water changes

[bertie 83]

so as you know i descovered how good prime was, i have now gone mad on waterchanges ( i want the water even clearer)... so i am doing approx 30% a day on all tanks ( my wife thinks ocd) as i want to clear out old water conditioner. i dont believe this will harm my fish who have 3x weekly waterchanges, am i wrong? i plan to continue with daily changes for about a month, then drop to every other day for a month then every 3rd day 30% as i was. do i have a plan or am ijust going ott? i am just curious. or how beneficial would it be to do 30% 5x weekly and teach my wife and take turns? my tanks are understocked (unless adoptions for rehome are at a high then i go to about 90% stocking level in quarantine) this is rare but big fish do come along! thats 90% by my calculations so still understocked

[J-P]

wow that is more an RTR question.... water changes are good, up to a point. If the temperature, Kh, or other parameters are in flux then that is not good. Stability, and consistency are the key.

One reason we say 50% weekly is so that we can read the actual bioload of the tank. From there one can adjust the water change levels accordingly. That is just one fraction of the equation.

Also water changes are not linear. 2 x 30% does not equal a 60% water change but closer to 45% and then you have the time lapse between them where the bioload changes.

50% weekly is the start and from there, given your numbers, you can adjust the frequency and or the volume. Having said that, 50% water changes are heavy and matching the temperature and other levels is not an easy task.

[eieio]

( my wife thinks ocd)

[bertie 83]

yea i do 3x 30% to equal about 50%. all is stable with my tap quality which seems ok. but will going from 3x weekly to 7x weekly 30% cause harm, i dont see that it will just after some reassurance. my main concern is a tank which has some very very old tetras( have some old age sighns lol) just curiosity

[bertie 83]

oh and all tests are spot on anyway. just want more clarity

[sevenyearnight]

I'm with your wife on this...
You have no diseases in your tanks, no pollutants, no excess anything you are trying to dilute...
Just seems like unnecessary stress for just an aesthetic issue that over time will happen with regular maintenance.

JP mentioned KH, and you say the tests are spot on, what are all the parameters you test?

[Pufferpunk]

Soooo... how else does your OCD manifest itself?

[bertie 83]

Soooo... how else does your OCD manifest itself?

ha ha yea after anotherr think you guys are right. all tanks have had an extra change will leave it at that. i rarely test hardness now, but will test today and check against old water parameter log.never show ammonia or nitrite and next to no nitrate as heavily planted. if i was to continue on this quest it would just make me more unessesary work which i dont need...i will be patient lol

[RTR]

A little OCD is good for your fish even if hard on the water bill.

Given stability of the parameter across the tanks and the source water, in theory it is impossible to change too much water. Quality commercial breeders routinely change 100-200% daily. Only hobbyists with automated feed/discharge system ever approach that.and it likely is not necessary. 50% weekly is good for routine tank care. Breeding tanks and fry grow-out tanks will likely be better with more, or as you are doing with smaller but more frequent partials 2 or 3x weekly, or even smaller percentage change daily with automation. The last is the most effective in keeping water parameters stable short of the masive daily changes.

Even for those fish which breed daily in the wild - Rainbows and such - They really should not be kept breeding constantly by hobbyists, as the females really need time out for R&R, I drop my 'bows back to weekly 50% partials and breeding slows markedly. If I do not do that, my females die young, likely from metabolic exhaustion. Wild breeding seasons are environmentally triggered. Mass breeder may just burn out their feamles and replaced them every few months, but conscientious hobbyist really should handle the fsh better.

For non-breeding fish, you just pick a schedule that fits your time available and does not break the bank or your back and shoulders. Even if you go with the standard suggestion of 50% weekly and hold to that schedule pretty well, it is not a bad thing to take a week once or twice a year and do two or three 50% partials in one week. That really resets the whole system and you will see a difference in the fish.

HTH

[bertie 83]

rtr you made me want to do it again lol. maybe just 1 more extra so will do 5x 30% this week and then drop back to 3x weekly lol

[RTR]

There is a bit of OCD in most good fish-keepers. But we are not nearly as bad as musicians or writers.

[bertie 83]

lol..as its filter cleaning day tomorrow gonna give them a good lookover today also i have a spare few hours so why not

[sevenyearnight]

I'm a musician on hiatus, I composed or co-composed, did the recording, mixing, and mastering. Lost a lot of weight I didn't have to lose, I had a protein deficiency, dehydrated etc. because I rarely left the studio unless I was going to rehearsal, a performance, the music shop, so on...
Anyway, *this* hobby is much less everything stressful
and much more enjoyable overall.

[puffermichigan]

+1 lol sevenyearnight! I'm a recovering professional oboist who was used to obsessive reedmaking. My obsessiveness has served my fishies well, I do believe. I'm sure your fish are quite happy, OP!

[bertie 83]

They certainly seem to be lol, just curious what's op seen it a fair bit lol