Waterchanges

[scotty]

finally got over my ammonia spike,tank been fine for a few days now,my question is my nitrate levels have never gone above 10,so is it necessary still to do weekly waterchanges as i thought the main reason for waterchanges was to keep the nitrate levels down,or have i got that wrong
cheers
scott

 

[bricko]

finally got over my ammonia spike,tank been fine for a few days now,my question is my nitrate levels have never gone above 10,so is it necessary still to do weekly waterchanges as i thought the main reason for waterchanges was to keep the nitrate levels down,or have i got that wrong
cheers
scott

Scotty,

I believe it is still best practice to perform weekly water changes even if your water stats are well within tolerance, personally i do twice weekly 25% water changes but my tank is a little overstocked. It also forms part of a wider tank mainenance regime i.e plant trimming gravel vaccing etc.. All this ensures that your tank is a pristine environment for your fishy friends

and therefore less chance of a sudden spike in your stats or an outbreak of disease.


Hope this helps,
Mark

 

[scotty]

thanks for that
cheers
scott

 

[OldMan47]

If you have as many plants in a tank as I tend to have, you will never see any nitrates in your water no matter how many fish you have. That does not let you off the hook with water changes. Water changes are used to control all of the poisons in your water and, for a new tank that is fairly bare of vegetation, the nitrate levels can guide your water change amount and frequency. If you are heavily planted, the plants will help with the poisons in the water such as dissolved metals but are often not enough to allow you to ignore water changes. A tank planted heavily enough to remove all nitrates should still get a weekly or so water change of about 10% in almost every case. We use the nitrates to indicate what is going on in terms of the general poison build ups, not because nitrate itself is all that dangerous.

 

[scotty]

thanks oldman,will stick with the 10% waterchanges