Incorrect Advice? A little confused...

Yes I use Prime. I always thought that more water changes were for the better (was going to use discus as an example).

I thought it didn't sound right either, so I figured I'd come here where I trust the people the most. :)
 
this is exactly why i dont have little tanks any change in ammonia or other water params will be amplified since you dont have the volume to dilute it. whoever told you not to do water changes simply doesnt know what hes talking about, i do 50% changes on my 55 and 75 gallon tanks every week and my fish are healthy and happy only thing i have diff is clean tap water i have no clorine so i dont use any type of conditioner just straight water out of the tap
 
Ok..can someone please read through this and if what they are saying is true, explain it to me? I'm just confused why doing 100% water changes is supposed to be less stressful than 50%. And if you have any responses to the sick betta question, I would appreciate the help.

Help me please.
 
I read the response and that person is clueless. And a Moderator no less!
100% percent water changes are not less stressfull than 50%.
Just go with the good advice others posted on this thread.
 
gmh said:
. . .
100% percent water changes are not less stressfull than 50%. . . . .
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Personally I don't feel 100% is a great idea as you tend to lose too much of your established Nitrates.and you risk the possibility of creating algae bloom or an ammonia spike. That does not mean it will happen, only that the chances of it happening are significantly greater. It all goes back to how fast your water changes and that should dictate the frequency and amount required to maintain a healthy tank.

We have expressed our opinions based on general guidelines that have proven to work in "most" cases. This is why I suggested charting you water so you will know how much is needed and how often for your particular set-up,
 
Well, a 100% water change would involve removing the fish every time a water change is done (not a good thing). Also, if you were to wait an entire month and then change the water completely, the potential chemistry differences between the old water and the new could also be stressful to the fish. There's a chance the filter bacteria would suffer, as well. It's just common sense to me that weekly 50% water changes would keep pollutants down and maintain a consistently uniform water chemistry than that of monthly 100% water changes.
 
You are reading advice on a betta forum. Betta breeders, in general, do not cycle their tanks because they can't afford to have 500 filters running on 500 one gallon tanks that house all of their fry for grow out. What they do is 100% water changes to reset the tank to tap water parameters and remove the buildup of ammonia. For growout on females, they really don't need a water change in the short time they keep their females so again they think in terms that match what they are doing. They set up a tank that is big enough to hold the females once they are at sale size and let them get to that size. Because they set up fresh each time, they don't really need to change water to keep the quality good. A brand new 100% fill every couple of months works. If you had 500 bottles or goldfish bowls sitting around, you would also do that rather than fiddle with all the tiny filters.
The point is that a betta breeder is not trying to keep any fish in a single tank for a long time and probably has never needed to worry about water changes for long term health. Significant pollutant buildups in the breeders situation may happen but only start to be a problem about the time the fish are shipped out.
For people like us that will keep the same fish in the same tank full of water for years on end, there is no way that a filter is a substitute for water changes and I'm sorry a betta breeder doesn't recognize that.
 
Thanks everyone! Since the person giving the advice is a moderator I thought I was completely missing something that would make what they are saying make sense. Especially when another post agreed. I'll stick with my current water change schedule for now.

I know how my 28 gallon's water changes on a weekly basis, and I will have to chart my little 5 gallon tanks as well as mentioned by excuzzzeme.

Slappy*McFish said:
Well, a 100% water change would involve removing the fish every time a water change is done (not a good thing). Also, if you were to wait an entire month and then change the water completely, the potential chemistry differences between the old water and the new could also be stressful to the fish. There's a chance the filter bacteria would suffer, as well. It's just common sense to me that weekly 50% water changes would keep pollutants down and maintain a consistently uniform water chemistry than that of monthly 100% water changes.
Click to expand...

This is exactly my point! I thought I was going crazy when they didn't understand why I was questioning it and said it would kill my fish to keep my current routine.

Everything OldMan47 says makes sense too.

Thanks for easing my stress levels about this situation everyone! I really appreciate it. :)
 
The best advice that I've gotten yet was to visit this site.

I've got 14 tanks now and still growing. Had to resort to spread sheet. This has been invaluable in managing multiple tanks since, if and when things are added and something goes awry, I've got an easy way to "go back" and "uninstall", sorta like working with computer hardware when you don't KYAFAHITW.

Now I'm trying to include all sorts of esoteric info. to compare filtration 'cuz the tanks all have similar plantings and substrates but my filter collection is a complete mishmosh. The other problem I have now is just running out of electricity to power everything and I'd like to try to pare down to just the most efficient systems.

Wet / Dry, Emperor 400's/280's, HOT Magnum, Penguin 350's/170's/125's, Aqua Clear 30/70/110, Tetra Whisper 30/40/60, Tetra 30-60's & 5/15's, a Topfin 30, ATI sponge filters (Pond/doubles/pre-filters) a couple of under gravels, carbon and ammo reactors and a bunch of power heads (most w/ ATI or Aquaclear pre-filters).

Our fish are mainly koi, gold fish, plecos, loaches, algae eaters and corys. Just startin' to add snails.

As you can see, we've pretty much cornered the market on pooh generators, (I'm tryin' to figure out how to collect it for use in the spring on my veggie garden) so like it or not water changes are a way of life here. I do two 20% changes each week on each tank 40 gal. and up, three a week on anything smaller.

Don't know how much less I could get away with, but I don't want to risk it. Mind you I also run uber filtration on each tank and only clean / change media on one at a time in any given tank.

I've been able to "seed" numerous tanks with the bacteria from the established tanks. I liken it to collecting yeast when brewing beer.

Now if I can just engineer a way to pipe the CO2 from my fermentors into my aquariums, my plants will go nuts, I have an excuse to brew more beer, and ...where does this madness end? :eek3::)
 
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