Important for all fishkeepers, Water Changes

[Fishguy2727]

Let me know what you guys think. Please ask any questions or post any comments you may come up with.

Large, Frequent Water Changes:

I used to buy into the mindset that big water changes will screw things up, like your nitrifying bacteria cultures or the pH, stuff like that. But in fact they help and are now one indispensable aspect of my fish care. Water changes won’t affect your nitrifying bacteria colonies.

The nitrifying bacteria live ON surfaces in the water, not IN the water column itself. The only thing they use the water column itself for is to spread (from the gravel bed, to the tank wall, to the biological filter, to the surface of the plants, etc). So you could (and I have) do 100% water changes and have absolutely no ill effect to your biological filtration. And as for pH, that’s only a concern if your tap isn’t good for your fish. Over time different things build up in the water that will change the pH. For example nitrates form nitric acid and therefore lower your pH over time. So big frequent water changes help keep the pH closer to your tap water's, so when the water changes are done there is little or no difference in tank and tap pH, whereas if you do smaller and/or less frequent water changes the pH in the tank may shift and therefore it will be a bigger change in pH when you do the water change.

The main reason to do big frequent water changes is to help dilute problematic chemicals. Nitrates are a big issue with fish. You may hear not to let them go over 40ppm or something to that effect, but that just means at MOST. But really the lower the better. As an analogy: sometimes there are limits to certain chemicals in the air for humans. So if it is bad to go outside if chemical X is over 20ppm, it still isn’t good for you if they are just below that, the lower the better. So the lower you can keep the nitrates, the better for the fish. Nitrates slowly stress fish over time and can lead to decreased growth, health, and general ability to thrive. So the lower you can keep them the better. There are other dissolved organic compounds that also affect fish in the same way.

The other chemicals that are of concern are growth-inhibiting hormones that inhibit the growth of the same or sometimes similar species. The fish give these off and is evidenced by tanks with varying sized angelfish. The smallest ones are not growing in part due to the growth inhibiting hormones in the water. In nature this is good because it gives the big individuals more time to breed and produce more young before other individuals are big enough to compete with them for that right. So big frequent water changes keeps these growth inhibiting hormones to a minimum. In nature when the dry season hits, the volumes of water drop, concentrating all these chemicals even more, reducing growth, and the bigger the fish the more waste, so in nature no one needs to be growing in the dry season and therefore producing even more waste in these ever decreasing bodies of water. So it makes it ever so slightly more likely that more fish make it through the dry season. So, the bigger and more frequent water changes, the less like the dry season.

In order to breed, the fish have to be thriving, and many if not most breeders rely on water changes to help keep their fish in the absolute best condition possible. I am on well water so my tap can go straight into the tanks. It is easy to bring pH up, but it is very hard to bring it down. For my African cichlid tank I add the proper lake salts and buffer right when I start to fill the tank again so that they are dissolved as it is filled. If you need it down from your tap, you need to have it ready before the water change. This is why I carry out and highly recommend big frequent water changes at or about the rate of 50-75% weekly.

I tried this new water change schedule and what I thought was thriving before, was pretty good, but it was not thriving. I saw greatly improved growth rate, max size, coloration, fewer health problems at all, and a general increased ability to thrive.

[f1oored]

Brother you are writing articles today lol.

What I want to know is how do you have time to change the water on 11 tanks at 50% - 75% each week. On your 150 gallon tank alone that would be close to 100 gallons of water every week (almost 5000 gallons a year). It just seems like it would take all day to do this.

Look I'm not saying that doing large water changes isn't good for the fish but it seems like too much work and it seems unnecessary. I live in the city and have to pay for my water. I don't have as many tanks as you but at 75% weekly changes that would add another 250 gallons to my water bill each month. I know nitrates aren't good for fish but low levels aren't overly harmful either. If you are super serious about keeping and breeding fish your way is great, but for the average person with their 20 gallon tank with half a dozen tetras is this really necessary?

Please don't get upset, I'm just playing the devils advocate here. There is no doubt that your water quality is and will always be better than mine.

[Slinky_Bass]

I'd love to know how you have the time (and the energy) for all those water changes too! I just do 20% with one tank and by the end of it I'm pooped from carrying those heavy buckets.

Do you have any particular method that you use whe you do large changes, and any particular schedule for gravel cleaning and filter changes. If so, add them in.

What I find really interesting though is your mention of growth inhibiting hormones. I think that it deserves an article of it's own and definitely more research. Have you seen a definite correlation between the size of your fish and the amount of water changed? How long have you been using your large water change schedule and do you do it cosnsistently from fry to adulthood.

Have there been any official studies/experiments into this and what were the results? What exactly stimulates the release of growth inhibiting hormones? What you mentioned about fish in nature and the need for the hormone makes sense. But a tank is most definitely an artificial environment, so why do they still release it?

I've asked you a fair amount of questions about this, but only because what you've written has really sparked my interest. I enjoy researching thing like this, and if you'd like I could help :)

[Cichlid_Man]

I tried large water changes weekly and ran into some issues like PH swings, etc.
I have a 75 gallon tank, and what I found works best for me and the fish is a 10 gallon water change every other day.
It takes literally minutes and it doesn't change water chemistry at all.
My tank is crystal clear.
One thing I make sure to do is EVERY week is my filter maintenance.
I remove all the filter floss but leave the ceramic rings in place never to be touched or changed.

But as I said...it is whatever works best for you.
Maybe because I am on well water things go whacky with large water changes???

10 gallons a day, every other day.

[Lady Hobbs]

I have 4 tanks myself but not large ones. I have a 10, 20, 30 and 55 and about to add another 55. (If all goes as planned, one more high tank will be added in a few months but then no more room for me.)

I change about 50% of my water weekly and do the gravel cleaning on my 4 tanks. I have done more. I also use the old pail and haul method but live in a small apartment so carrying the buckets isn't a long haul. If I had a ways to carry the buckets or huge tanks I would get a Python gravel cleaner that goes right from the tank to the sink.

My fish had ICK one time and that was from a new fish I added without quarantining as I should have. I do add one or 2 t. of Stress Zyme each week after my water changes but it hasn't been necessary. It's just something I do.

I do want to add here that I do 50% changes on my little 10 and 20 gallon due to the concentration of the water in small tanks but not this much on my 55 gallon. More like 30%.

I've never had algae, either. I also don't pay for my water! That makes a big difference. When I see my fish swimming back and forth and having a high old time after these water changes, I know they like it and are happy so I will continue to do so. I see no ill effects from large water changes at all.

[Fishguy2727]

I think that if you have anything more than one 10 gallon tank, you should invest in a python system. It is one of those things that once you get used to it, you look back at the old way and think, "Did I really used to do it that way?". I use a python and total my water changes take about 5 hours a week. However I am down to fewer tanks now, but the 5 hours was at the peak with 11 tanks.

Even though the fish are in a tank and not the wild, they are still the fish they were (or their grandparents or so on were) in the wild. So the same physiology is still in effect. I have been doing this water change schedule for about nine months or so. Everything mentioned improves greatly, the growth, coloration, overall health. So it really does help them a lot to do this type of water change schedule.

If there are pH issues and your tap isn't good for your tank, you need to emply the use of buffers. My 150 needs some bufferifn to keep it at 8.2. My discus tank also needs soem to keep it down to 6.5.

250 gallons a month isn't that much, what is that like 4 un-rushed showers? This is how I get the fastest growth. I had a goldfish go from about 2 inches to baseball size in about 4 months with this water change schedule. I also got the biggest platies I have ever seen, many of those were bred by me so they always got this water change schedule and they grew like weeds. What this tells me is that something about the smaller water changes is inhibitng their growth, which is bad for them. So I do my best to avoid this.

I don't know of any publishes research on the subject, but I would guess that once the fish hits maturity it starts releasing the hormones to keep the other fish from getting there, which allow sthem to spend the most time as a breeder before the other reach that size/maturity level.

As said even though the nitrates may be low, they are still bad. They may not have immediate observable consequences to the fish, but they have long term consequences such as a weakened immune system, slower growth, lower max size, subdued coloration, and shorter lifespan.

Just so everyone knows, I like people who play devil's advocate, I am usually the one doing it. If I can't support my theories uner questioning, maybe they're not that right. It is also a good way to learn new things that you wouldn't have if you hadn't questioned them.

[kimmers318]

For some the python is a great thing...my husband loves it, but for me it is more of a PITA (pain in the a**) because my tanks are smaller, and not close together. Turning the water flow off on the hose makes it leak at the faucet and then pressure starts building etc. His 90 and 75 gallon are right on top of each other so it is convenient for him. I have 5 gal jugs that I fill at the tap in advance....start my water changes and fill as I get done with one.

[Lady Hobbs]

I am about 5 feet from my front door and in the winter months head from the sink which is 12 feet away. Not a big problem for me, either. What IS a problem is when I walk away and the hose comes out of the pail and ol' Hobbs is off doing something else. LOL

[Lady Hobbs]

I would like to add something here for newbies regarding these big water changes. What works for me and works for reptileguy or works for someone else, does not mean it will work for you.

I doubt I would ever recommend to a newbie to change half their tank of water each week. I think you should listen to what you've been told to do on the hundreds of sites thru- out the net, by people who have kept fish for 40 years, breeders, etc. As you get more experienced you can experiment more in what may work for you and try different things.

For me, I tend to over- feed my fish at times and I also give them fresh vegtables and that sullies up the water more than someone who doesn't do these things.

Different fish have different needs, as well. Some are more delicate and demand perfect water conditions at all times like discus and angelfish for one. Other types are more hardly, tougher fish and don't require nearly as much work.

So listen and read and take advice from everywhere and put it all together and come up with what you feel is best. No matter what you decide to do, just do some water changes each week! That's the important thing.

[Abbeys_Mom]

This may be a kind of side note, for those who don't have Pythons. You can build your own. My homemade one is 30 feet and cost me $6. I bought a garden hose and an attachment for filling water beds. If the garden hose isn't to your liking for a dollar or two more you can buy the same tubing they use for the python and put ends on it. I was able to change the water in all 8 of my tanks in less then an hour. (55g, 33g, 3-10g, 5g, 2.5, .5g). Now that I just have a 10g I am back to the 2-5g water bottles ( the kind that sit on water coolers). I keep one for dirty water and one for clean. I personally am going to try larger water changes in my 10g for a bit. I'd hate to think my fish would be stunted, even if they are dwarf gouramis :)