How much water do you change?

I know I should not really even worry about water changes, still cycling and only on day 4, but I like to be prepared. I have a 30 gallon tank that is cycling fish less. I have read, that once my ammonia & nitrites are 0 and my nitrates go up, to do a water change then add my fish. I have seen some say 20-25% water change. So really how do I decide how much water that is?? I am horrible at math. Do I figure out my tank volume and take 20-25 % of that?? the thought of math kills me. If I think I am doing this right, it would be 6-7.5 gallons to remove?? and of course the bucket I bought does not have measurements on it, it just shows 1-12 inside, but does not say 12 what.

 

HI Choochiegirl,
What you need to do is test your NitrAtes when the cycle is done. Lets say your Nitrates are 20ppm. You would need to do a 50% water change (15 gallons) (or more) to bring the Nitrates to 10. If your Nitrates were 30, you would need to change 2/3rds of your water to get your nitrates to 10. Which would be 20 gallons.

AI'm to get it to 10 before adding fish, then keep it under 40 for hardier fish (regular water changes), and under 20 (more frequent water changes) for more delicate fish. As long as you don't overstock (or have messy fish like plecos) a once every two weeks water change of 25-50% (depending on your nitrate level, which you should check every week) will probably keep it low. However, with messy fish like plecos, or large fish like Oscars, you will need to do more frequent large water changes, like 50% every week.

But you don't know EXACTLY how much water to change until you test, so it may be less than what I put up there, you just never know.

Good luck with your tank, glad to see you knew about cycling BEFORE adding fish, I didn't, but the people here advised me on the best course of action, but it was too late for my tiger barbs. All my fish are doing perfectly, but I am overstocked, so I have to do 50% water changes once a week. Brianna

 

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.

 

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.

 

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..

 

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

 

An aquaponics garden would help as well ---> 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 ---> 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. ;D

 

I also do 20-20% changes weekly.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

thanks for your answer. I've been thinking about it now, once I'm ready to change my water for the first time, I will test before and after and if it's still high. I can always change again right away, can't I?

If I add plants at this time (water change time), will moving the gravel around mess with the cycle?

Also once it's cycled & running and fishy, I have read to only partially vac the gravel, should I only do certain areas every week? as-in divide it in quarters and do a different quarter every week?

 

Look at it this way....10% of 30 gallon is 3 gallons....so 20% is 6g, 30% would be 9g, 40% is 12g, 50% is 15 gallon and so on. Each additional 3 gallon is another 10%.....Changing 1/3 of your water would be changing approx. 10g......Changing 2/3 of your water would be changing about 20g

Keeping your nitrates below 20 should be what your looking to do...Of course lower is always better.

 

thanks for your answer. I've been thinking about it now, once I'm ready to change my water for the first time, I will test before and after and if it's still high. I can always change again right away, can't I?

If I add plants at this time (water change time), will moving the gravel around mess with the cycle?

Also once it's cycled & running and fishy, I have read to only partially vac the gravel, should I only do certain areas every week? as-in divide it in quarters and do a different quarter every week?

HI Again, Yes you can always change it again if you need to. Just remember to wait a few hours after putting the water back to test, it is best to wait overnight though, just to be sure. Moving the Gravel around while adding plants should not huirt it one bit as most of the good bacteria lives in your filter. When I vacuum, I do 1/2 my tank, then the other half in 2 weeks, and have had no problems. No ammonia spikes/minI cycles. I test Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate every week, and you should make that a habit too. It determines how often you should make water changes, and if you need to do one sooner than planned. Good luck with your tank and fish. Brianna

 

I started a 55 gallon tank 2 1/2 weeks ago. My ammonia levels are pretty high but, there are still no traces of nitrites or nitrates. How much water should I change and how often. I know about the nitrogen cycle and have been adding Stress Zyme.

 

Welcome to fishlore coffeey!!

if you are doing a fishless cycle, no water changes needed...just feed the tank a lil bit of fish food a night...goodluck!

 

That was a quick response! I should have elaborated. There are in fact 12 fish in the tank. I was misguided when setting up my aquarium and tried to do everything at once. Now I have lost a few fish and wishing I had done my homework first. Along with stress zyme I have added Ammo-Lock because some of the fish were getting stressed. My opaline gourami seems to be itching himself on different things, my pearl gourami is puffy behind his gills and not eating. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

 

I didnt think you had fish as your aquarium info just stated plants....that's signs of ammonia poision ....do you have a test kit and have you tested the water??

I would do DAILY water changes of at least 50% and treat the tap water with some prime ...that way you get a lil bit of control on locking up the things that would kill the fish..ammonia and nitrites always should be 0 with nitrates under 20...

 

Then 50%+ water changes daily, preferibly with prime (water conditioner) otherwise you'll keep loosing fish!

 

My water is from a well so should I still add the conditioner? My ammonia is .50ppm (mg/L).

 

the prime if you can get some, helps lock that down a bit...so yes it wouldnt hurt at this point..but the water changes daily are most important so you don't loose any more fishies ..

 

Will a 50% daily water change slow down the nitrogen cycle? is it worth it to keep pouring in things like Stess Zyme and Ammo-lock?

 

no it won't slow down your cycle..beneficial bateria is on your decorations and in your filter media...you need the water changes to decrease the ammonia..and daily changes until its at 0 with nitrites at 0 also...stress zyme is better than anything at this point and I'm not familiar with ammo-lock...I hope someone comes along with info on that....

 

don't use ammolock. I used it while cycling and it didn't help. all you can do are the water changes and add tons of stress coat. if you keep doing this there won't be more dead fishies. I also didn't do my homework before getting my fish in my 75gal and my fish were dying then people here told me that I needed to do the daily water changes and add a good water conditioner ( went with stress coat by api) and there were no more dead ones. try not to use any chemicals in your tank because you will be better off. by just doing water changes it will help a whole lot.

good luck and welcome to fishlore!

 

HI Coffey5030.
At this point I wouldn't worry about the time it takes to cycle. You have fish in it, so the 50%water change (that's around 27 gal of water, changed daily) will keep your fish alive. The good thing about Prime (read it here recently, never used it) is that it removes chlorine/chloramine -which you don't need- but also prevents your tank from toxic spykes -which you do need.

In a fishless cycle, you want those spikes to happen, then to fade out. Not this case. You will need the two types of beneficial bacteria to grow in your 55gal tank. Your cycle probably needs to last longer, since you can't afford to have a sustained ammonia, and then nitrite, spikes (lethal to fish), so aI'm at keeping ammonia and nitrites at least at tolerable levels (the only safe level for ammonia and nitrites is zero). Log the info of all parameters, using liquid reagent test kit (don't trust strip tests). Good thing you have plants. A "silent" cycle is possible to achieve. At this point you would do better underfeeding than overfeeding your fish. Do careful substrate vacuum -focusing of solid waste only. The microscopic fellows you need grow in the substrate too. And of course leave the filter media untouched.

Another option you have, is to spend some money in Bio-Spira. I have no personal experience with it, but have read interesting stories around here. If you go with Bio-Spira, you don't need to log water parameters for the first week after adding it.

We are here for you. You can pull this off. I'm going through a mini-cycle myself, with fishlore help, I'm keeping things in order.

Good luck, wellcome to fishlore

Pepe
Santo Domingo

 

Another option you have, is to spend some money in Bio-Spira. I have no personal experience with it, but have read interesting stories around here. If you go with Bio-Spira, you don't need to log water parameters for the first week after adding it.

It has been re-formulated here in America as Tetra SafeStart and no longer needs refrigeration. Still not so easy to find in some places, but if you need help with that, let me know.

 

Thank you all for the the help. I bought the tank and fish to relieve stress but it was having the opposite effect. I am very glad I found this forum.

 

HI Coffey, We're glad you found us to too.

I don't have any advice to add, the others have covered it very well.
Follow their advice you'll be fine and enjoying your fish.

Good luck.

 

if you don't do the same on all tanks then pick one or maybe your average.

 

The only time I've changed out more than 25% of my water is if I have an ammonia or nitrate spike.

 

I end up taking about 50%. My tank is heavily stocked and it appears that larger weekly water changes can help prevent old tank syndrome.

 

Depends on the tank, all except my two larger tanks I do 50% usually every other week but I almost always have to add water to them. My house is just really dry so idk they evaporate quick! I only do about 30-40% on my two larger tanks but I try to do them weekly or atleast do a small water change in between the regular ones.

My 2.5 and 10s its not uncommon for me to take them down almost 70% just because I get distracted and don't pay attention to how much I'm taking out.

 

tank size or shape can make a huge difference. my 33g long is very hard to change less then 50% if your doing a good gravel vac. because its so long and short 48 x 12 x 12 inches l,w,h.

 

I end up doing about a third on each tank. I just drain until I'm done cleaning and/or messing with stuff, seems like most of the time ends up about a third of the tank. I don't really get an abundance of nitrates so I'm not overly concerned with changing large amounts.

 

I prob should have made a few more options to get it a lil more exact.

 

I do 75% on all of my tanks. The goldfish tank is overstocked.

 

I don't clean my tanks so much because of nitrates or ammonia spikes but merely because its healthier for the fish. They seem to like the cleaner water and are much happier with fresher water so my cleanings are yes to actually get the nasties out but also to keep the fish feeling good.

 

50%+. My 75 gallon only gets about 40% because of my mix vessel size.

 

33% each week

 

Depends on the tank. The 5 and 10 gallons get 50%, the 20 gallon gets about 1/3 etc