Too Frequent Water Changes?

[dixaisy930]

Since my tank is at full capacity (and maybe then some), I was considering doing 5-10% partial water changes every two or three days. So, I'm wondering...will this be over-doing it?

 

[gadazobe]

IMO you can never do too many water changes, especially if your tank is full to capacity. I don't think that you're overdoing it at all.

 

[dixaisy930]

Should I be doing it more?

 

[Oldman]

10% every 3 days should be fine, when you say your tank is full ..... how full, is full,?

 

[CFC]

If i understand right you have 7 fish in a 10g (3 platies 3 corys and a d.puffer)?Shouldn't be a problem,moniter water conditions to make sure alls ok and change 20% every week,as long as you stick with the fish you have the filter should be able to cope.

 

[Doohic722]

with the water changes and/or adding fish, I keep hearing you should add aquaSafe? something like that? is this neccessary?

thanks

 

[Macquatic]

This is a water conditioning product and Yes, it should be used at every water change (or an equivalant). It has chemicals that neutralize chlorine and I think other products that protects the slime coat on fish. Have a look at the label on the bottle. Mac.

 

[Doohic722]

thanks Mac

 

[dixaisy930]

All my readings have been fine so far, and everyone is acting fine, so just to be on the safe side, I think I'll continue with the 5-10% every two or three days.

Today at Wal-Mart I saw a filter for 2-5 gallon tanks. Would it be alright to use this and my Penguin Mini filter I already have?

Also, I was thinking instead of putting all new water in with each partial water change, what if I just poured water through a filter refill (ya know what I'm saying? sometimes I can't explain things very well ) and then returned it back to the tank. Would that work to take out fish waste and uneaten food?

Thanks for all of the help!

 

[EddieW]

Unfortunately not as it wouldn't remove the stuff that your filter is not already removing - I think it's nitrAte (I am sure someone will jump in if I am wrong). It is the end point of the bacterial process which breaks down the fish waste from posionous chemicals to less poisonous ones. The water changes remove some of the remaining less poisonous chemicals and dilute the remainder with fresh clean water. A filter cannot do this. (I will see if I can find a post which will explain the process a lot better than I can).

There are chemical treatments on the market which are supposed to remove/neutralise nitrAte but I have no experience with using these - perhaps someone can jump in with their comments.

Cheers, Eddie

 

[dixaisy930]

Well, I was thinking that if I ran the water through a filter refill, it would sift out fish waste and uneaten food. I think I read somewhere that they can increase the ammonia, and then the ammonia is turned into nitrate.

Could I just use something like cheese cloth, or maybe a pair on nylons instead of the filter? I would still put in new water with some of the changes...just not every one.

 

[EddieW]

No amount of physical filtering can remove NitrAte - the bacteria will decompose Ammonia to NitrIte and then different bacteria will decompose NitrIte to NitrAte. Water changes will then help get rid of NitrAte. Having said that there are special cannister type filters on the market which use a different bacteria again to remove NitrAte but these would be an addition to your existing setup.

The only other thing that gets rid of NitrAte is plants and algae but in an aquarium it is not likely that these will consume enough to remove the need for regular water changes.

Your normal filter will be removing any debris from the water as it passes through the media, the bacteria will then be able to break this waste down.

There are many articles on this on the web - try www.google.com and seach for 'aquarium nitrogen cycle' and you will find loads of information. I had to go through quite a few of these before I eventually understood what needs to happen.

Cheers, Eddie

 

[dixaisy930]

lol, I never make myself very clear....

I know it won't take care of the nitrate....I just want to clean up the debris in the gravel.

 

[EddieW]

Doh - got it eventually

Passing the water through a filter refill pad would tend to filter out any floating waste, but your existing filter should already do that.

If you are talking about the water removed when you clean the gravel, you should be able to pass this through a filter to remove waste before returning it, but you would probably want a fairly fine filter. A better option would be either an airline driven vacuum which passes the water through a filter bag and doesn't remove it, or there is a type of filter that hangs on the side and sucks up water and debris from the gravel as normal and then returns it to the tank through filter media - have a look here for a full description.

HTH (now that I get the question), Eddie