Are Water Changes Actually Necessary?
- Thread starter kazvorpal
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This is probably the least scientific data to support water changes - but I change mine weekly. If I have to miss a week, I notice that when I do change it, the water smells as I stir up the gravel, even though nitrates remain around 10 ppm (lots o' plants).
That's enough data for me.
That's enough data for me.
Sorry folks, but I ain't wadin' through 46 pages to see what everyone else thinks. Here's what I do and why:
My tanks all get a minimum of 50% water change weekly, my discus get two to three 70-80% changes weekly. I've been doing things this way for decades and never noticed it stressing my fish to add clean water to their environment.
I see a few posts hung up on nitrate removal. What I was taught, was nitrate and other compounds, dissolved organic compounds, are naturally occurring in an aquaria and accumulate. The DOCs accumulate right along with the nitrate. Since we don't have test kits for the non-volatile acids and other DOCs that build we use nitrate as our marker. By keeping nitrates diluted below a certain number, and the ppm varies depending on the tank and the aquarist's opinion, we also keep the DOCs diluted to that same extent.
Also, I learned from RTR that the closer we can keep the tank water to our source water in TDS, ph and other factors, the less stressful it is on our fish if we have to do a large scale water change because of an emergency. Do I NEED to do a 50% partial on all my tanks weekly? Nope. My stocking densities tend to be conservative and my maintenance regimen pretty constant. It makes me feel better to do it and it seems to make my fish feel better as well. I have a yoyo loach over 22 yrs old that seems to love the influx of fresh water every week.
For the Diane Walstad proponents and the "fish spawn because they're streesed" crowd, more power to ya. NIMT
Mark
My tanks all get a minimum of 50% water change weekly, my discus get two to three 70-80% changes weekly. I've been doing things this way for decades and never noticed it stressing my fish to add clean water to their environment.
I see a few posts hung up on nitrate removal. What I was taught, was nitrate and other compounds, dissolved organic compounds, are naturally occurring in an aquaria and accumulate. The DOCs accumulate right along with the nitrate. Since we don't have test kits for the non-volatile acids and other DOCs that build we use nitrate as our marker. By keeping nitrates diluted below a certain number, and the ppm varies depending on the tank and the aquarist's opinion, we also keep the DOCs diluted to that same extent.
Also, I learned from RTR that the closer we can keep the tank water to our source water in TDS, ph and other factors, the less stressful it is on our fish if we have to do a large scale water change because of an emergency. Do I NEED to do a 50% partial on all my tanks weekly? Nope. My stocking densities tend to be conservative and my maintenance regimen pretty constant. It makes me feel better to do it and it seems to make my fish feel better as well. I have a yoyo loach over 22 yrs old that seems to love the influx of fresh water every week.
For the Diane Walstad proponents and the "fish spawn because they're streesed" crowd, more power to ya. NIMT
Mark
trigiver01,
Yeah, you're right--I was way too didactic. I just edited the article and took out most of that stuff. Either fortunately or unfortunately, opinion is one element of aquarium keeping that is probably never going to disappear. Despite this limitation, I probably could afford to be a bit less adament.
Thanks,
MOA
Yeah, you're right--I was way too didactic. I just edited the article and took out most of that stuff. Either fortunately or unfortunately, opinion is one element of aquarium keeping that is probably never going to disappear. Despite this limitation, I probably could afford to be a bit less adament.
Thanks,
MOA
I do regular water changes because that's what I was taught, that's the conventional wisdom. It makes me feel good. Does it do anything for the fish? To be honest, I don't know. It can't hurt getting rid of that crap in the gravel, but they seem kinda scared, with the giant vacuum pounding their bed as the water level decreases, and then the big incoming torrent. It causes quite a stir, but no fatalities as of yet.
I'll continue to change their water because it makes sense to me, even though I'm a little disappointed in the dearth of scientific data for doing so. It's possible that I missed it.
I'll continue to change their water because it makes sense to me, even though I'm a little disappointed in the dearth of scientific data for doing so. It's possible that I missed it.
Scientific data: Fish emit wastes and hormones and other such crap, that in a normal environment, is so incredibly dilute, it does not affect the fish. In an aquarium, this is not the case, and all those nasty tds build up over time, which causes stunting, malformed offspring, and ultimately, death.
All I know is that there is a lot of food that goes into the tank weekly, there is a lot of poop that comes out of my fish/shrimp/snails weekly, and there are a lot of plants that have dieing leaves and leaf litter all around. All of that stuff doesn't magically disappear from the tank.
Simply put, the more you put in the tank, the more you will have in the tank...
Just because you have nitrates under control, doesn't mean you have quality water.
Simply put, the more you put in the tank, the more you will have in the tank...
Just because you have nitrates under control, doesn't mean you have quality water.
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