Tornado
09-19-2006, 02:16 PM
We all know you are supposed to change 10-20% or so of your aquarium's water ever week or every other week. I know the reason for doing this is partly to help control amonia level's and other things, but I'm going to be honest. I have never really followed through with weekly water changes, in any of the fish or plants I have kept. I tend to lose some water in the tank fairly often, due to evaperation I suppose, and that is generally the only time I would ever add new water.
I monitor my PH and amonia levels, and they have always been good, amonia is always at or right near 0. I dont have any way to measure anything else, but I have never had a problem with any fish or plants I have raised doing this, and my water is always crystal clear. Outside of being killed by another fish, I dont recall ever having a fish just die on me. This makes me wonder, are these weekly water changes really THAT important if your water quality remains high? What other things might I be overlooking about water changes?
As mentioned, I do tend to add probably a few gallons of new water to my 75 gallon tank every month, due to what I can only figure is Evaperation. My water level slowly drops in the tank, so I will introduce new water to keep the tank full. This however is nothing over a few gallons a month at best.
I would also mention ive never had any real disease outbreaks either, and this tank was once a very heavily planted tank, and the plants grew great.
My Filtration include both an undergravel filter, and a magnum 350 canister Filter. I keep both the canister filter, and power heads for the UGF cleaned and operating as new.
Am I a bad fishkeeper for ignoring weekly water changes? If I am, then why have my fish always seemed healthy and happy for the most part? Am I putting myself at risk to something im not aware of by running the same water? Input and discussion appreciated.
I monitor my PH and amonia levels, and they have always been good, amonia is always at or right near 0. I dont have any way to measure anything else, but I have never had a problem with any fish or plants I have raised doing this, and my water is always crystal clear. Outside of being killed by another fish, I dont recall ever having a fish just die on me. This makes me wonder, are these weekly water changes really THAT important if your water quality remains high? What other things might I be overlooking about water changes?
As mentioned, I do tend to add probably a few gallons of new water to my 75 gallon tank every month, due to what I can only figure is Evaperation. My water level slowly drops in the tank, so I will introduce new water to keep the tank full. This however is nothing over a few gallons a month at best.
I would also mention ive never had any real disease outbreaks either, and this tank was once a very heavily planted tank, and the plants grew great.
My Filtration include both an undergravel filter, and a magnum 350 canister Filter. I keep both the canister filter, and power heads for the UGF cleaned and operating as new.
Am I a bad fishkeeper for ignoring weekly water changes? If I am, then why have my fish always seemed healthy and happy for the most part? Am I putting myself at risk to something im not aware of by running the same water? Input and discussion appreciated.