fizzypopz

Hi,
Does these system work if so will it enable me to reduce my water changes from weekly to say every 15 days on a 55g tank (with 8inch Oscar and Bristlenose catfish) this is a link to ebay item.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_t...y+Coralife%29+

Shawnie

plants some time can help keep the nitrates lower, but with oscars, you have to worry about ammonia/nitrite spikes and only water changes help with that plus water changes replace lost nutrients the fish use up as well as lower nitrates....skipping changes wouldnt benefit anyone in the tank its like never flushing your toilet when water changes arent done IMO ..

aquarist48

Good morning. I agree with Shawnie. With your tank having an Oscar and Pleco and both being big waste producers I personally wouldn't skimp on the water changes. You don't want them to end up swimming in their own waste and that's what it would be like if you aren't careful.
Ken

fish_newbie

Hi fizzypopz. Like shawnie and aquarist have said, there is no filter or system that could replace the weekly water change. Even if you can remove nitrate effectively, there are still other "things" that get build up in a fish tank that isn't all that healthy for your fish.

pepetj

As the tank matures you might get every other week as a healthy partial water change interval, with regards of nitrates. Adding trace minerals might be necessary for the health of your big fish. One way of figuring this out is by measuring GH and KH (the metabolism of big fish in small tanks will more likely than not deplete calcium, magnesium and other trace elements) so you avoid extremely dangerous scenarios like a pH crash as well as hard to detect mineral deficiencies that will impact your Oscar's health.

My 145gal (has extra filtration from day one) required weekly water changes (housing paired-off Tiger Oscars and tankmates) for the first eight months. After that I could go every other week. At this moment (1 year, 5 months since cycled) I could wait a full month between water changes. For some reason I enjoy doing maintenance so I rarely go more than two weeks between partial water changes.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo