a lot of the bio load we add to our tanks is from the food we drop in for our fish. Feed light and your nitrate creep will be lower. Problem is, you nitrate is still going to creep up every day and continue to accumulate. It doesn't go away on it's own. The problem with just adding what evaporates is, compounds, minerals, etc.. are left behind when the water evaporates and will continue to build up. This will eventually shift your GH,Kh and other things to the point your pH will crash and kill your fish. As said way above, this is never a one size fits all scenario. Your water will deteriorate at a different rate then everyone else, same with the fish you keep. Water clarity means very little for water quality.

 

[ProjectMaro]

In my case, it seems the water replaced during cleanings is enough. I only mention clarity because with bacteria or bloom spikes, the water will appear not clear.

Has there ever been a study on how much mineral is captured by filtration? Every month I'm tossing and replacing a piece of filtration. Could that not be housing the minerals left over from evaporation? Certainly must contain some percentage of it.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Filter pads or sponges aren't going to trap minerals and other components. You'd need some type of reverse osmosis system for that.

 

[Rob Bredin]

Actually the high pH level can control with canister filter or protein skimmer. But canister filter control all ammonia, nitrate, nitrite.

 

[nycman]

My tanks are in CT...the water is 7.0 and low in TDS. I use tap in my planted tank to get the minerals and phosphates. Polish the water with Seachem Purigen. But still do 25% per week to get in habit of supporting Discus.