Tank maintanance
- Thread starter nano55
- Start date
When I had my tanks before, I changed about 20-30% on my planted community tank a week. I really don't pay attention to perameters as it was a heavily planted tank and I had to ADD Nitrate for the plants, since the fish didn't produce enough, so I did ES dosing and just did a large water change anyway.
Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! ...provided that large scale partials are done frequently.
I change around 50% weekly in all my tanks except the discus. They get two or three 70% changes per week.
Kashta brought up a good point about how we hobbyists gauge when we need to change water. We have no hobbyist test kit for non-volatile acids and other dissolved organic compounds that accumulate in the aquarium. However, since these DOC's increase along with nitrate, we use nitrate as a marker because we CAN test for it.
As stated, amount and frequency of water change depends on the individual tank. A couple of my tanks which are lightly stocked and don't get an overabundance of food could probably go two or three weeks between partials of about 25 - 30% and remain healthy. I, however, like lots of fresh water into the systems and I think my fish do too.
The one caveat I'd insert here, is that trying to get your nitrate from 40 ppm to zero in one water change means an almost 100% replacement (and this is providing that your tapwater doesn't contain nitrate). If your tank takes three or four weeks for the nitrate to reach 40ppm, a partial of enough volume to drop the nitrate down to zero could be stressful to the inhabitants at the least, devastating at the worst. In this case, three or four smaller volume partials in succession with an acclimation period between may be easier on the tank's inhabitants, IMO.
Mark
