Are Water Changes Actually Necessary?

[aj2494]

:banhim:

 

[Fishfriend1]

hey anyone know who niko is? ive seen a ton of avatars and signatures that say "its all niko's fault" why?

 

[pinkertd]

250 replies in just over 25 hours, and 3,622 views to the thread! Way to go AC!:laugh:

 

[xsdbs]

#7 in GFW :thumbsup:

ok, I give. What's #7 in GFW?

 

[Fishfriend1]

7th largest thread in General Fresh Water of Aquaria Central

 

[pinkertd]

hey at say "its all niko's fault" why?

mg: Could this all be Niko's fault? <<tiptoes quietly away.....:dance:>>

 

[Dwarf Puffers]

mg: Could this all be Niko's fault? <<tiptoes quietly away.....:dance:>>

It must be! Niko hired the :troll:! Or worse... He IS the :troll:!

 

[Barnacle]

Back on topic or I'll have you all flogged! I'm sure there's still some good discussion to be had here. The OP is asking for readings and whatnot as proof, so maybe someone that is really adamant about their water changes has some sort of a log with all the standard readings? This may be something no one really does at home but I know plenty of people here work with fish for a living so maybe they have readings like that from their work?

Here's the OP' opening statement for review of what he wanted:

I just engaged in a wordy debate with a few guys who were insisting that frequent, regular water changes are absolutely necessary...yet could not explain why.

They could not give any specifics on what was being altered by the water change, that could not be done in some other fashion.

There was some vague talk of "replenishing and renewing" and "electrolytes", but of course you don't "replenish" anything with a generic water change. The only thing you're guaranteed to be adding is H2O, which does not age...and "electrolytes" sounds like a question of specific gravity, to be taken care of with sea salt.

The actual reason people used to change water regularly was that they were killing their fish with poorly-managed Under-Gravel Filters, and were fighting the nitrate buildup they were causing.

But that's no longer the case, thanks to deep sand beds, open-celled ceramic foam, planted tanks, et cetera. There are many ways to remove nitrates so efficiently that they can become TOO low.

So what reason is left?

What is the reason to do a water change?

And I mean some measurable, explainable reason. Something you can choose to do under specific conditions. Giving a timespan for doing them without reason is meaningless.

Since water changes place stress on fish and ecosystem, by altering the tank's self-imposed balance of micro-organism density, reducing the amount of nutrients, et cetera, water changes were never anything better than a necessary evil.

Are they STILL a necessary evil, and if so, why?

 

[CrimsonBlush]

I do water changes for the reason that the levels will get high if I don't. So, I was between the middle two answers. It's gotta be Niko's fault.

 

[12 Volt Man]

Anyone else notice the OP hasn't posted since page 19 and we're now nearly page 26? Troooooll

not only that, its clear from the OP's posts that they honestly do not have a clear understanding of what they are trying to argue.

for example, when asked about other methods to keep nitrates down, they started talking about 'deep sand beds, protein skimmers, plenums etc' most of which are not applicable in a normal freshwater setup.

when faced with the issues of hormone buildup and other organic dissolved solids that can lower the pH to lethal levels, they just brushed it off. I do not believe that they even considered anything other than nitrates when they started this thread. no doubt they had not even heard of 'old tank syndrome' before this thread. sorry, but based on their posts, thats what it looks like.

as has been stated many times over, its a lot more complicated than simply keeping the nitrates down.

as far as ecosystems go, the closest we can get as hobbyists is a properly maintained reef tank, with a deep sand bed.

the deep sand bed can reduce nitrates back to nitrite (giving off nitrogen gas in the process, the protein skimmer helps to remove organics before they can be broken down into nitrates, the live rock acts as a great substrate for nitrifying bacteria to live on etc etc etc.


but that is not what this thread is about.