A good water changing regime can only help the other fish..just don't go doing too big a change..and don't do too many, you might cause a mini cycle...re too many..only do 10>20% at a time if you doing a few a week..
confident open swimmers
- Thread starter JackGillett
- Start date
Hi all,
I agree with Moo, regular small water changes are beneficial to fish health. If you have good quality water, and make sure it is of similar pH and temperature to your tank water, you can change large volumes without worrying about it damaging the fish or causing a cycle. Nearly all the nitrogen cycle bacteria are in the filter and substrate and very little in the water column. The only substance that is found in aged water, and is beneficial to the fish, is DOC (dissolved organic carbon), and this will chelate metals and aid water stability.
When I first kept fish (as a kid in the 1970's) fish keeping literature was very limited, but what there was used to emphasise how important "aged water" was, and imbued it with all sorts of magical properties. Because of this I never used to change the water and killed all my fish off pretty rapidly, finally becoming totally dispirited and giving up all together. When I came back to fish keeping (in a round about way, really due to the "waste water" work in the lab) I knew that the secret to combating pollution is a combination of dilution and effective biological filtration, and I've been a lot better as a water keeper this time.
I usually change about 10% a day in small tanks (you can do less in larger volume tanks which are inherently more stable and easy to manage), and if you want a larger change, just do no changes for 3 -5 days to allow the conductivity to creep up, and then 30% with slightly cooler, (but not too cold) low conductivity water (R.O or rain-water).
cheers Darrel
I agree with Moo, regular small water changes are beneficial to fish health. If you have good quality water, and make sure it is of similar pH and temperature to your tank water, you can change large volumes without worrying about it damaging the fish or causing a cycle. Nearly all the nitrogen cycle bacteria are in the filter and substrate and very little in the water column. The only substance that is found in aged water, and is beneficial to the fish, is DOC (dissolved organic carbon), and this will chelate metals and aid water stability.
When I first kept fish (as a kid in the 1970's) fish keeping literature was very limited, but what there was used to emphasise how important "aged water" was, and imbued it with all sorts of magical properties. Because of this I never used to change the water and killed all my fish off pretty rapidly, finally becoming totally dispirited and giving up all together. When I came back to fish keeping (in a round about way, really due to the "waste water" work in the lab) I knew that the secret to combating pollution is a combination of dilution and effective biological filtration, and I've been a lot better as a water keeper this time.
I usually change about 10% a day in small tanks (you can do less in larger volume tanks which are inherently more stable and easy to manage), and if you want a larger change, just do no changes for 3 -5 days to allow the conductivity to creep up, and then 30% with slightly cooler, (but not too cold) low conductivity water (R.O or rain-water).
cheers Darrel
