Question on Water Change: be frank!

[Peter Finke]

Paros are fish of running waters, not fast running waters. In the aquarium they do well in still waters but like smoothly moving water, too.
At any rate, aquaria are not very adapted for really running water, of course. So, we are forced to water changes, as regular and often as possible.

I want to ask how often you do it and to what extent. My main question is the regularity: Are you a frequent, trustworthy water changer, or are you not? How often do you change water in your tanks if you tell the truth? (Many people don’t tell the truth; they say “every week” or “every two weeks”, but in practice they are much more lazy).

I admit that I am, too. I depends a bit. Sometimes I am more reliable but often I am not. And I admit that it was better in former years. The more small tanks I had the less reliable I became as water changer. There have been cases when I did not change water for two months or even three. Mostly the fish stand this very well, but don’t breed of course. Sometimes I think this is a useful means to give them a little rest.

Equally, I must admit however that I had some losses because of that. The extreme pauses in regular water changing are always dangerous. I know that one should not go these risks, but there have been a few cases where it happened nevertheless.

So be frank either: What do you think is a good compromise between the necessary and the possible? Or dou you ever behave as necessary? Or in fact the contrary?

[Hans Schellein]

Um den Wasserwechsel in meinen Aquarien nicht zu vergessen, habe ich mir angewöhnt immer am Sonntag einen Teilwasserwechsel durchzuführen – in den 30 Liter Becken jeweils 10 Liter und in den 15 Liter Aquarien jeweils 5 Liter. Im wöchentlichen Wechsel verwende ich dazu Osmosewasser bzw. Quellwasser mit den Werten 62 mikroSiemens und pH 6,2. Mit Hilfe von kleinen luftbetriebenen Eckfiltern achte ich darauf, dass der pH-Wert im Bereich zwischen 4,5 und 5,5 bleibt. Der Leitwert bewegt sich in den Aquarien zwischen 30 und 50 mikroSiemens.

Gruß schellfisch

[Maciej]

I change 5-10 litres every week in a 70 litres aquarium. + I add the water that evaporated. Sometimes, but rarely, I don’t do the water change. It’s because I get water from my father, and sometimes I can’t visit him.

I also have an external Aquael FZN-1 filter set for maximal flow (500l/h for a new flter, not sure how much is it now – I don’t clean it).

Much of the work is done by Ceratopteris, Vallisneria and other plants, so the water quality is really nice. I also have java snails to clean up, and helenas to controll the former population.

[Patrick Guhmann]

I do water changes if the conductivity increases. The volume and rate of water changes I need to keep the conductivity constant, ranges from zero to 30% per week and depends on fish density and plant growth rate. 1cm fish per 5l water, for example 1 pair of Paros in 45l brutto, do not need water changes.

[Lennart Friedritz]

“frequent, trustworthy water changer”…

I wouldn’t have answered you Peter, if that part would have been in the last paragraph you wrote! 😉 But you came clean afterwards, so here I come;

For my 20 litre Paro-tank I change up to half of the aquariums height every two weeks. But I don’t have specific day for doing it, so it’s only aproximately.

I use tab water, please don’t crucify me! In Brunswick it is really low in carbonates by nature, I then add some humic substances by using peat and drop down the pH using oak extract to about 4.5 pH.

-> no carbonate hardness measurable and the eggs stick and evolve good.

Unfortunately I got some problem due to evapotranspiration, because after two weeks the water level has fallen by about one quarter. It happens because I don’t have a 100% fitting, clear cover, so I only close it at night when I have to keep my window open (so I don’t suffocate by lack of oxygen). I’m a little concerned about the rising concentration of Ions, but I hope the many plants take care of it!

Dear Sverting, what are “java snails”?

[helene schoubye]

:blush: Yes, well …
I fill mine up every second week app. – I very rarely take any water out. But it seems the water evaporate down quite a bit for me, so when I fill up, its probably about 2-3 liters.
BUT I rather freqently make total changeovers. This is because in most tanks (all 12 liters) theres fry growing up, and at some point I need to take these out.
Also I admit that my tanks ends up getting rather overgrown and leaves, peat and so forth deteriorate, – so with most tanks probably every 5-6 months theres a whole changeover.

I also sometimes, when starting a new tank, starts out with just half a tank ( 6 liter) and then slowly fill it up untill its full.

[Gerald Gantschnigg]

Water changes depend on evaporation, plant and algae growth. Measuring a conductivity of about 50 µS/cm or more brings me to start my ion exchanger, too.
Sometimes this means filling up the tank with demineralized water twice a month, sometimes however changing water up to 30% and cleaning the tank at the same time is necessary.

However I prefer to let the tanks alone as long as possible.

[Teunis]

everyone has those days that you are quite happy to find some time to breath.
to keep water changes going I make sure that there is always prepared RO water ready to use, this way its never more than an 5 minute job.

[Bill Little]

What do you do to get the R/O ready? Do you maintain perhaps 20-30 liters in a container or aquarium? Do you add almond leaves or run an air stone in the container?

[Teunis]

I have 70 liter barrel with heater, after refilling the barrel ( approximately every 10 days) I adjust the pH using oak bark extract.

getting the water out of the barrel and throwing it in to the tank, aerates it enough I think. :unsure:

[Andy Love]

My normal regime is a c50% change every two weeks. However …

… I have just, coincidentally, finished a period of heroic restraint during which I did nothing to my tank (except add food) for seven weeks. I wanted to see what would happen.

I’ll be writing up the results in due course. I’ll be posting them in the general fishkeeping forum that I inhabit, from whose Members there’s been some interest because of the Paros’ (relatively) extreme conditions. I’ll post a link in this thread when I’ve done it in case they’re of interest to anyone here and hoping that you may offer some helpful criticism . It’ll be some time yet, because I want to try to establish the reasons for one or two of the results ; and I’m going to wait until the tank has been well-settled at its former parameters before repeating both a dip-slide test and an assessment of where some micro-organisms seem to be concentrated.

[Stefanie Rick]

I change about one third of the water regularly every weekend. It’s part of my to-do-list on weekends ……. so I don’t question it, just do it. Like doing the laundry ……… (But much more fun!!)

There is a (very interesting!!) thread about blackwater at the IGL-forum, primary initialized by my question about what might have happend to my P. nagyi-clutch …….. I was critized there when I dared to show my astonishment about the serious advice to change more than 50% every week ….. (which, by the way, contradicts the recommendations given in the species descriptions on the IGL homepage….)

[Peter Finke]

Intermediate note:

Well, interesting replies. In summary I’ve got the impression that most of you are good followers of the norms you imposed yourself.

If this is right, the main explanation is the number of tanks to be cared for. If I had only three or five of them, oh, I think all would be OK. But there are 33 small 12-liter-tanks waiting for water change. So, I experience myself as more or less idle and careless. Sometimes, not permanently, fortunately.

The problem is: Fish mostly stand it. There is a reduction of spawnings, of course, but nothing really bad. I even take it to help the fish with conditions of lesser challenging them to spawn, from time to time. But I guess that I am wrong in many cases. Instead, they are challenged by deteriorating environmental conditions. The problem is that they for long periods don’t react with illness or even worser things; so I think: OK, let’s wait with changing water a further week. But this probably is wrong. I know it and I don’t behave better, nevertheless. At least sometimes.

Well, I think: With many tanks you either need (1) help or (2) technical means to facilitate water change. Prepared water with the right values stored for direct usage is not enough for that purpose. No, I mean water drain pipes from every single tank and water change pipes towards it.

Or reduce the number of species/tanks. This I meant by my wish to be frank. Let’s wait for the next postings.

[Maciej]

You might want to try the joint filtration system with UVlamps. It would be much easier.

[Bill Little]

For those who are not familiar with UV, perhaps you could provide a little more detail of how you incorporate UVlamps into the joint filtration system?

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