water changes 3x a week too much?

29 tank

400 gph

9 tiger barbs soon to be 10 or 11

One day they will get big and id do 2 small and one big water changes to kick up waste/uneaten food to grab with the net and let the filter suck what they can; but some felt commets when i ask about water changes and its not needed.

*all about water quality*


Thoughts?????

PS: i move everything on big water change day and kick up everything

 

do you check your water parameters? because if you aren't causing it to lose it's cycle, then you are fine. seems like it is too many to me, but again, parameters will be most helpful.
EDIT: i should add, are you siphoning?

 

Agreed with the above poster, if its not causing any harm on your fish, I think you should be okay. How much do you remove each time you do a wc?

 

The solution to big fish is not more water changes, its a bigger tank. It's not just about worrying about bioload and adding filtration, fish actually need swim space and room to move around.

 

My nitrates are always orange (@ least 20 ppm) and 10 3inch tiger barbs in a 29 gallon? That size is fine. When i did them 2x a week my ppm always went to 40 or even more. Doing it this way every is going great

 

yeah, the barbs are fine in there. are your nitrites and ammonia both 0ppm? and staying at 0ppm after the changes? if so, then you can keep doing what your doing. honestly i don't think you need to do more than one water change a week 15% and then a big one once a month (just in general) but if you feel like three a week is working and isn't too difficult then i see no reason for it to be a problem.

 

Ok ill fight the urge to change my water today lol. I try wendsdays and saturdays (2x a )week

 

Changing the water 3 times a week is fine if that's what you want to do. People who keep sensitive fish may do it more often then that. And tiger barbs are very hardy fish. Change it as often as you want. It won't hurt a thing.


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I've seen people do 80% every three days, and the result was that their fish grew exponentially faster than average. The trick to this was having barrels of water conditioned and ready for changing. It really does not harm the fish. And cycling is a waste of effort with this regimen.