changing heathy water?

[Lauren]

I just tested my water... zero nitrates and zero ammonia. It's healthy as can be. I tested it because I was thinking about getting a few more rasboras this afternoon, and I wanted to make sure my tank was accepting the fish from last week well enough. I didn't expect results this good, but there they are. Do you even need to do a water change when your aquarium has no nitrates or ammonia?

 

[RTR]

No established tank should ever show any ammonia or nitrites. That has nothing whatsoever to do with tank's need for regular water changes. Folks with fully established tanks commonly use nitrates to monitor the effectiveness of their changes, but that is only one item that we can easily measure, not the whole picture.

 

[ewok]

something that isn't commonly mentioned in conjunction with the nitrogen cycle is the fact that it tends to acidify your water over time. basically as RTR mentioned, there's a whole lot going on in there that the basic tests won't neccesarily "cover".

not to mention, would you want to swim in the sewer?

most fish come from an environment where there is either a HUGE dilution. (ie: 1 fish per how many hundreds of gallons?) or an environment where there could be 100% water change every 10 minutes or less....... our best efforts can barely mimic these conditions. the closer we can, the healthier the fish will be.

 

[Lauren]

alright, thanks. I did a 1/4th change last night and successfully added four more rasboras. The tank chemistry is still fine, and the new fish are doing great. I know, by the rules of stocking, I probably should have gotten only two. But my fish store is a 20 minute drive away, and 2 dollars both way in tolls, so I'm not exactly a fan of super slow stocking.