I do 50% weekly on my heavily planted high light tank. The plants seem to pearl alot more following a water change, too.
How self-sustaining are planted tanks?
- Thread starter Easydoesit
- Start date
echoofformless
Peat Advocate & Defender Of Snails
I will often let my heavily planted twenty gallon long go for as much as a month without a water change.
The fish do just fine - the plants are the ones who benefit from the water changes more than anything. I always notice more pearling and improved growth right after a water change.
The only reason I don't do them weekly is out of being very busy with other matters, and slightly lazy.
So basically my answer is that you can go a seriously long time without water changes and possibly even never do water changes in a heavily planted tank without ill effect on your fauna. But your plants will benefit if you do.
The fish do just fine - the plants are the ones who benefit from the water changes more than anything. I always notice more pearling and improved growth right after a water change.
The only reason I don't do them weekly is out of being very busy with other matters, and slightly lazy.
So basically my answer is that you can go a seriously long time without water changes and possibly even never do water changes in a heavily planted tank without ill effect on your fauna. But your plants will benefit if you do.
I think the key is the stock. It can work but with very light stock level. I've have been reading this method lately. I have a 15g I keep outside without filter or artificial aeration. It is heavily planted and only has a few guppies. The fish are doing really well, breeding every so often and amazingly even the plants are doing well... better than in my indoor lighted, CO2, fertilised tank! I do 50% water change once a month mainly because the water gets green by then. I also feed them only a couple of days a week.
My next project will be a much bigger version (200g) shallow (45cm max) with added water circulation (a pump head). I will have rosy barbs in them. Just a few of them. The idea is to put it in a shaded area to avoid the green water, and leave it alone. Not even feeding the fish. But right now everybody else at home thinks I'm obsessed with fish after I set up my 3rd tank in 6 months! So I'll wait a bit.
My next project will be a much bigger version (200g) shallow (45cm max) with added water circulation (a pump head). I will have rosy barbs in them. Just a few of them. The idea is to put it in a shaded area to avoid the green water, and leave it alone. Not even feeding the fish. But right now everybody else at home thinks I'm obsessed with fish after I set up my 3rd tank in 6 months! So I'll wait a bit.
I do about a 20% on mine every week and call it good. I've got a higher bio-load though so it helps the plants, I've also got it pretty heavily filtered.
Que
I wish I was a fish I wish.
I read an article by Walstead about her book and how it came to be. There was a brief on what she does with planted tanks. Part of what I want to do is find out just how much bio filtraton my planted tanks handle by stepping down the amount of bio media I have in my filter. There will always be a big wad of floss in the filter because I want the suspended particles to be removed from the water but I want to see if my tanks plants and gravel can consume the ammonia/ammonium, nitrite and nitrate without any additional biomedia. Mind you these are well established tanks and I wouldn't try this with a tank thats less than 6 months cycled or a tank that is considered well stocked with fish.
Q
Q
I do a least a 50% water change every week. I also dose my tank using the Estimative Index and so my water changes are more to "reset" my tank and add micro nutrients found in the water. My tap water also has high nitrates and so the water changes also act as a method to adding nitrates to my tank for my plants. If I added exactly the amount of fertilizers my plants needed each week I would probably be more flexible with the water changes but there are things that build up in the water that we don't measure and that worries me. I don't really like the idea of just topping off.
