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General comment am I being "unrealistic"


Ian Tilley
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I have cut back on water changes on my 4ft tank ( 1 gallon per week) the stocking level is 8 halequin rasbora, 10 ember tetra, 8 cory's and a bucket load of cherry shrimp.

I have noticed an exceptionally hi amount of sporning activity in all the species with a major load of eggs from the 1 Cory ( all females 😢) would I be wrong in assuming the eco system is more or less in a happy equilibrium that being said oh is sitting at 7,4

Edited by Ian Tilley
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I assume your tank is at least 55 gallons, so your bio load is not very high but over time 1 gallon a week is probably going to leave you with some parameter getting out of wack.  Why is your water change allotment so small?  I sit pretty solidly in the opposite camp.  In my planted 75, I do a 50 gallon water change almost every week.  The tank is heavily stocked though.

 

Edited by Grassypeak
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Hello @Ian Tilley, yes, I would assume your fish are happy.

An ecosystem however is always changing. As a result, I would suggest testing your water once every week or two and simply spending time observing your aquarium daily(algae growth, fish behavior, plant deficiencies). 

Plants grow and get trimmed, fish may grow larger, tap water parameters may change and more which is why it is difficult to say that a consistent 1 gallon a week is all you need. 

I would make sure to test my ph, gh, kh and nitrates. This way you can avoid high nitrates or even low nitrates if its a planted aquarium. You also want to make sure to avoid old tank syndrome. 

I hope that helps! 

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2 hours ago, Grassypeak said:

I assume your tank is at least 55 gallons, so your bio load is not very high but over time 1 gallon a week is probably going to leave you with some parameter getting out of wack.  Why is your water change allotment so small?  I sit pretty solidly in the opposite camp.  In my planted 75, I do a 50 gallon water change almost every week.  The tank is heavily stocked though.

 

Yes about 55G tank, I found with a waterchange over 7,5 gallons I would have a few shrimp dead within 3 days of the water change. With 26 fish and lots of shrimp and a 50% plant coverage. Once I dropped below 7G no more dead shrimp and the fishe have been in sporning mode continuously

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Funny that, the same question came into my mind only few days ago.

It is nearly 4 weeks since I changed water in my 100gl tank, all I did was cleaning the filters and trimming the plants. Ammonia, Nitrite, Phosphate are '0'. Nitrate is 50, PH is 8, KH 8 and GH 17 (used to be 15). Fish are happy and the Brown Hair Algae that I was fighting for the last 5 weeks has started to disappear so maybe less frequent water change is useful. 

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@Ian Tilley if you find that your shrimp are passing away with your water changes (slightly larger ones), I would test your tap water and compare it to your aquarium water. 

@BenA I agree as well that less frequent water changes are useful. I try to keep my aquariums as consistent and stable as possible. But looking at your gh increase (likely from topping off your aquarium), I would recommend looking into old tank syndrome just so you are aware of it. Here is a link to the video by aquarium co-op on it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oXXJ8UgM2kM

@Grassypeak I agree that it is a tank by tank thing which is why it is important to test your water. However, I do think it can work with “heavy stocking”, I just think that you will just require an even “heavier” growing plant mass. It is all a balance. With heavy stocking, I would recommend that plants like pothos be added above your aquarium as well to help with ammonia and nitrates while also not taking up too much swimming space in the aquarium. 

 

 

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I never change water in a planted tank unless my bi-weekly testing shows ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate in excess of 50ppm.

Hell, I have a couple of Walstadt tanks that have NEVER had a large water change.

I do weekly water changes of 30-50% on my African Cichlid tank (no plants at all to munch on the large nitrite load, and Africans are “messy” fish).

Just like most things...  if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

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@Isaac M Thank you, will read. I actually top up with RO water, in any case this weekend I am going to change 25% of the tank water.

@tonyjulianoMy cousin has a large tank of about 150gl with African Cichlids. He changes water once every 4-5 months and says that the fish spawn like mad and that all the time he gives young fish to his friends. The only filter he has is an under gravel filter. 

 

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17 minutes ago, BenA said:

changes water once every 4-5 months and says that the fish spawn like mad

That’s incredible.  My tank gets absolutely disgusting if I let it go for even a couple of weeks.  Mine is much smaller, of course, at only 60 gallons (and I overstock it to death - have 35 fish in it now).

I do “compensate” somewhat by over-filtering, I have a FX4 on it, it turns the tank over like 8x per hour!

Edited by tonyjuliano
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