Can I Skip A Water Change?

[natureandwildlife]

Is it safe to skip a weekly water change now and then? Thanks.

 

[Crimson_687]

Assuming that your tank is not overstocked and you have a well established bacterial colony and good filter, your nitrates would go up, causing fish to become stressed and more likely to succumb to bacterial infections. The rate at which this happens would depend on the quantity of the previous water change, how long you allow weekly changes to be skipped, the stocking of your tank, and the efficiency of your tank

 

[kallililly1973]

Depending on your stock and filtration and evaporation and water parameters and if the tank is well established you may be able to skip them once in a while. But keeping an honest regimine is usually the best for the tank.

 

[natureandwildlife]

How do I tell when my bacteria colony is well established? I am just slightly under stocked and I did a 50% water change last week.

 

[Jellibeen]

Test your water! That's the only way you will know. Test your water seven days after a water change, then nine days, etc. Keep in mind that even if your nitrates are low after two weeks, water changes are still important to replenish minerals and get out bacteria. Personally i'd rather just do a water change than test the water a bunch but my tanks are small so water changes are quick.

 

[kallililly1973]

Get an API test kit and test your Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates. They should real 0 ammonia- 0 nitrites and 5-20 nitrates. Once your tank is established a weekly WC will usuually just be needed to remove waste, add fresh minerals to your water and remove any excess of nitrates if you don't have live plants and even if you do have live plants replenishing your water will keep your inhabitants happy and healthy. And always be sure to add a water dechlorinator such as Prime during every WC

 

[e_watson09]

Testing your water is the only way to know for sure. If the tests are good you're probably okay. Like I skip them when I'm on vacation. Skipping is much better than having someone else try to do it for me. I just do it before I leave and right when I get back. I'm usually gone 10-14 days when I do go on vacations. Never an issue.

 

[Machine11]

As mentioned above reasons for water changes and needing to test etc.
The occasional missed water change is rarely harmful, however just not doing them or putting it off too long can be harmful.

I found myself in this situation recently due to nothing else apart from my own laziness. I didnt change the water for about 4-5 weeks and the pH dropped below 6 which meant the cycle went dormant.
When I changed the water the pH went back to 7.2 and because the cycle kicked started again I had a nitrite spike and bacterial bloom.

If you skip a water change ensure you do a larger change than normal

 

[fjh]

The short answer is yes, it is okay to skip WCs once in a while. Assuming you have no problems with your tank and haven't changed anything recently, you should be okay. I highly advise testing your water regularly though as that will help you deduce what attention your tank needs.

 

[natureandwildlife]

Thank you for the fast responses everyone! I had my water tested recently at Petsmart and they said that everything was looking good. No ammonia, no nitrites, low nitrates. All else was good too. I will still not make it a habit to skip water changes unless it is unavoidable. Thanks again!

 

[AllThumbs]

I suggest getting the apI master kit to test. petsmart uses the strips, don't they? in any case, you need to be able to test at home, and that's the most accurate way (that I know of?). I don't skip weeks, but I put off doing wc on the exact 1 week mark sometimes. if I have a tank/fish i'm worried about, that's a diff story and I'll do daily wc.