Confused!!

[Rbishop]

Nitrifying bacteria rests in your filters and substrate. Also in the water. If you remove all of the water, there is a chance that it will drastically damage or even kill off this bacteria. Adding completely new water after emptying the tank will force whatever is left from your filters and substrate to re-cycle the new water. Causing the cloudy bacteria bloom, ammonia - nitrite - nitrate fiasco all over again.

Which is why weekly partial water changes are the perfect method of maintaining a healthy equilibrium.

So, basically, the people on the other thread were only right in regard to the most drastic example of a "water-change", meaning a COMPLETE water change, rather than the correct partial water change.

The ammonia-nitrite-nitrate thing you talk about is continuosly going on. It never stops.

 

[liv2padl]

Also in the water. If you remove all of the water, there is a chance that it will drastically damage or even kill off this bacteria. Adding completely new water after emptying the tank will force whatever is left from your filters and substrate to re-cycle the new water. Causing the cloudy bacteria bloom, ammonia - nitrite - nitrate fiasco all over again.

not true at all. probably 95 percent of the benificial bacteria are located in the filter. you could change 100 percent of the water with no impact on the biological filter whatever.

 

[Mahorela]

The ammonia-nitrite-nitrate thing you talk about is continuosly going on. It never stops.

Never said it did.

liv2padl,

I'm referring to the cases when people are told to completely empty out their tanks, leaving the filters off for extended periods of time, scrubbing the gravel clean, etc. Hence, my mentioning that it is a *drastic example* and *there is a chance* that the bacteria that survives will have to work overload to cycle the new water, the sterilized gravel, etc. Completely uprooting and changing a stable environment doesn't go smoothly.

If I had a dime for every time someone confused "water change" with dumping everything, cleaning everything, basically erasing all progress, and then wondering why their water is cloudy again and their fishs' gills are red and dying, I'd be quite wealthy.

A coworker of mine is going through just that. Healthy tank, emptied it all out, the filters were empty and off for a couple of hours, and voila, he's having to cycle again.

I'm not disputing anything that anyone is saying. Perhaps I should have been more clear. But I can see where the OP might have been confused.