Do Water Changes Affect Water Bill?

HI guys,

I have recently fallen in love with fancy goldfish. I would love to own two Ranchu goldfish in a 40 gallon breeder tank. With proper filtration I was planning on doing 50-90% (leaning closer to 90) water changes once a week depending on water parameters from API testing kit keeping ammonia levels to 0.

Do 50-90 % water changes once a week on a 40 gallon breeder tank really make a dent on the water bill?

What do you guys think?

 

First, I would never, ever do a 90% water change. It creates too much chemical instability. I do 30% water changes in my 40 gallon. Once or twice a week.
Secondly if your dad has warned you, I would do 5 minutes showers to keep my fish. Look what is more important to you, because you take showers longer than my wife baths.
I have 2 tanks running and I haven't noticed any major change in my home water bill.

 

I agree, I wouldn't do 90% changes, and you shouldn't need to do one that big anyway. I do 50% on my 10 gallon tank with 1 goldie (way overstocked until he moves to a new tank), and my nitrates hover around the 20-40 range. With 2 in a 40, you might not even need to do 50% weekly to keep nitrates in check.

Also, it's not nearly as much, but we haven't noticed any change in our water bill.

 

Same so far with the 8 tanks we had. (Mostly 5s and 10s). Will be interesting to see now though since we just set up a 45g today. (Plus, I think landlord handles the water bill)

 

Ok you're 27 if the bill goes up just offer to pay the difference. Or take a shorter shower..nobody can be that dirty lol

 

50% water change x 1 per week = 80 gallons a month.

Unless you live in a municipality with insane charges for water, you won't notice a difference.

Most City's have a formula of a flat rate water fee + "X" per 1,000 gallons of water = water bill. So 80 gallons is negligible.

 

HI guys,

I have recently fallen in love with fancy goldfish. I would love to own two Ranchu goldfish in a 40 gallon breeder tank. With proper filtration I was planning on doing 50-90% (leaning closer to 90) water changes once a week depending on water parameters from API testing kit keeping ammonia levels to 0.

Do 50-90 % water changes once a week on a 40 gallon breeder tank really make a dent on the water bill?

What do you guys think?

No it won't at all. That's only 80 to ~140 gallons a month (a nice deep bath). My horse drinks 10 to 20 gallons of water a day during the summer and even that doesn't really impact our water bill. 25% - 30% water change a week is usually plenty IF you make sure your tank is cycled before you put fish in it. If you cycle your tank you shouldn't HAVE ammonia in it, ever, as long as you do those regular water changes and don't overfeed your fish or overload your tank.

 

HI guys,

I have recently fallen in love with fancy goldfish. I would love to own two Ranchu goldfish in a 40 gallon breeder tank. With proper filtration I was planning on doing 50-90% (leaning closer to 90) water changes once a week depending on water parameters from API testing kit keeping ammonia levels to 0.

Do 50-90 % water changes once a week on a 40 gallon breeder tank really make a dent on the water bill?

What do you guys think?

Water changes, especially big and frequent ones, do affect the water bill. Big water changes I usually only see recommended when the fish are sick.

 

Water changes, especially big and frequent ones, do affect the water bill. Big water changes I usually only see recommended when the fish are sick.

The op is talking about water volumes of 80 to 140 gallons a month. No, NOT much impact on water bill.

 

it'll be a few dollars more.

but like others have said, 90% wc is not recommended. 40G is plenty for 2 ranchu's. you should be able to go 2 weeks with 50% wc.

 

The op is talking about water volumes of 80 to 140 gallons a month. No, NOT much impact on water bill.

That's a lot to me. Of course, we don't have much money, so any change in bills is significant to us.

 

It definitely depends on how your water is charged. Like some people said already in some places there's a flat fee no matter what and only past a certain point will extra water be charged. When I first started keeping fish I was paying all utilities and there was no difference from before fish-keeping to after, including 29, 10, and 5 gallon tanks all getting weekly changes. We just never went above whatever the "included" water was in the flat fee. But that was our municipality, which happens to be in an extremely water-rich area (lots of deep clean lakes). I'm sure you could look online to see what your area does.

Also like other people said, you can make up for water use in different ways---cutting shower time, using the water change water for other things like watering plants or whatever. I water all my plants on water change day and fill up watering cans for the following week.

 

80-100 gallons is good deep bathtub full of water. Will THAT make an impact on your monthly water bill?

 

Depending on how your municipality charges it could. I have a well so its just an electric bill. My local electric company says it costs .15 cents per gallon with our rate.

 

ours is around $2 per 1000 gallons of water, but they tack on sewer fees, water authority fees, etc.