nagukush

Hi Friends !

I love doing a 50% water change for my fishes and I wish I could do it more frequently. Just wanted to know if frequent water changes are harmful ?

I mean, is a 50% weekly water change better or a small water change everyday is better ?

Kindly guide me...
Thanks and Regards
Kush

ghengis

I usually do about 20% every week... I have no idea if that is good or bad, though. Some folks might do 50% per fortnight, others that keep non filtered tanks (betta's, killies etc) or maybe even discus tanks, might do 50% twice or thrice a week.

I think it just comes down to making sure you are regular and consistent, to avoid any stress to your fish...

apistaeasy

With fresh water 50% WC weekly is usually the frequency and amount of choice.

Some people do 50% WC daily, but it's usually b/c they're trying to breed Discus, which require very clean water (read, low nitrates)

50% also seems to be the happy amount where your tank is nice and clean, but keeps enough of the good bacteria so your tank doesn't suffer in the end.

I've also read where many planted tank people will do smaller WC's daily, but I personally don't see the benefit. 30-40% daily is what I've heard.

Tex Gal

TFH had an article about this, I think in the spring. Basically this has been an issue of choice for decades. It seems there is one more opinion than there are people discussing the issue. The basic concensus was that 40%-50% weekly to biweekly water changes was good. The article did not discuss high tech EI dosing tanks though. I think you'd have to do weekly at least since we are dumping chemicals in the tanks.

There are commercial enterprises that also do daily water changes. I think it depends on how heavily stocked you tank is and with what type of fish. Like Apistaeasy said Discus have their own requirements.

The old adage was "dilute the pollute".

nfrank

Frequent water changes are generally good. but can be a problem if the chemistry and quality of your incoming water is poor.
--Neil

sewingalot

I agree with Neil. My water is pretty lousy, so too frequent water changes usually harms my fish, especially the sensitive ones like Otos. However, if you are having no problems with your frequent changes, I would keep it up if you want. I'm too lazy to change that much at a time.

Bk828

If you would be doing small daily WC that would just add on more work to calculating how much ferts you have to add after the wc. Unless you have some sensitive fish or heavy stock, i would just stick with one large weekly wc.

bgzbgz

If you think about it you would be taking out more waste with one large water change than if you were to do a bunch of small ones.

customdrumfinishes

water changes are fine from 20-50% a week. a gravel vac is something you wouldnt want to do weekly.

Karebear

Because I have discus I do a 50% water change weekly. If I have to miss a week I notice that the fish are not as active and do a lot more hiding. The plants seem to tolerate this ok. At my store we tell customers to do 20-30% once a week. When ever there is water quality issues and the customer is honest we will find that they are not doing the water changes. An other reason to do regular water changes is that a lot of fish will secrete a hormone that keeps everone but the largest fish from growing. There is one gal who has her tanks on a schedule that changes water daily. I find that she has more problems with this system than I do with a once a week schedule.