I need help ending a debate on water changes!

[victimizati0n]

for almost 2 years i only change about 10% every 2-4 weeks and completely clean the whole tank every 6 months never vacuming, regardless of opinions posted it must work fine since i still have all 8 original fish, i change filters regularly and use plenty of ammonia rocks in it, dash of salt..i say just let nature do most of the work

why would you tear the whole tank down?

You must like having your fish suffer.

 

[doom_machine]

if you test some of your local ponds and creeks thier alot more toxins in it than in any aquarium, two creeks near me have warning signs to stay out and its full of fish and crayfish, even the pond nxt door to me is used as a dump and its full of frogs and fish.
theres no scientific statements on water changes, its all opinons and my fish eat well and seem very healthy so i doubt their suffering

 

[Cal]

i have to say i don't really do any dedicated water changes on any of my tanks as such. and all the fish i have are very heathly.

but, i do tend to sphyone out any waste from the corners, behind rocks etc..

so this does envolve replacing a small amount of water, every other week or so.

i think the main thing is that the tanks are not even nearly stocked up with fish to what they could be.

but as i don't have much time to spend cleaning, i'd rather keep less fish and have less maintence.

if i had more fish in the tanks, i think i'd probably just sphyon more water during my cleaning sessions ever other week. maybe 30%

there are so many factors i don't think there is a wright or wrong answer to the orginal question.

i think the best advice to new fish keepers is to understock, at least untill they understand all the factors envoled in the hobby

 

[victimizati0n]

if you test some of your local ponds and creeks thier alot more toxins in it than in any aquarium, two creeks near me have warning signs to stay out and its full of fish and crayfish, even the pond nxt door to me is used as a dump and its full of frogs and fish.
theres no scientific statements on water changes, its all opinons and my fish eat well and seem very healthy so i doubt their suffering

Ok, so that doesnt mean that the fish/crayfish/frogs are HEALTHY and fine.

 

[RTR]

There cannot and never will be a single water change technique which is "one-size-fits-all". Every tank is different from every other -stocking, filter upkeep, planted or not, depth and particle size of substrate in FO tanks, feeding (both the nature of the food and the materials used).

But certain generalities can be given - that the water should be kept as close as possible to the source water, and that checked and confirmed by testing is likely the biggest one. Certain assumptions are built in to even that statement - that appropriate neutralization of utility-added disinfectants is always done, that the water parameters (temp., pH, TDS -total dissolved solids, mineral content - are similar to the tank water. It has to be assumed that the hobbyist knows how to do a water change and how to maintain biofilters without major disturbance. If those assumptions are met, water changes do not adversely affect the biology of the tank, ever, even at large scale. The effects are all positive. If those assumptions are not met, there may well be negative results, because the hobbyist did not know how to do what needed doing, or that the replacement water and the tank water were not similar, or that disinfectants were present at damaging levels, or temperature differential was too great, etc.

All that said, but I never specified what I do myself - I had to re-read this old thread to figure it out. I do 25-50% partials weekly on all my tanks, depending on the bioload in the tank and the level of plant supplements used.

 

[doom_machine]

There cannot and never will be a single water change technique which is "one-size-fits-all". Every tank is different from every other .

i agree, just look at the list i quickly came up with regarding guru's recommendations on changes, they vary somewhat wildly and that list goes on and on, from many specs ive seen here at this particular forum many of you overstock anyway

i just have 6 small and 2 medium (danios,tetras and angel) in a 55 which is nice cuz it makes for alot less maintanence but would like to find a better way to keep my sand and glass looking brand new, just siphoning white sand and wiping glass causing streaks just doesnt really work that great
but thats another topic

As an example we recommend a 5 gallon change on a 55g tank preferably weekly.
http://www.pets-warehouse.com/waterchg.htm

A common place to start is to do a 10% water change every two weeks
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/aquariums/14119

As a rule of thumb most aquarists change a third of the aquarium water every three weeks
http://www.petngarden.com/fish/fish5.php

recommend doing weekly 10-15% water change for the life of your aquarium.
http://honors.montana.edu/~weif/firsttank/waterchange.phtml

Change 25% of your water monthly
www.petsuppliesplus.com/ news/10steps_healthyaquarium.html

15 small to medium fish which are fed correctly will require a thermally/chemically balanced 20% water change every 3 - 4 weeks
www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/bulletin.htm

 

[NikkO]

I do a 40-50% change on my 240 from straight tap water every week. I've been doing them since itll help my discus grow faster, and yes I've really noticed a difference from 20-30% changes to 40-50% changes.

 

[cyberbeer65]

I do 50% water changes Bi-Weekly,and I also do a complete gravel vac.

 

[tuvok]

I have not really fallen into what I could call a real routine. I used to go for 25% water changes once a week using a python on a 38g tank. While I was doing that I noticed my cordoras showing some signs of irritation when the tank was refilled with warm water from the tap. I have since taken to refilling the tank with cold water and raising the temperature with boiled cold water. This takes a bit longer than the python method but I see less irritation exhibited by the fish. I think I'll be able to keep up 25% water changes, but it will require a bit more prep. When I had a 5g tank with 2 platys I was doing 50 % water changes weekly, the warm water did not seem to irritate the platys.

 

[Reason]

I do 2 50% changes a week (on my 2 days off). I have a friend a few apartments down who is absolutely appalled by this. He keeps a SW tank that is lucky if it gets a 25% change every other month.