Water Changes

ghhghh

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For fish like gouramis, danios,bettas, adfs, cherry shrimp etc

what's the maximum water change you should do a week?
And would it be better to do 2 water changes a week ?
 
The maximum does not exist. If you want to do a 75% change every day, go ahead and do it. I find that it is really not necessary to do more than about 25% per week in a moderately to lightly stocked tank, the way I like to run mine.
 
As has been said, once a week if usually enough for most fish.

I personally change 50-60% weekly as I have blue rams in my tank which require very good conditions and low nitrates.

Andy
 
Well I'm mostly concerned about my Asian glass catfish
which require clean water and tank
my other fish aren't as fussy but I was wondering if it
will give me a diesease free tank?

Obviously a water change that's to big would kill the fish
but anyway
 
Well I'm mostly concerned about my Asian glass catfish
which require clean water and tank
my other fish aren't as fussy but I was wondering if it
will give me a diesease free tank?

Obviously a water change that's to big would kill the fish
but anyway
Why would a water change to big kill the fish? If you have a cycled mature tank and watch your feeding meaning you don't over feed to the point were food goes to the bottom and eventually rots and releases ammonia in the tank 20 to 30% water changes once a week should be fine and you should always have a health tank water chemistry wise.
 
rather than worry about doing too much WC, you should just do the amount you need.
keep a liquid test kit handy so you can keep an eye on your WP (more specifically, the nitrates. assuming the tank is cycled)
when your nitrates look like theyre getting high. do a 25% WC. when they get high again, do a 25% WC. moniter yourtank for a month or two, and you will notice a pattern in your cycle, and can judge when to do your WC.
 
The Asian glassfish are quite delicate
and in the past with a fully cycled tank that had been
running for a year I did a 50% water change and 3/5
of them died as a result. So I don't really want it to happen
again
 
they did not die simply because you removed and added the wrong amount of water.
discus keepers do regular 100% WC. as do breeders and people with "grow out" tanks.

if they died after a WC there are a few likely reasons. could be that the water added was not properly dechlorinated and it killed the beneficial bacteria in the filter. or the water was not at the right temperature, and the change put the fish into shock. or any number of things. however it was not that the WC was too big.
 
rather than worry about doing too much WC, you should just do the amount you need.
keep a liquid test kit handy so you can keep an eye on your WP (more specifically, the nitrates. assuming the tank is cycled)
when your nitrates look like theyre getting high. do a 25% WC. when they get high again, do a 25% WC. moniter yourtank for a month or two, and you will notice a pattern in your cycle, and can judge when to do your WC.
Good advise! I'd like to add a little to that if I may. When you test your nitrates and you feel they are to high more then likely one small water change is not going to help. Let me give you and example to help you better understand what I'm talking about.

Awhile ago I got lazy on my water changes and wasnt doing them once a week. Well my oscar ended up getting HITH. I tested the water and the nitrates were off the chart. So I started doing big water changes once a day probaly 50% or more and tested my water daily. In about a weeks time I was able to get my nitrates from being off the charts which is 160ppm down to 0ppm. Now they hang around 10ppm with weekly water changes. After that first week my oscars HITH healed. So the moral of the story is if you need to lower your nitrates down quit a bit your going to have to do big water changes daily to get it down to were you want it. Then weekly water changes of 20 to 30% will keep them there. Also your gonna want to test your tap water for nitrates mine is 0 but if your tap water has nitrates present whatever it is, is going to be the lowest you'll be able to get your tank. :good:
 
Thx alot guys
the declorinator o used they don't sell in the shops anymore
so their is no maximum for waTer changes
 
as long as you take the proper precautions, no, there is really no limit.
just make sure you have the temp right (doesnt have to be exact, just close)
use a good decholrinator (if youre not using well or aged water)
and dont let your filter dry out during the process
 
as long as you take the proper precautions, no, there is really no limit.
just make sure you have the temp right (doesnt have to be exact, just close)
use a good decholrinator (if youre not using well or aged water)
and dont let your filter dry out during the process
Good points! With the water changes I usually try and get the temp about the same as the tank when its coming out of the facuet. However if you got a larger tank like bigger then 10 gallon and your do a small water change like 20% its ok you use cold water I have found that fish sometimes like that and in the wild the water temp is constanly changing anyways. If your doing larger water changes or your tank is small make sure you match the temp feeling with your finger is good enough. If your were to put that volume of cold water in your could shock the fish. :good:
 
I try to temperature match my water even when doing a change on my 120 gallon tank. It really does become more critical if I am changing 9 gallons of water in a 10 gallon tank but there is no reason to allow the temperature to give a big mismatch, unless you are trying to start cories breeding. That takes lots of darned cold water.
Dechlorinator is another matter. I always use more than the instructions call for but less than double that amount. My local water company likes to surprise people by doing a major chlorination once in a while. Although it is perfectly safe for people, it will get right past a normal dechlorinator dosing. The extra 50 to 75% of dechlor is a cheap form of insurance in case I am doing my water change in the middle of one of those chlorine spikes. According to Seachem, I can double dose without a problem.
 
Looking at this thread ghhghh, its hard to tell what sort of water changes the glass catfish tank had been receiving prior to the 50% change that killed them. If the water changes had been small and infrequent then its possible that the 50% change might have given them a large change in mineral content (hardness) perhaps in combination with a temperature shock if temperature wasn't something you knew to be careful about.

Using good technique (dosing conditioner at 1.5x and using rough temperature matching) and keeping the water changes going as a very regular weekly thing will really guard against shocks occuring. So its really kind of the opposite.. regular water changes make for healthy fish, rather than allowing a tank to reach a point where one change can shock.

~~waterdrop~~
 

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