Water change frequency question

[dragon]

My bettas are all in unfiltered 2.5 gallon tanks. How often would
ya'll recommend I do a 100% water change? I've been doing it once a
week in the past, but the fishkeeper at my LFS thought that was too
often. So, what does everyone think?

dragon

[Rocco Moretti]

dragon wrote:
> My bettas are all in unfiltered 2.5 gallon tanks. How often would
> ya'll recommend I do a 100% water change? I've been doing it once a
> week in the past, but the fishkeeper at my LFS thought that was too
> often. So, what does everyone think?

Water change enough to keep your parameters (esp. Nitrate, Nitrite &
Ammonia) low and *stable*.

You also might be asking the question slightly wrong. It may be better
to reduce the amount of water changes, rather than the frequency. (e.g.
do a 20% every week, versus a 100% every month.)

[Steve]

dragon wrote:
> My bettas are all in unfiltered 2.5 gallon tanks. How often would
> ya'll recommend I do a 100% water change? I've been doing it once a
> week in the past, but the fishkeeper at my LFS thought that was too
> often. So, what does everyone think?
>
> dragon
>

If there's one fish per tank, I'd suggest a 50% water change twice a
week for the first month. Later, you could probably do 50% once a week,
especially if you have some live plants.

Just my opinion; I'm not a betta fancier but have occasionally kept one.

Steve

[Victor Martinez]

dragon wrote:
> My bettas are all in unfiltered 2.5 gallon tanks. How often would
> ya'll recommend I do a 100% water change? I've been doing it once a

100% changes should only be done on emergencies (i.e. you dropped your
cocktail in the tank).

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam here:
Email me here:

[Sunny]

"Victor Martinez" > wrote in message
...
> dragon wrote:
>> My bettas are all in unfiltered 2.5 gallon tanks. How often would
>> ya'll recommend I do a 100% water change? I've been doing it once a
>
> 100% changes should only be done on emergencies (i.e. you dropped your
> cocktail in the tank).

Same size tanks, 80% water change weekly with a 100% change, and gravel/tank
clean every 2 months.
(works for me, and the Bettas reckon it's OK) :-)

[NetMax]

"Sunny" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Victor Martinez" > wrote in message
> ...
>> dragon wrote:
>>> My bettas are all in unfiltered 2.5 gallon tanks. How often would
>>> ya'll recommend I do a 100% water change? I've been doing it once a
>>
>> 100% changes should only be done on emergencies (i.e. you dropped your
>> cocktail in the tank).
>
> Same size tanks, 80% water change weekly with a 100% change, and
> gravel/tank clean every 2 months.
> (works for me, and the Bettas reckon it's OK) :-)


As the quality of water varies from where everyone lives, so does the
quality of the advice in regards to large water changes ;~).

Generally speaking, I agree with Victor. The exception would be if the
water was very stable and high quality, and you regularly do large water
changes. In theory you could change 100% of the water continuously (this
is called a fast moving river ;~), but it's rare to have access to such
stable & high quality water. Some hobbyists do this using holding tanks
to prepare the water in advance (de-gas, de-chlorinate etc), but for the
average set-up, 20% is a nice low-shock change.

I used to advise Betta owners to keep a jug full of water in the vicinity
of their Betta tank. After a few days, the jug water has outgassed, aged
a little and is ready for use at approx. the same temperature of the tank
(if tank and jug are in a fairly warm location, otherwise add a little
hot water to the jug to match the tank). This way you can go to larger
water changes if done frequently and regularly. jmo
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Dick]

On 15 Jul 2005 09:17:21 -0700, "dragon" >
wrote:

>My bettas are all in unfiltered 2.5 gallon tanks. How often would
>ya'll recommend I do a 100% water change? I've been doing it once a
>week in the past, but the fishkeeper at my LFS thought that was too
>often. So, what does everyone think?
>
>dragon

One thing to be said for frequent small changes, it is easier to use
tap water and not have to fiddle with the chemistry. What is in the
tap water is diluted. I do 20% twice a week and use water straight
from the tap. I would guess frequent (say daily) small changes (say
10%) would also keep the bacteria alive and not be in a constant "new
tank cycle."

I am guessing as I have larger tanks all of them filtered.

dick

[NetMax]

"Dick" > wrote in message
...
> On 15 Jul 2005 09:17:21 -0700, "dragon" >
> wrote:
>
>>My bettas are all in unfiltered 2.5 gallon tanks. How often would
>>ya'll recommend I do a 100% water change? I've been doing it once a
>>week in the past, but the fishkeeper at my LFS thought that was too
>>often. So, what does everyone think?
>>
>>dragon
>
> One thing to be said for frequent small changes, it is easier to use
> tap water and not have to fiddle with the chemistry. What is in the
> tap water is diluted. I do 20% twice a week and use water straight
> from the tap. I would guess frequent (say daily) small changes (say
> 10%) would also keep the bacteria alive and not be in a constant "new
> tank cycle."
>
> I am guessing as I have larger tanks all of them filtered.
>
> dick

Theoretically (and especially if your tap water has only chlorine), you
should be able to run a trickle water changer system, so water is being
constantly added (and overflowing through a discharge). The % of
chlorine divided by the volume ratio calculated into the 24 hours needed
to dissipate the chlorine would result in what could be an insignificant
and harmless amount of chlorine.

The trouble is that no where is there any claims as to what a safe level
of chlorine is, and there is a lot of variation according to the species
of fish as well.

Another theory is to use the UV frequency which would break the chlorine
or chloramines bind, and then just remove the resulting ammonia through
natural methods. I'm well motivated to learn chemistry now, but it's
about 30 years too late ;~).
--
www.NetMax.tk

[dragon]

So, would I need a siphon to do this? I don't have one, but I could
get one....

dragon