The Puffer Forum

I have a 5-gallon tank that has no fish in it, just plants, snails and shrimp. How often should I change the water?

I would do weekly 25% - 50% depending on the plants. Watch your nitrates for a few weeks to get a feeling on how they fluctuate in that tank and go from there. Some plants like a high nitrate level and most snails are not that fragile that they can't handle a little higher nitrate level. The shrimp on the other hand could be nitrate sensitive, look up what you have and see what is recommended.

Dadof4 wrote:I would do weekly 25% - 50% depending on the plants. Watch your nitrates for a few weeks to get a feeling on how they fluctuate in that tank and go from there. Some plants like a high nitrate level and most snails are not that fragile that they can't handle a little higher nitrate level. The shrimp on the other hand could be nitrate sensitive, look up what you have and see what is recommended.

Red cherry and ghost. The snails are those "pest" snails that explode in population and some others like the ones that have an elongated shell. As far as I can tell, all members of the population are increasing in number.

I have a 10g shrimp tank with live plants, I still do 50% weekly (old habit) my plants and shrimp are flourishing. It depends on the needs of your inhabitants. If the plants are root feeders keeping your nitrates higher will have no positive effect if they are plants that get their nutrients from the water column then higher nitrates would be better.

Nitrates higher than 10-15ppm are signs of pollution regardless of the plant's preferred feeding technique - which is relatively trivial in any case - plants can take in nutrients via the roots or the foliage depending more on water conditions than on the plant's nature or preferences.