Tynk wrote:
Aqua/\Man wrote:
I've kept a 75 gal for over a year now. It holds mostly small species
under 3 inches. I change out around 20 gallons every week. Some have
told me that I was changing too much water too often.

Should I curb the amount I'm changing?


All the fish appear fine, with a loss of a couple of cardinal tetras and
a swordtail over the course.

As long as you keep doing the same, no. It's not too much.
You would run into trouble if one week you did a 50%, then the next a
10% then waited a few weeks, did another 50%, etc.
When you keep it consistant, it's perfectly fine.
I've known long time hobbyists who do a 50% weekly, or more.
As long as you keep consistant, it's peachy.

I like peachy. Peachy works for me. What more could anyone ask?


Are you re-using filter media? By this I mean rinsing out filter pads
or sleeves in old tank water and then putting them back. This saves the
nitrifying bacteria on them.

Well, yes and no, kinda =? [..trips on reply...]
Having the two HOB filters that uses the sleeved media. I take the blue
media and blast it with the spray head from the kitchen sink, so I'll
assume that the chlorine renders any bacteria on them useless. There is
another mesh filter behind the blue media, that supposedly holds the
bacteria. I give those a quick swish in the old tank water during water
changes. I hope I'm explaining this properly.

There's a blue filter mesh in front of a white mesh, the blue being a
finer, denser mesh than the white. I blast the blue in the sink, swish
the white in old water.

Whew!...