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

[Rusty_Shackleford]

If we get abducted by aliens and frozen in time, to be revived 50 years from now, I'll wager that if there's still a fish hobby, and people still discuss somewhere like that, part of the discussion will be about the need or not for water changes.

Some of us have already been probed.

 

[f_luxus]

f-luxus, What nitrate level do you allow in your tank before you intervene?

5mg/l

 

[gwand]

That is amazing. I need your recipe. All my tanks have substrate plants and aquaponic plants that line the rim of my tanks. In between weekly water changes my nitrate concentration is about 20-30 ppm. My tanks are lightly stocked.

 

[f_luxus]

the only debate should be about the frequency of water changes and that is different for every aquarium.

Exactly. I do it, whenever i notice some negative signs, like cyano bacteria spots, the wrong kind of detritus etc.

pathogens

Don't you think, that a bigger problem is to many fish in the wrong water parameters.
Stress lowers the immune system.

The most pathogens have exponential growing rates. Low pH and UVC technology (if needed) is far more effective imho.

As well, my beloved rainforest from the tap water does cause problems if it's neglected. It seems to cause problems after 2 or 3 weeks, with fish deaths.

Sounds like a instable tank for me.

 

[f_luxus]

nitrate concentration is about 20-30 ppm

Thats usually no problem.
What's your KH?

 

[gwand]

Thats usually no problem.
What's your KH?

KH ~125 ppm

 

[f_luxus]

KH ~125 ppm

Do you use CO2?

 

[gwand]

Do you use CO2?

No

 

[f_luxus]

No

If you have capacity for a experiment, you could use a paffrath bowl and bio CO2.
I glued a Chihiros Holder with silicone on a pet bowl and drilled a 6mm hole for 4/6mm hose

 

[f_luxus]

Thats a German Ram breeding Tank in the making. At the moment i let it like this for 4-6 weeks befor i fill up the tank. In this time i do not make any water changes. The low level helps the plants to root in the soil.
The most aquarium plants are more swamp plants then real aquatic plants.

 

[anewbie]

It occurred to me that there is no relationship between the need to do weekly water changes and being lazy. You can of course be lazy but still do weekly water changes; and you can of course not be lazy but not do weekly water changes.

As for frequently of water changes there is many factors from the type of fish to the density of the population in the aquarium. After all a solo beta in a 600 gallon aquarium will likely not need to the same frequency of water changes as 100 cardinals stuffed into a 29 gallon aquarium. So there is simply no fixed period of time required - some fishes will do quite well with yearly water changes and others might require hourly water changes.

So rather than debate what is required to maintain a habitat. Why not do it the scientific way - lets start with we want to maintain natural conditions for a fish - then hire a chemist do do hourly test of the water for all parameters (including hormones) and see how it changes over some time - lets say 365 days which will result in only 8760 tests. Of course during this period the fishes might grow or change their chemical output as they age and of course while the conditions might drift from natural environment without ill effect so i guess you will also have to hire a biologist to dissect your fish and do biological analysis of the health on an hourly basis - of course this means you will need many aquariums and many replacement fishes - so after a few years you can report back your findings.

 

[f_luxus]

we want to maintain natural conditions

 

[GaryE]

It occurred to me that there is no relationship between the need to do weekly water changes and being lazy. You can of course be lazy but still do weekly water changes; and you can of course not be lazy but not do weekly water changes.

Most laziness in the aquarium hobby is not in what we do. It's between the ears. It's in what we don't try to learn. We can be highly energetic people and not be able to maintain an aquarium very well, if we don't put a part of our brains onto the job of learning how to do things as best we can.

@f_luxus is a different kind of aquarist than I am. I have great respect for this poster's meticulous approach, as I begin to see how he or she works at their craft. @f_luxus , you are more of a technical aquarist than I am. You have a small number of aquariums, elegantly crafted. I have a large number, some of which are unstable as I seek no balance in them. I count on water changing and time to transform them into what I want them to be.

I use no CO2, and no UV. I've used both in the past, and if I were to fall back to two or three showtanks, I would resurrect those systems. My major fascination is in learning how to breed uncommon fish, and how to keep fish new in the hobby. That has brought me around to an ever larger picture - once you begin to look at the natural history of the fish in question, then the environment that created it, and the long history of how it evolved to thrive in that environment becomes of great interest. My primary interest is the fish. The aquarium is a means to an end.

A lot of people who become involved in the hobby are aquarium first people - aquascapers and community tank keepers. I am trying to meet that approach halfway. Some of my fish come from fast water with no plants. In 12 days of fishing in Gabon, I didn't see enough aquatic plants to fill one single aquascaped 100 litre aquarium, and yet many of the fish I keep originate in that region. I plan to go to West Africa this winter to fish for killifish, Cichlids, Characins and small barbs, and I will learn a lot about each species and its habitat. Will I encounter heavy aquatic plant growth? I might, from what I've been reading. If I do, the fish I bring back will be in heavily planted tanks.

After Gabon, I've done a lot of 'work' on getting terrestrial plants to develop root systems along the backs of my tanks, as root systems in the water were where my fish were found. These aren't the prettiest tanks for visitors, but my fishroom isn't often visited by serious aquarists who would care about such things. My pleasure is in watching fish behaviour, so an attempt to make the artificial environment of the tank allow that is what I try for.

From reading people on this forum, I have spent more time on plants recently (the past 10 years or so). I regularly check my city's water analyses, taken from a pumping station up the road and posted every 3 months. They are very stable, and provide me with the information that lets me choose which tetras, killies, and Cichlids to try to breed. With aggressive water changing (I am surrounded by lakes and don't have any water shortages) I don't have to spend time on testing my tanks. I maintain them as the water comes from the tap. That's very different from how someone who needs an RO system to have similar water has to work.

I'll wager you look at your plants, and know their needs very well. I look at my cardinals in my showtank, and enjoy the fact that many were bred here. I see the need to set up another breeding tank to double the size of my shoal. That tank is sparsely populated. Alas, they live with African, North American and Asian aquatic plants, which might upset an aquarium first purist.

 

[Magnum Man]

so, maybe lazy didn't belong in the title... this has been a great discussion... again, I'm not advocating no water changes, I'm set up to do 1/3 changes easily, of RO water... I'm just incredibly busy... at a dead run each day. right now, from the time my feet hit the floor, at sun rise, until a half hour or hour before I hit the sheets again ( when I attempt to put my feet up for a while )... I have not done a water change now for 4 weeks... with the furnace running the house is dry, and tank top offs have increased... I suspect the use of RO water for the last 6-9 months, and the amount of plants has saved the hobby for me, as I've not lost a fish in the last month , and my tanks look good ( I had non fertile acara eggs just the other day, and everyone appears normal, no diminishing of color, or change in behavior ) I have a pile of hobby related components I wanted to install, including several new lights, that I also have not had the time to play with... I was counting on Thanksgiving giving me maybe a little extra time to do basics, but my out of state brother wants us to come down, and bring my very elderly mother for dinner, this will at best, be a full day in the car, one day there, and a full day in the car back again the next day... I'm still working out the logistics of the outside animal chores, and several days of consistent below freezing temps has been a challenge, that I was not ready for...

after the 1st of the year, my workload should change significantly, so as long as I still have fish by then, I can get back to my normal routine... I've been feeding every other or every third day, I suspect that may also be helping, but my tanks still appear stable... and again no fish loss, or significant changes noticed

 

[anewbie]

Hum. You know that in nature co2 is never injected into the aquarium and frequently the 'bug' count is a bit higher than we would like in our homes.