Tank Maintenance Schedule

[onebto]

I think 50% is the max recommended in one go, so the stats stay similar enough not to stress the fish. Your filter should be processing their 'dirt' so they really would be fine with fewer changes.
I do a 50% change once a week. My tanks are small, 50% is about a bucketful, so not much more effort than half a bucketful
onebto, try using pond dechlor or seachem prime. They're about the same price as aquarium dechlor, do the same job, but you need about 1/10 the amount

Thanks for the tip ellena i will

 

[waterdrop]

I think the recommendation to not go over a 50% water change in one go is something one hears with regard to a tank where the maintenance history is unknown or known to be infrequent. Technically there would be nothing wrong with changing 80% daily if one used good technique. Of course that would be unneeded and impractical in a normal circumstance.

The issues of concern about shock to fish mostly come around abrupt changes in mineral content (which is sometimes inferred from pH change.) If a fishkeeper has good weekly or fortnightly water changing habits, there is usually little concern that larger percentage changes would bring about too much mineral content change. Likewise, temperature change has to be pretty extreme with most species to do any harm and usually will be rather enjoyed by the fish. Rough hand matching usually puts you with a 1C/2F degree change which would not only be safe to the fish but probably boringly so.

I agree about Prime and the pond dechlors. If you're not strapped for cash, Prime is very concentrated and extremely good at all the other extra functions beyond just the dechlor function. For mature tanks beyond their first year, pond dechlors should be fine and the issue would just be looking at all the labels on all the brands and doing the calcs to really find out which ones might save you money beyond Prime or the other pond types.

I think really good substrate-cleaning water changing maintenance habits are one of the great secrets to good tanks and regardless of which habit you were to start out with, weekly or fortnightly, one thing you'll notice is that none of the experienced members would be likely to recommend -less- maintenance than the suggestions you're hearing in this thread. One of the few problems you might run in to with larger, more frequent water changes is that of CO2 fluctuation. If you have live plants but don't run a pressurized CO2 system to feed carbon to the plants then large water changes will cause the CO2 to fluctuate significantly. This can tend to stimulate growth of BBA (black brush algae) and some other algae types, under the right conditions. Its just another of the little trade-offs one might enounter as one adjusts maintenance habits over time.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[natalie265]

I think doing a water change every other week is reasonable as long as you aren't over stocked and have decent filtration. I'd up it to 50% however. I think that many of us on here are very enthusiastic about our tanks and enjoy doing weekly water changes (myself included), but i do think that if this sounds like a lot of work to you, you would be fine to go every other week.

I agree w/the previous posts that there is no reason to change your filter media unless it is falling apart.

and btw, i usually feed my fish twice daily, but you DO have to take extra care not to over feed.

 

[supermonkey]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I will make some changes to my schedule and repost it soon.

Out of interest, is it best to do a water change before adding fish or after?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I will make some changes to my schedule and repost it soon.

Out of interest, is it best to do a water change before adding fish or after?

Before, IMO.

If you put new fish in the tank, and then do the water change; well that new fish is already stressed out from the transport, and a water change, depending on what size, will bring some more stress to the new fish. Even though smaller water changes are probably not that stressful at all, but to the new fish who is already stressed out, it would be best, IMO, not to put mores stress on him.

So, do the water change before you put new fish in, that way the fish will have ample time to become stress free and become acquainted with the new tank.

-FHM

 

[OldMan47]

Do the water change first. There is no reason to acclimate a fish to your tank conditions and then turn right around and change them. One change is enough for a single day unless there is something wrong with the tank's water quality. In that case, you don't go get new fish.

 

[supermonkey]

Hi again everyone.

Just thinking about new fish, if I got them on a wednesday would I still be ok to do my weekly water change on the saturday?

Also, the mention of carbon pads has got me thinking. Is this a necessity for removing meds? I had a quick look on my bottle of myxazin and it says to remove carbon before, but doesn't say it must be replaced after. I have some Seachem Prime which I would've thought would help condition the water after a treatment course & Seachem Stability mentions something about using with meds.

Sorry to make a post so long, but here's my updated schedule! Hope I've not forgotten anything!

Daily - Feed twice (enough food for a few mins), - Check health, - Lights on and off
Weekly - Don't feed on sunday. Water change (Switch off heater for 30 mins, switch off filter, scrape algae from front, syphon off debris from gravel along with 20-25% of water, replace with conditioned water, switch heater & filter back on)
Monthly - Rinse debris from filter media in old tank water. Check condition in case replacements are needed.
3 Monthly - Clean Filter body, Impeller & Heater.

Main change is weekly water changes where possible. The water here is soft and I have a few plants so hopefully not the end of the world if it doesn't always happen. Also using a U3 rather than U2 filter based on these forums.