50% water changes

[Country joe]

I have purchased aquascaper plant fertiliser and watched george Farmer's you tube videos on this fertiliser, he advises on using this product daily not weekly. And to do weekly water changes of 50%.
As well as fish one of my tanks contains Amano shrimp and i have read if you want to kill them do 50% water changes. Would this be correct?

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. I've kept shrimp in the past and found even traces of nitrogen in the form of nitrates to be fatal. So, weekly water changes of 50 percent is the minimum and I performed the larger water changes from the beginning. When it comes to changing the tank water, more is always better. Personally, I don't believe you can add any nitrogen in the form of plant fertilizers to a tank that contains shrimp. I've kept Anacharis, Hornwort, Anubias, Water Sprite, Java Fern and Pennywort in my tanks. These plants didn't require special lighting or added fertilizer of any kind and grew well in water with just the dissolved fertilizer the fish provided. Every tank is a bit different, so you may have a different experience.

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[CaptainBarnicles7]

I'm a huge fan of massive water changes, 50% every week is so beneficial in my opinion, not only for the overall health of my fish but I find my plants do well too. I've had Amano shrimp in almost all my tanks and they've been through an awful lot, my oldest shrimp is 8 years old I haven't bought any new shrimp in about 5 years and I haven't lost any in that time...so I'd argue they were quite hardy and will love the clean water!

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello again. Large, frequent water changes of at least half the tank water, performed weekly remove most of the dissolved nitrogen from the fish waste material and the toxins left in the tank are diluted to a safe level in all the new, treated tap water. A fish tank is nothing more than a toilet with plants living in it. If I was doing all my "business" in the water I was living in, I'd definitely want the toilet to be be flushed regularly!

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[CassCats10 7]

Im also in the 50%+ water change club. I do 75% typically, sometimes more on my tanks too. As long as it is routine and not a sudden change, it's healthy. Can't go wrong with fresh water. But, to suddenly do a big change on a tank that may not have had water changed like that in a very long time can be a shock.

 

[bgarthe33 51]

Ok, since this is a diverse world of fish keeping we live in, I will politely state a differing opinion and remain a 40-50% WC advocate. This is, of course, for healthy running stable tanks, not emergencies, medication removals, or the like.
While WCs are indeed of paramount importance, equally important is water stability. If one is 100% positive that the 75% or more water being replaced is exactly exactly the same, then such large water changes can work. The reason I like that 40% or so WC is that the majority of the water remains stable (as it was prior to WC day) and, should there be a temperature, pH, GH, KH, chlorine/chloramine, or other elemental change, the direct impact on the fish will be lessened because of the bulk of the water remaining would dilute/lessen the impact on fish.
What can be done instead is more frequent less than or equal to 50% WCs. Imo, a healthy tank with fine water parameters and healthy fish all cruising along nicely does not need a “water world turnover”, but rather a nice cleansing of the water by removing nearly half and putting fresher aged/heated/temp matched/identical water in. Again, should an emergency of sorts pop up, then one has to act in huge ways. That is one reason I keep 45g of identical “ready to go” water on hand 24/7 and such water being ready for the next WC.
This is just my strategy and my intent is to show that opinions of WC %s vary by different successful fish keepers……like many facets of this hobby.

 

[CassCats10 7]

End of the day, just change the water, even a smaller percentage on a consistent basis is better than none at all or infrequent.

I do love that this hobby does have room for variation in terms of styles and care

 

[TwoTankAmin27]

I have amanos and Neocaridina davidi both the red and the blue varieties. I have had amanos in planted tanks for many years I have also been doing 50%+ weekly water changes in all my tanks tanks for 25+ years.

I only have shrimps in planted tanks and these all get fertilizers and Flourish Excel after I do the refill. I rarely lose shrimp or fish from anything besides old age.

I have never heard of a fish or shrimp dying because their water was to clean. By this I mean it contains only things which are not harmful or fatal to the inhabitants. I am fortunate to have decent water from a private well. I do not use dechlor.

 

[TwoTankAmin27]

I have amanos and Neocaridina davidi both the red and the blue varieties. I have had amanos in planted tanks for many yearsand have been reeding the Neos for a few years now. I have also been doing 50%+ weekly water changes in all my tanks tanks for 25+ years.

I only have shrimps in planted tanks and these all get fertilizers and Flourish Excel after I do the refill. I rarely lose shrimp or fish from anything besides old age.

I have never heard of a fish or shrimp dying because their water was to clean. By this I mean it contains only things which are not harmful or fatal to the inhabitants. I am fortunate to have decent water from a private well. I do not use dechlor.

 

[Essjay32 147]

I'm another shrimp keeper who does regular large water changes. I've had Neocaridina's for around 13 years with no issues. I even add plant fertiliser without killing shrimps.

watched george Farmer's you tube videos on this fertiliser, he advises on using this product daily not weekly

Don't forget George Farmer has heavily planted tanks; he has far more plants than most of us have so he needs more fertiliser than those of us with less heavily planted tanks.

 

[GaryE]

With any video or any presentation of a personal method, you have to learn the background behind the advice. Sometimes I answer a question here too quickly, and forget that my water may be unlike the poster's water. My planting may follow different plans (or random choices). The plants I have, the filters I have - they may affect things differently.

The fish I like may have radically different needs. My tank sizes affect things. My tapwater....

The human brain seeks patterns, and we like a good rule. We share our rules freely, and they may well be based on experience. But if we can't step back and consider the differences in the world, our advice can become bad directions. Overall experience, yes, but individual experiences may differ and if we don't get that, we can lead each other astray.

We get posters who say "I live in Smalltown and what's the best local store?" We don't know what country, what continent, which of thousands of small towns is involved, but to that person, their town is the universe. I try to look at new info I find here and online, and compare the deliverer of the news to myself. What do we have in common as fishkeepers, and where do we differ? With fish, you can compare the natural habitat with the aquarium habitat you can offer.

We know we need water changes for a basic aquarium. We need certain stocking levels, water temperatures and feeding regimes. My friend Joe has beautiful aquascaped showtanks which he constantly redesigns, and he goes through a lot of ferts. I have low light, easy plants and only ever use root tabs. Joe has one goal, I have another. George Farmer may have tanks with radically different needs compared to @Country joe .

If we over generalize on details, we fail.

 

[seangee7]

Ok, since this is a diverse world of fish keeping we live in, I will politely state a differing opinion and remain a 40-50% WC advocate.

As you say we all differ. I change 50-75% for exactly the same reason. That way I never have to worry about the tank drifting away from what I put in. The soft water tanks also have 0 KH - so that's a good way to keep pH constant (IMO).

 

[Mazain]

I have purchased aquascaper plant fertiliser and watched george Farmer's you tube videos on this fertiliser, he advises on using this product daily not weekly. And to do weekly water changes of 50%.
As well as fish one of my tanks contains Amano shrimp and i have read if you want to kill them do 50% water changes. Would this be correct?

From my experience plants in high tech environments gets adapted the routine how you fert them with 50% weekly WC.
If its a low tech tank your plants and fish are gona depend on the 2 to 3 days or weekly WC routine. This variable can fluctuate from the plants and fish you have.
Once you got a established eco-system that works, I would still do a 50% WC but not a weekly regular if my algae is kept in checked.
I got neo-caradina shrimps and they molt less and do fine with a 50% weekly WC.

 

[10 Tanks]

More on the subject of water changes, if I may. Math is always reliable. So, if you do the math when it comes to removing and replacing the tank water, you'll soon see that anything less than a 50 percent water change, still leaves most of the dissolved fish waste material in the tank. That waste material will increase before the next water change. If your fish appear healthy and they get a third of the tank water removed and replaced weekly, consider how much healthier they could be if you gradually worked up to the point you changed out half or even more of the water every week.

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[Boundava9]

I will do a minimum of 60%, prefer 75-80%when I had my 75 gallon the albino aneus Cories would always breed for me when I did a 80% WC and replaced it with slightly cooler water, replicating a rainstorm.

I have never had fish die due to too large of a WC.
I have Lake Michigan water for all but a couple years of keeping fish.
When I had municipal well water I had nothing but problems, fish had so many issues like rot and fungus.