Can You Do Too Many Water Changes?

[Lizzie71]

Following on from previous posts, I have a 34 litre tank with 3 small platys in it. I thought it was cycled as I had some mature media from another tank (donated by a member here, thank you very much) but I am having issues as the nitrite is consistently high and therefore the tank is clearly not fully cycled.

I have been changing water every day, usually around 50% water change (as that's how much my bucket holds!) but yesterday I did 75% in the morning and 50% in the evening. I was wondering whether I could actually be changing the water too often? The nitrites are lower after a change (obviously) but never reach zero.

Haven't tested yet today or done a change yet (I'm at work allegedly ) but I'm planning another 50% change this evening.

Fish still seem happy enough but obviously the sooner the nitrite is gone, the better.

 

[The-Wolf]

yes you can change too much.
the downside of changing so much water so often may be that the pH goes up or down.

there is so much to more water than just H2O and most have some correlation to each other,
for a beginners guide to what is in water click the link in my sig.

 

[Lizzie71]

The ph has been around 7 to 7.5 throughout so no huge changes. Just off to do some testing now!

 

[Lizzie71]

Stats are:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 12.5
PH 8 (where did that come from? It has never been that high before).

Temperature is around 27 degrees, fish are still happy enough.

Should I do another 50% water change tonight?

 

[The-Wolf]

personally I'd leave it until tomorrow.
test before you change to see if the pH has dropped,
if it has I'm guessing the kh is low due to all the changes already made

 

[Lizzie71]

Today's stats are:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 1.5
PH 8
Nitrate 25

Temperature is still around 27 degrees.

Just done another 50% water change. Things don't seem to be improving, what am I doing wrong?

 

[littlest]

How much are you feeding>? It's wise to feed lightly while cycling with fish. Also make sure all uneaten fish food is removed, any dying/dead plants etc.

Other than that, you probably aren't doing anything wrong. Cycling with fish is tough and they can produce waste amazingly fast.

 

[Lizzie71]

Thanks for that. I've cut down the food to one small pinch once a day - there isn't any uneaten, they are greedy little beasts!

I'll give the plants a good prune tonight and see where we've got to on the stats. I've nearly used a whole bottle of Aqua Plus already with all these water changes

 

[vinylman]

It won't hurt to feed them every other day at the moment. Now you know why dechlorinators come in large bottles!!. Seriously, the bigger bottle you buy, the more economical it is. Dechlorinator is something you'll always need, so buy the biggest you can.

 

[Tommy Gun]

I'll give the plants a good prune tonight and see where we've got to on the stats

To the best of my understanding...which, admittedly, is not a huge amount when applied to FW plants...the pH in your tank can and will change depending on the time of day because of the plants effects (e.g. Co2 usage) and this is not going to cause osmotic problems with your fish unless the Kh, Gh, and/or TDS is also changing - point being, don't become overly shocked or worried about pH changes.

I am also under the impression that your plants should be helping you out considerably by using up the various forms of nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite, nitrates), but apparently I am wrong or your tank is an exception for some reason.

You may find some benifit in adding a minimal amount of salt (soduim chloride, as opposed to just any old salt) to this tank since it would help reduce the ability of nitrites to affect your fishes' blood. I have read/heard via quite a few resources, some of which I refer to as being very trustworthy, that you can add small amounts of salt to a planted tank under most circumstances....and in one case, I have run into a semi-well known hobbyist who has used salt in his tanks which held some of the more sensitive or 'tricky' plants. (I am sure others might disagree...but that is to be expected in this hobby, right?)

Out of curiousity...are you using test strips or the test tube type test kits? If test strips, are you sure you have stored them properly in order to ensure they have retained their viability as a somewhat accurate resource? If you are not sure, I suggest trying to find a second opinion (e.g. perhaps your LFS will also test the water for you) so that you have something to compare your results to -- just be sure to get actual numbers from an LFS, if you go that route, rather than a 'good', 'ok', 'bad' type test result since they tests themselves aren't really saying that.

It is true though that you can change too much water, although I know of at least one person who purpotedly changes huge amounts of water weekly (e.g. 80%) in order to better control the nutrients in the water with little to no detriment to the fish. The more problematic situation would be in changing huge amounts of water in a tank which has been neglected to some degree over a longer periond of time since the fish would, more or less, have become acclimated to the less-ideal water quality.

It won't hurt to feed them every other day at the moment

I agree...or even once every third day to once a week in certain situations (high nitrites being one of them). Don't be 'fooled' by your fish looking as though they are starving since they really can survive without eating as much as we feed them (albeit not ideally)...when they immediately come to the water's surface and seeem to be going nuts when you approach the tank, they are probably less hungry than you might think -- this is, more or less, a conditioned response...much like Pavlov's Dog.