Water Changing Overkills

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.

"Aqua/\Man" wrote in message
...
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?

I wouldn't consider that excessive unless there were no fish in the tank.

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

Then why change anything? ;-)
--
KL....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
Aquariums since 1952.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö ~~~~ }((((({*

On Tue, 25 Jul 2006 17:49:20 GMT, "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.

I have had a 75 gallon for over 3 years plus 4 smaller tanks. I
change 20% twice weekly.

dick

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.

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.

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.

Water changes are important, so is how you perform them. Getting out
organic waste via vacuuming is important (carefull with vacuuming
around plant roots), this way you lower your nitrate levels (which over
time will stunt growth and lower disease resistance).
To me it sounds like you are doing fine, but check your nitrates, ph,
and KH before and after.
For further information there are some good articles about this he
http://aquarium-info.blogspot.com/

Carl

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!...

carlrs 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.

Water changes are important, so is how you perform them. Getting out
organic waste via vacuuming is important (carefull with vacuuming
around plant roots), this way you lower your nitrate levels (which over
time will stunt growth and lower disease resistance).
To me it sounds like you are doing fine, but check your nitrates, ph,
and KH before and after.
For further information there are some good articles about this he
http://aquarium-info.blogspot.com/

Carl

Thank all of you most kindly for the help.

On 25 Jul 2006 14:27:52 -0700, "carlrs"
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.

Water changes are important, so is how you perform them. Getting out
organic waste via vacuuming is important (carefull with vacuuming
around plant roots), this way you lower your nitrate levels (which over
time will stunt growth and lower disease resistance).
To me it sounds like you are doing fine, but check your nitrates, ph,
and KH before and after.
For further information there are some good articles about this he
http://aquarium-info.blogspot.com/

Carl

I never vacuum the bottom. Little is showing anyway due to dense plant
growth. I took off the bio wheels and I don't use charcoal. I only
clean the filter media when the water behind the media gets too high
and runs passed the media. When I do change media I do it with the
filters running, just pull the frame and replace with another frame
and media.

I like to keep things simple, it helps to avoid not doing the changes
at all.

dick