Test Kits

[Flunter]

Hello all,
First of all I want to congratulate you all on a superb forum , I seem to be able to find an answer to all my questions apart from this one.

I am on my second tank in 6 years (the ex wife took a dislike to the first which i had for approx 8 months)

My present tank is a Jewel 80 which is also 8 months old. Both tanks were cycled with fish and never with the use of a test kit.

I do a weekly 25% water change and have never had any problems with dying fish or illnesses.

I have no idea whatsoever what the ammonia, nitrite ot nitrate levels might be.

My fish stock is as follows:

2 Clown Loach
1 Silver Shark
6 Neon Tetra
3 Sailfin Mollies
1 Sailfin Plec
1 Golden Gourami
1 Dwarf Gourami
1 Siamese Fighter

Before I get a wrist slapping, I am on the look out for a larger tank to accomodate the Loaches, Shark and Plec as they grow.

Now to my question:

Why is so much emphasis put on the quality of the water when, should there be a problem, your answer is always "do a water change"? If your changing the water regularly, should this not prevent any problems arrising?

Keep up the good work peeps.

 

[Don155]

Why is so much emphasis put on the quality of the water when, should there be a problem, your answer is always "do a water change"? If your changing the water regularly, should this not prevent any problems arrising?

Keep up the good work peeps.

Short answer: Yes, UNLESS you forget to dechlorinate the water you added and thereby cause a problem BECAUSE of doing a water change. Chlorine can completely destroy your bio-filtration. Water quality problems can also occur when adding too many new fish at one time or accidental overfeeding by a pet sitter.

Ammonia, Nitrite and even Nitrates are in essence pollution in the water. If left to build up indefinitely they will definitely and quickly cause fish health problems. Water quality is emphasized so much (especially to newbies) because bad or polluted water is the number one cause of diseased and dead fish! (How would you like to swim in a lake of your own pee!)

HTH

Don T.

 

[sparky_555]

But if you do regular water changes using dechlorinator, there cant be anything wrong?

 

[Don155]

Doing regular water changes will minimize or prevent most water quality problems. But you can't count on nothing ever going wrong with the water just because you're changing it every week.

Normally, you can't go wrong doing regular water changes.

However, even something as simple as a sudden rainstorm can change your water supply pH by a point or two. Say that happens and you are further unlucky in that you needed to do a 75% water change that day. All of a sudden your fish are acting stressed out and three of them die for no apparent reason... Since you haven't tested the water supply in ages, you now have no idea what suddenly killed your fish. A habit of testing your supply and tank water at least monthly will help you avoid this scenario and save your fish. Its the small detail that you don't pay attention to that will come back to bite you eventually.

City suppliers can sometimes have a nasty habit of suddenly increasing the chlorine amount in your water rendering the normal amount of dechlorinator useless. Its called "shocking" the system and they do it to avoid bacteria blooms that they detect at certain times of the year. Its the same thing that homeowners do to their swimming pools occasionally.

Again testing your supply regularly can, over time, tell you when to expect changes and how stable your supply really is. If you don't test, then you simply don't know. What you don't know can kill your fish!

 

[mark.w.jones]

Not many people want to do water changes daily though to maintain good water quality in an overstocked or under cleaned tank. Much easier and more convenient to clean tank / water change on a weekly basis. Sensitive / weaker fish especially can die very quickly if water quailty deteriorates even a small amount. This can happen very quickly especially as mentioned above in an over stocked or undercleaned tank.

 

[dreamsphere]

My personal opinion is that you can create a too 'perfect' environment. If your water is too clean and something does get into the water, your fish are too used to this 'perfection' they start to drop like flies.

I can understand test kits for the use of highly specialised breeds of fish that do require a somewhat perfect environment.

But a weekly water change is obviously working for you so I wouldn't go getting yourself a kit and messing things up in there.

Fish need to be exposed to bacteria, bit like kids.

 

[Don155]

Daily partial water changes are too much for almost anybody, me included... I'd rather do a weekly or bi-weekly PWC. Anywhere from weekly at the minimum interval to monthly at the absolute maximum interval is best for most tanks.

The next question is how much water to change out at any one time. Answers can vary anywhere from 10% to 75% at a time. My recommendation: only as much as is needed. Every tank is different due to stocking levels and types of filtering or fish contained, so you really have to determine the schedule and amounts for yourself to achieve a good balance between water quality and amount of work you want to do. I agree with the above post too... get an enviornment TOO perfect and fish will drop like flies at every little change in conditions.

 

[Flunter]

Thanks everyone, as ever, your knowledge is unsurmountable.