Doing water changes..

[Canadian]

I used to do water changes every week and it made my fishys all sick, almost every time I did them! So I asked my cousin how often he does them and he didn't do one from the time he has set it up, He has had no problems! So I stopped the changes, and I do them maybe 1 time a month. From that day when I stopped my fishys arn't sick..

[KnaveTO]

Water changes should be performed every two weeks and you should be changing about 25% of your water. Wehn replacing the water you need to add a dechlorinator to the water that you are putting back into the tank. By not changing your water you are allowing your fish to live in their own filth and that wil definately make them sick... even kill them.

[James]

You should keep track of Nitrate, test it and do a change when ever the lvl goes over 25 if you can. I have read up to a lvl of 40 is ok, some even say higher but I would try keeping in the lower lvl.

Here is a good article on Nitrate:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/watercare/a/nitrates.htm

James

[PPulcher]

Canadian, fish will react strangely to water changes if things with the water change quickly. If you are not matching the temperatures within about 5 degrees F, or if the chemical makeup of the change water is different from the tank, or you are not dechlroaminating the new water, you might run into trouble. I change about 50% of the water in my tanks weekly, sometimes I have fish I'm trying to spawn I'll change 50% every other day. This works with my water, as it tends to be very stable in terms of chemistry.

If you fish are reacting badly, I would try smaller percentages, say 10% but more frequently, say twice per week.

[hp10BII]

James and KnaveTO are right. The best way of removing Nitrates are through water changes. I've found out a long time ago that the best way of growing big healthy disease resistant fish is through good food and frequent water changes.

I'm guessing the parameters of your water out of your tap is very different than water that's been aerated and aged overnight, including your fish tank. I quite often do 75% waterchanges with no effect on the fish, but the pH levels are very close. For my 95% waterchanges, I age most or all of my water overnight. When the water is being pumped in, the fish likes to play in the stream of water coming in.

Try to get a test kit and compare the ph out of the tap and in your tank.

[Melody]

Absolutely - no waterchanges means they're living in a septic tank and that's cruel. In small tanks the waterchanges should be at least once/week. You can go longer for larger tanks. Filtration, live plants, etc will also impact the frequency required.

Sometimes fish adapt to bad water conditions, but eventually it catches up and adding new fish becomes impossible.

As mentioned, the waterchanges won't kill your fish unless your shocking them or not dechlorinating the water.

Its the one thing we'd all like to get rid of, but the fact remains that this hobby requires some work and not all of it is pleasant.:smile:

[Pamelajo]

Fresh fish love fresh water!!! Says it all.:wink: