arfon

I may of asked this question before. i was recently told by a guy in local fish shop that I'm not changing enough water on a weekly basis. so was wondering if someone on here may be able to give me an idea. i have approx 800 ltrs in my aquarium and at present change around 4/5 buckets weekly. water quality is good. API testing is good although nitrate is 30ish at the moment, but I was told this is OK due to the size and amount of water in the tank. changing 4/5 buckets weekly does not seem like much in a tank of this size ' 6ft/2ft' but 25% water change weekly seems a lot. thanks for reading.

atmmachine816

Generally 15-20% weekly is good and can sometimes get away with 10%. I would keep an eye on your nitrates and not let them get above 40, below 40 is OK and below 20 is ideal. If your doing 15% I might try 20% and see if nitrates go down, if your doing 20% I wouldn't do anymore and just make sure the nitrates don't go up.

Gargoyle

Another idea is stick with your current water change schedule but get a few plants to eat up the excess nitrates between water changes... HornWort does a good job of this and doesn't require a lot of care or light.

Just an idea for ya..

COBettaCouple

We're doing about 20-25% weekly with our tanks, but don't have tanks that big.

Gargoyle

An aquaponics garden would help as well ---> http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/112-di....html#msg77419 He has had very good luck with this set-up.

I am in the process of doing one for an in the tank set-up that you can read about here ---> http://gargoyle.fishloreblog.com/?cat=5 I will be continuing the project for at least another month or so and once I get the plans for the aquaponics garden I will be making one of those for a turtle tank I have and will be tracking results of that as well..

Food for thought.

sgould

I also do 20-20% changes weekly.

Sabi

I do 10-15% twice a week or 25% once a week, as i'm overcrowded. I'd suggest plants too, as they also help keep my nitrates down.

Gunnie

I do 50% water changes every week on my tanks with fish in them. Some think that's too much, but it works for me. You may want to consider investing in a python to do your water changes. It's very fast, and will save your back on carrying those buckets. I can't imagine doing water changes with buckets on your tank.


www.pythonproducts.com

griffin

i used to do 50% weekly on one my my tanks, and 25-33% 3-4 x a week on some others. i'm going to start doing about 33% weekly on the tank i was doing 50% on before.

kinda depends on what you have in your tanks and stuff like that too though