Can you do too many water changes?

[Elisabeth83]

Well now that I have sand in my tank I can see all the poo my pleco and swordtails produce and to my surprise it is sooo much I knew plecos pooped a lot but the swordtails do as well I don't like looking at it so I've been siphoning out about 10% of water each day. I'm just wondering are the daily water changes bad for the fish? good for the fish? does it matter?

I have 3 other tanks and 1 is about the same size as the "poopville tank" and in that tank I have corys and guppys in it and I hardly see much poo in that tank. I clean it once a week. They are so nice and clean compared

 

[yhbae]

If you can actually keep up with 10% water change daily (and not have any species that get ultra-stressed out during water change), then great! continue! IMO, there's no problem with this at all...

 

[Discomafia]

Yea, 10% daily is already very good. Your 26 gal. doesn't look overstocked so you could also do 20% 3 times a week or something, just be sure to watch out for nasty ammonia... How long has your tank been set up for?

 

[Elisabeth83]

Hi, thanks for the replies

My 26 gallon has been set up for about 5-6 months now. No it isn't overstocked it used to be but I've moved fish out to other tanks as well as taken some fish to my lfs and some have died from diseases due to overstocking and overfeeding I think now though I am finally past the newbie stage and I feel like I know what I am doing

Well I've only been doing the 10% water changes for about a week now since I switched to sand...so not sure how long it'll last I'll probably start doing it 3 times a week instead like you suggested

 

[Teelie]

You can over do water changes but you're far from that level. 10% a day is not much and probably more beneficial than detrimental, it just has to be a pain to do every day.

 

[Bignose]

Why do you say that you can overdo water changes? So long as you condition the water with an appropriate dechlorinator, match the temp, hardness, and pH of the new water to the tank water, you let the water sit so that you dont get gas bubbles from pressurized gas-saturated water and the CO2 leaves, and as mentioned above, you add it gently so as not to stress out the tank inhabitants, how can you over do a water change?

I can see if you have an UGF and if you dig in the gravel every day you might take up too much of your good bacteria, but if you have a HOT filter and you are growing said bacteria in the filter media, so long as you have not disrupted the filter media, I don't see anything wrong with very frequent water changes. Lets face it, in nature, the river/stream/lake is constantly having water changes -- so from a fishes point of view, there is nothing wrong with frequent water changes so long as the water is prepared.

 

[smithrc]

if your levels are ok... get one of those battery operated vacumes.

we use one 2-3 times a week to suck up poop in our sand tanks. they water is returned to the tank and its a lot easier than doing lots of water changes.

 

[turbotiber]

Why do you say that you can overdo water changes? So long as you condition the water with an appropriate dechlorinator, match the temp, hardness, and pH of the new water to the tank water, you let the water sit so that you dont get gas bubbles from pressurized gas-saturated water and the CO2 leaves, and as mentioned above, you add it gently so as not to stress out the tank inhabitants, how can you over do a water change?

Hey, sorry, don't mean to hijack, ) buuuuuuuuuut...

I have a question on what you mentioned of the gas saturated water. When I do my water changes, I don't let it sit (don't have a big enough container to actually age the water) and after I add the new water all these little bubbles appear in the bowl, on the sides of the glass, on the plants, on my bettas. After a day they disappear. Is that bad? And what is this "gas bubbles from pressurized gas-saturated water" actually about?

 

[Bignose]

Gas bubbles (and thereby gas bubble disease) is caused by gas supersaturation of the water, mainly nitrogen gas and carbon dioxide. Nitrogen gas is toxic to fish at aorund 104%, for example. It occurs mainly when cool, gas-saturated water is heated quickly. The indicators are the presence of bubbles on the tank glass or if you stick your fingers in the water. The big problem is that the gas bubbles can form on the gill tissues of the fish -- greatly reducing their effectiveness.

Usually no other signs other than lethargy may show, but basically the effect of the supersaturation in the water is similar to The Bends in humans.

To prevent it, let the water sit out for a time, if you agitate and/or aerate it, the gases will fairly quickly equilibrate. It is often not too bad of an idea to let the water sit out and agitate it anyway, since the dissolved CO2 may significantly lower the pH from the equilibrated pH.

So again, it is all about matching the tank water with the new water when doing water changes.

 

[turbotiber]

YIKES!!!!!

Thank you so much for explaining that. I'm a diver and I would hate to get the bends... I don't want my fishies to get it either! Thank you, you probably just helped add more time to my fishies life!