I Will Never Do A Water Change

[simonas]

Eeeew, I change mine at least twice a week! imagine sleeping in the same covers for years!

memories of Uni come flooding back!!! I might go and get a pot noodle for old times sake!!

 

[MermaidMel]

Eeeew, I change mine at least twice a week! imagine sleeping in the same covers for years!

Erm...

LMAO!!!

 

[Helen G]

Eeeew, I change mine at least twice a week! imagine sleeping in the same covers for years!

Erm...

LMAO!!!

Ok, now I sound like a prozzie!

No I just like clean sheets (especially when I sleep next to a gorilla! aka himself)

 

[beany_bot]

Ok im getting the general sentiment here, but surely if my fish are all healthy and well then whats the problem?

Ok then, how often (min) should i be doing changes and how much?


Current tank details in my sig.

p.s. eh bedsheets..................... deffinately not twice a week! lets just say that.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Unless you are doing some serious planting in this tank, the nitrate and other waste products will slowly build to a toxic level. Then your fish will die. Simple as that.

Please get a nitrate test and tell us what it says.

 

[fishyfeet]

actually i do know someone whose tank is so well planted that when he does a water change his nitrates go up, also in my shrimp breeding tank my nitrates are down to about 15 which is unheard off as the tank water has 20 in it. i dont change water in that tank either as firstly there is no fish, apart from 2 small ottos, and secondly the shrimp larvae keep getting sucked up, plus with less nitrates i dont think i need too, only thing is the substrate looks a bit manky. di

 

[emmsy]

Unless you are doing some serious planting in this tank, the nitrate and other waste products will slowly build to a toxic level. Then your fish will die. Simple as that.

Please get a nitrate test and tell us what it says.

Good idea, I would love to know the readings on this

Emma

 

[beany_bot]

Unless you are doing some serious planting in this tank, the nitrate and other waste products will slowly build to a toxic level. Then your fish will die. Simple as that.

Please get a nitrate test and tell us what it says.

So how come this has never happened? that they die? they dont. I plant fairly heavily but i wouldnt say extreme planting.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

Eeeew, I change mine at least twice a week! imagine sleeping in the same covers for years!

Erm...

LMAO!!!

Ok, now I sound like a prozzie!

No I just like clean sheets (especially when I sleep next to a gorilla! aka himself)

alot of the fish are fairly hardy fish u have so maybe thats why ur not seeing problems and have adapted to bad conditions

water changes either 10% weekly or 20-30% fornightly i would say making sure adding chlorine and chloramine remover,, like prime or stress coat

 

[emmsy]

Unless you are doing some serious planting in this tank, the nitrate and other waste products will slowly build to a toxic level. Then your fish will die. Simple as that.

Please get a nitrate test and tell us what it says.

So how come this has never happened? that they die? they dont. I plant fairly heavily but i wouldnt say extreme planting.

Something must be cancelling it out. I know some hotels that have aquariums and never do a water change, but these are usually huge tanks with only 3/4 fish in

Emma

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Fishyfeet, that is because the plants are taking in more nitrate than is being produced. I assume that the friend is also injecting CO2 and doing ferts? Plants can cause the nitrates to lower.

Beany_bot, I would just do 10% weekly to start off. The fish may be shocked at a suddenly lower level of nitrate.

 

[beany_bot]

hahaha "extreme planting" sounds like a wacky sport. Ok well Im off to lfs later to get a new light unit (as im sure many of you know my last one almost cost me my house!!) anyway so i will get a tester thing then.

 

[Helen G]

I am still very intregued by the fact he has never done a water change and hardly lost any fish. I would like to know your levels before you do a water change, for curiosity sake.

 

[backtotropical]

So how come this has never happened? that they die? they dont.

Hi Beany,

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who keep fish in the same manner you do. Your fish may appear helathy, but because they aren't dead doesn't mean they are fine.

Your nitrate will most likely be sky high, and maybe ammonia and nitrite too depending on how heavily stocked your tank is. Your pH will have crashed, probably down to 5.0 or so and therefore your filter bacteria won't be doing their job properly, however, because your pH is so low, most of your total ammonia content will be ammonium which is less toxic.

As well as the by-products of the nitrogen cycle building up in your tank, there will be things like cigarette smoke if you smoke, deoderant, air freshener and many other things which float around your house. Over time these can build to dangerous levels in your tank too, but your fish will get used to them, hence you thinking they are ok.

Heres an experiment for you. If you've never done a water change on your tank, i challenge you to add a new fish and keep it alive without water changes. I bet you cant. The reason why is that your fish have become accustoned to your terrible water conditions and so appear ok, but a new fish which isn't used to it should die almost instantly because of the huge change in water parameters. This is well explained along with other aspects of this style of fishkeeping in the link below. It is commonly called 'Old Tank Syndrome'. I'm sure you will be able to identify with most of the symptoms.

Please have a read and educate yourself regarding the benefits of water changes.

[URL="http/www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html"]http/www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html[/URL]

One thing i would like to stress is that if you do decide to start doing water changes (which i hope you do for the sake of your fish), you must start with very small water changes. The reason is because the water in your tank will have a radically different make up from the water from your tap. If you perform large water changes, these rapid changes will kill your fish. Your pH will rise, making ammonia more toxic, etc etc. You need to biuld up the water changes very slowly. I advise to start with maybe a 5% change, and then another 2 days later. Do this for a few weeks and then increase to 10 % changes.

Large and frequent water changes are of great benefit in a fish tank, but only when the water from the tap roughly matches the parameters in the tank. Yours won't.

Hope this helps you, and i hope you join the world of the water changes.

I am still very intregued by the fact he has never done a water change and hardly lost any fish. I would like to know your levels before you do a water change, for curiosity sake.

Hi Helen,

A read through my last post and the linked article will explain all.

Cheers

BTT

 

[Helen G]

Wow a good read, although I don't agree with adding a fish to see if it dies (I'm sure you wouldn't condone! )