Are Water Changes Actually Necessary?

Do you change your water?

  • No

    Votes: 3 0.7%

  • Not unless conditions require it (like high nitrates)

    Votes: 60 13.8%

  • Yes, I do it on a specific timeline (daily, weekly, whatever)

    Votes: 358 82.3%

  • Undecided / Other

    Votes: 14 3.2%
  • Total voters
    435
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Like the tags in this thread. Very rellevant. Anywho, I'd rather my fish be slightly stressed for 15 minutes that stressed constantly, and much worse, by soaking in their own wastes. Not so say you should change half your water every day though. You should have a predetermined plan based on the fish to water ratio with the filtration as a variable.
 
fherglmx said:
hi

i just finish reading one of my tropical fish hobbyist magazines were there he explains why here its

http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/200911/?pg=89&pm=2&u1=friend

short story is the only way of removing the accumulated pollution in the aquarium is to physically removed it.
i hope every ones reads this article it validates what i done from the beginning of my love affair with fishes wich is almost 90% water changes every week.if you're changing water why only 20% any way i hope every one read this great article bye
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That article is crap, all it has is fluff and no science whatsoever. It's no better than a newbie post, but with pages of "dissolved crud"... The only thing the author did was writing 3 pages of number calculation for water change, he must think all us are freaking idiots and cant do simple fifth grade math.

Also 90% water change is absolutely discouraged unless you use well water or know for a fact your tap water params kh/gh/ph and temp is very close to the tank water, even then it still does more harm than good. Otherwise you are basically putting the fish through acclimation using the instant dump method every week when you do a 90% water change.

Try to comprehend that concept, just because you are lucky enough to have similar water params between tap and tank water, and your 90% weekly water change didnt kill your fish, it doesnt mean it's right for anyone else.

Like i said earlier, if you have a non-planted tank, 20% a week is more than enough for an average bioload, with a heavily planted tank much less.
 
new tag alert...

"i need no pants, no soap no problem, pwnt, and... wait for it... where'd he go?"
 
wow, where'd everyone go? To check to see if any of the tags are really needed.



1 vs 1000, deep sand beds, electroly, epic fail, i <3 water change, i like it dirty!, i need no pants, is soap really needed, living in a outhouse, magical thinking > wc, nitrates, no showers needed, no soap no problem, pwnt, water, water changes, where'd he go?
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Originally Posted by Slappy McFish: "Indeed. If you were to scale an aquarium w/fish to the Earth's size, just imagine how ridiculously gargantuan in size the fish would be."

Another way to look at it; to scale our aquarium to the water volume a fish has is nature would be like having a single neon in a 150G tank.
 
VFC said:
Originally Posted by Slappy McFish: "Indeed. If you were to scale an aquarium w/fish to the Earth's size, just imagine how ridiculously gargantuan in size the fish would be."

Another way to look at it; to scale our aquarium to the water volume a fish has is nature would be like having a single neon in a 150G tank.
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well at least he would have room to grow and also would take a long time to pollute the water enough for a water change
 
During a recent blackout I did 3 water changes of 30% PER DAY filling tanks that dropped down to 70F with 83F water.... slowly.... and I experienced no stress, as far as I could tell, with my fish. After 3 days they acted normally and I didn't lose a single fish. This is also all I could do at the time to aerate the water.

My point here is that water changes aren't as stressful to the fish as some may think.

I do NOT recommend a 13 degree difference in water temp during a water change unless you are trying to save the lives of your fish. I DO recommend doing drastic water changes in any situation TO SAVE your pets.

Q
 
ldsdbomber said:
What are you saying? that you think the ratio of fish to water is higher in the oceans than in an aquarium? are you having a laugh?
Click to expand...

No, I'm saying the opposite. We stock our tanks to be a lot more population dense than most natural bodies of water.
 
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