water changes

mikek996 · 06-14-2008, 03:53 PM

I have done a search but found no answers. I test my water once a week. nitrite, nitrate and ammonia are at zero. should I still do water changes every week or less like once a month as long as the numbers stay the same. my tank is not crowded there are 10, 2 inch long mbunas in a 75 gal. (would like to add some more if i could find some of the same species hard to find rusty cichlids. anyway can I cut down on the water changes and just vac the bottom out once in a while?

fernival brainard · 06-14-2008, 10:30 PM

How is it that you have zero nitrAtes? Nitrates are created when ammonia and nitrIte are broken down by our biological filteration. The only way to remove the nitrAte is via water changes.

What type of test do you use for your water? Is it possible that the test for nitrate is not reading accurately?

Fern

gregpape23 · 06-14-2008, 11:14 PM

Even if your nitrates are at zero, I would still do wc's.(correct me if i'm wrong) Wc's dont just reduce nitrates but they also replenish many minerals which are lost over time. If you can keep nitrates @ zero then I guess you could just not do as large wc's. But still do them as frequently.

mikek996 · 06-15-2008, 07:07 AM

the tank has only been running for about 2 months. while i was cycling it I never tesed it only had a pictus cat and some driftwood from my old well established tank. I use a api master test kit. it seems to work fine when i tested my 2 kids tanks, like I said it has vey low fish load and has live plants. I am going to change the water regularly anyhow just so i can vac the gravel. could the tank not be cycled yet?? never did see any ammonia either. though i have only lost 1 fish since i put all of them in. and it was the smallest of the bunch. otherwise the fish are healthy and eating well.

trojannemo · 06-19-2008, 09:58 AM

i was about to post about this as well...hope you dont mind me throwing it in here.

my tank has been set up since early february. it's heavily stocked and also heavily planted.
tomorrow will be exactly 1 month since my last water change. all i do is fill up with water from evaporation and add aquasafe whenever i move plants or something.
my gravel looks perfect, not covered in poo. i'm also using the API Master Test Kit, which uses the liquid tests so the likelihood of that not working fine is ultra slim...and my water params always come back perfect.

my pH is 7.6, my ammonia is 0ppm, nititres 0ppm, nitrates 0ppm (that's right, my plants are bottoming out my nitrates - need to fix this).

why do i still need to keep doing water changes? i'm about to do one today or tomorrow because psychologically speaking i'm freaking out and worrying, but the fish dont seem to mind and like i said, the params are all perfect.

SumpNFishy · 06-19-2008, 12:21 PM

I posted a similar question a few weeks back. I have a heavily planted tank with only a few fish. Plenty of filtration and watching the parameters, everything is very stable.

Basically most responses were "do it at your own risk".

I haven't done a water change in this tank in over 2 months. I top it off with RO water so it doesn't change the balance.

I'm starting to see some issues with algea but I'm not sure if this is related to water changes.

For now I'm just testing with this one tank and still doing water changes on my others.

I think the main thing is to test your tanks and track how your parameters are in a notebook or spreadsheet (something suggested in a thread I read). You will then see a pattern and can determine the proper water change, filter cleaning, etc for each tank. I have found each of mine to be a little different.

Hope this helps.

trojannemo · 06-19-2008, 02:24 PM

exactly. i forgot to mention i have two filters, a 40GB HOB Wet/Dry and a 50G Bio-wheel. along with a clown loach, a golden algae eater and 5 apple snails for detritus control.

with regards to keeping track of things...there's a very good program coming out soon designed to help you do exactly this

mikek996 · 06-21-2008, 07:39 PM

I have noticed that I am getting a lot of brown algae, I have read it may be diatoms??. anyhow I put in a pleco and it is eating it at a pretty good pace. I only add water and do a quick gravel cleaning once or twice a month, the cichlids are messy fish.

Tommy Gun · 06-21-2008, 09:28 PM

Hey all - hope you don't mind if I chime in here real quick....

Basically I want to put all of my support - for whatever it is worth - behind gregpape23's reply...we are accomplishing a lot of things with water changes that we may not be thinking about at the time and/or do not test for or cannot otherwise see. I am the first to admit that I can little to nothing about the planted tank side of things but I am sure that water changes are still a necessity despite nitrate levels.

However, this isn't really to say that some people aren't successful with bi-weekly or monthly water changes...and I am 100% sure some have gone a lot longer without any obvious problems. This is particularly true in larger tanks that hold a smaller bio load (which does not imply that keeping one fish in a 10 million gallon tank is a low bio load...particularily if it is a whale shark

point being, calculating bioload is more than counting the number of fish).

The other thing to consider here - and I am guessing some of the reason behind the "at your own risk" advice - is that it is generally safer to do smaller, more frequent water changes...if for nothing else, from an osmotic point of view. Case in point....most people would suggest using some form of acclimation when bringing fish home from the store because there could be big differences in water chemistry from their tank(s) to yours. Granted, I know that some planted tank owners do both, frequent and large water changes, but I suspect that they have taken things into consideration and understand what to avoid first. It would be my advice to pick the brains of some of those people if you think you fall into that sort of category with your tank...especially some of the great minds that might tend to hang out in the planted tank sub-forum here on FTF.

IMHO, there is a lot of good reasons to rely on your test kit to tell you when to do water changes and yes, there are certain approaches one can take to ensure that our test kits tell us to do a water change once a year, but as gregpape23 points out, we can't be lulled into security by the old adage of 'out of sight, out of mind' here. For that reason, I would generally say that under relatively 'normal' circumstances, bi-weekly water changes are probably a good idea no matter what.

Jay · 06-22-2008, 07:46 AM

Please understand where I am coming from when I say I have been around this hobby long enough to always expect someone to say "I don't do that and my tank is just fine"

Tommy Guns remarks are IMO right on.

From a planted tank perspective...some thoughts..Without regular water changes how do you

Deal with the accumulation of very toxic phenols?

Compensate for the fact that Plants will eat up your GH and all of the essential electrolytes that both fish and plants need to survive. These need to be replaced.

If the plants are eating up your NO3 to the point of getting no test kit readings...you are leaving the door open to an algae disaster.

Plants are capable of doing ok for months and months but without abundant nitrates are eventually going to go into decline. Once that process starts you will not be able to stop the train wreck.

API master test kits IMHO and IME are only ball park accurate within .5. I would never make critical decisions based on them.

Regards,
Jay