penance

I've never been on a good habit of doing water changes but with my silver dollar getting ill again I know I should shape up.

So with a 55g should I be doing 10% which is about 10 gallons.

Should I remove 10 gallons of old aquarium water, get new water, treat it and then dump it back in?

Is this the usual way?

Thanks

agabr123

IMO you should be doing about 20% changes, which is about 11 gallons (10% would be closer to 5 gallons), and you should get fresh water, treat it and put it in, not replace the water that you took out, that defeats the purpose of what you're doing since you aren't treating for nitrAtes

penance

sorry I mistyped and meant, "get new water in separate bucket, treat it and then dump it back in"

It's midnight and I really need to go to sleep -.-

namehater

heres what i do so i dont have to keep track of how many buckets ive emptied. take a tape measure and measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the tank. divide that number by 4. the number that you get from solving that equation will be how many inches of your tank (height wise) equals 25% of your water volume. since i do 25% water changes, i just put a little mark on the tank and take out water until i hit that mark. then i know im changing at least as much as i need to be.

to simplify what i just said, lets say from the top of the substrate to the top of the tank is 12" (im using a random number). i would take the 12", divide it by 4, giving me 3". i make a mark 3" down from the top of the tank. thats the mark i work off of to know my water changes are adequate.

hope this helps more than it confuses

aquarist48

I'm a firm believer that 1/3 to 1/2 of your tank should be changed within a 30 day period. For me and my 155g it's easier for me and better for my fish that I do a water change every 10 days instead of all at once (by doing it every 10 days it keeps my pH in check along with the other water chemistry). I pre-filter my new water in another tank, and chemically treat it and it's also heated. I change 20 to 25 gallons with every water change.