lazy... or is there really a need, to do it weekly... water change schedule...

[Rusty_Shackleford]

I stick to a schedule of weekly partial water changes. Every Monday, at least a 50% change minimum.

I learned early on in fish keeping you're far more likely to change water if you get on a schedule as opposed to relying on water testing or some sort of imaginary ability to determine when water needs to be changed. When you're on a routine you are far more likely to stick with it and not procrastinate. When you're on a schedule you know exactly when you're last water change was. If you can't remember the exact day of your last water change off the top of your head, it's probably time for a water change.

Also a routine of regulat partial water changes gives you peace of mind for exactly the reasons @GaryE just mentioned. Life happens. It just happened to me. My 81 year old MIL fell and broke her hip on Thursday. I've been making daily trips to the hospital, 1 hour each way, for a few days. But I know because I've kept up with weekly water changes, if I have to be a day or two, or three, late on the next water change, I can do that and everything will be just fine.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

This topic seems to come up a couple times a year or so. Here's my take on it: Almost all natural water bodies, other than stagnant puddles and elephant tracks that @GaryE's killis live in, are frequently replenished by rain, snow melt, and groundwater springs. Even desert rivers are replenished from these things somewhere upstream. So even with low stocking and good nitrate levels, it is still natural to replenish the old water with fresh. This seems to be an area where science is still catching up with common sense, as we gradually learn about all of the pheromones, allelochemicals, and other voc's that plants and animals release into their environment to communicate and defend themselves. Keeping those things diluted just seems like common sense.

Also, Walstad insists that changing the water replenishes the trace minerals that plants need to grow. This would seem especially important with softwater tanks.

Can it work without water changes? Sure. Missing one now and then probably isn't going to hurt anything. During the covid lockdown a few years ago, my 150g, which lives at a local business, went around three or four months without any maintenance except occasional feeding. When I finally made it back to the office, the plants were lush and the fish looked vibrant. But I wonder how bad the water smelled to them, and I wonder if some subsequent losses didn't have something to do with that lapse.

 

[GaryE]

I'm lucky (in this discussion) in that I have directly seen both types of aquarium maintenance.

Between around 1972 and 1980, I never changed water. Not even once. I had a 20 gallon long with Xiphophorus variatus, all under one inch long. I was a kid, at the start and figured I'd lucked into a dwarf strain. Short lived, too. Females dropped one set of babies and died, but I had a steady supply.

Conventional wisdom even made me bottle up the water and bring it with me when we moved. It was 'old water', and that was a valued thing. The older aquarists who advised me would have considered me to be an idiot for changing water as I do now. How could I ever achieve a balanced aquarium? If you changed things, you destroyed the balance!

You had to have plants, and I did. I had more than just variatus - I regularly overstocked the tank with many different things. I think I was ready for annual killifish, because all fish were so short lived, except for one Cory that lasted 12 years in that yellowish soup. I liked going to aquarium stores, and met the same people over and over again, as we all bought new fish on a regular basis.

I saw a whole other side of things when I began reading about water changes, and started doing them. I've no intention of going backwards.

 

[f_luxus]

I only speak a little German, so most of that post I'll have to go translate

Sorry, usually my browser does the translation automatically. I write short answers myself in English, but if it's a complicated topic and many words i use the machine
Now i changed it to English, can you see it?

 

[Magnum Man]

perfect, thank you