What Water Change Ammount?

[mattbleasby]

This is silly. Its turning into an argument, and people are flaming for no reason, This is a happy forum, And if possible can we stop this please. Its not something I or anybody else really wants too read.

KittyKat i think you need to chill a little. You came into the forum and the first thing you said was "I DISAGREE" People are going too get there backs up if you attack like that.

It could have been said much nicer.

Alot of people have different opinions some people say i change too much everyweek.

Some people do changes every couple of months, Some too the extreme of 6months at a time.

Everyone breath, And just offer your 2pence too the OP.

 

[StandbySetting]

On a tank with that kind of stocking I'd be doing 50% water changes, but that's just me, it's up to you to make an informed decision based on your experience as to how much you should change, you could probably get away with a 10-20% water change, but because nitrate test kits are so inaccurate there is no point in trying to gauge a percentage from the values you're getting, play it safe and do more than you need to, you may be changing more than you need to but it isn't going to hurt if you do.

 

[Tolak]

While I'm not going to look up, count and reference topics & posts, we have plenty of tank problems posted here that include very little water being changed, I'm hard pressed to find many that are caused by too large and too frequent water changes.

There are methods of doing planted tanks that involve minimal water changes with a lower stocking rate that do work quite well, there are also methods of keeping a very heavy stocking in a tank that include very large & very frequent water changes. It's up to the aquarist to determine where their individual situation fits in, and adjust accordingly.

 

[This Old Spouse]

The average person with an over stocked tank will have issues. I would rather advise someone to perform too much of a water change than not enough. Prevention is always the key.

I think this sums it all up. If your tank is overstocked as the OP's tank is, then larger water changes are necessary. A 20l water change in a 190l tank is not doing much! I do a 75% water change each week. Once you get going it just takes a little more time and you have much happier and healthier fish.

 

[Inchworm]

My weekly water changes:



When in doubt about how much water to change, do some water testing. As long as your tests read 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and nitrate as close to your tap water reading as possible, whatever you're doing is fine. If there is any ammonia and/or nitrite showing, you have an uncycled tank, which is a different problem. If you have much nitrate, change more water. Ideally, it should be 40 ppm or less but less than 100 might be tolerated by some fish.

The number of fish in the tank tells us little since we don't know the size and maturity of them. Simple water tests will tell a more accurate story.

 

[Mikaila31]

I do at least 50% when ever I change water. Some tanks its weekly others it may be biweekly. IMO it doesn't matter as long as it is at least biweekly and water quality is maintained.