?????

[Twinbot]

I got into this hobby about three years ago. My secretary gave me a couple dwarf frogs in a 1 gal bowl, and that started it. I now have a 30g w/ four white-skirt tetras, three gold-dust mollies, three rosey barbs, one gold barb, one red-tailed shark, one pearl gourami and three dwarf frogs (one of whom is the original!); 20g/L w/ five serpae tetras, three green cories, three juli cories, three yoyo loaches, two albino cories and two female bettas; 10g w/ two sunset platies, one red platy and one dwarf gourami; 2.5 gal w/ two male bettas ... one red, one blue.

Now, the deal is that when I started I bought a copy of Aquariums for Dummies and that was that. I did an 80% water change every month, adding water every three days (even with covers, the evaporation rate here in the desert is tremendous). I changed the filter cartridges every month (Whisper filters), and a complete scrub-down every three months.

Here's the question (finally!): Why is it that when four months ago I started doing partial changes of 20% every week, I began suffering bacterial blooms? I never had a problem with ammonia/nitrites/nitrates, before or now. But, since I started doing the "proper" thing, things didn't turn out so proper. The tanks only started to clear when I just recently went back to my old method of doing maintenance every four weeks.

Discuss.

 

[wethead]

I don't know why you did'nt have problems in the past, but i'd never compltely clean out a power filter & destroy all the good bacteria in it. I've had Whisper filters running for 5-6 yrs & hav'nt touched them except to change the bag. In my opinion overcleaning can be bad. I also don't use the carbon except to get rid of meds, etc....Rich

 

[tetra girl]

maybe its because what you did was consistant. I believe the number one rule to fish keeping is keeping things consistant. because you had done what you did for such a long time, the fish and the bacteria got used to it. When you suddenly changed to once a week the bacteria of course was thinking all its christmas's had come at once!

If doing the 80% change once a month works for you and your fish are happy then continue with it. If you do want to go to weekly water changes however then go to it gradually by slowly cutting down the time between water changes. Of course this will take discipline as it will take a long time. Do what makes you fish happy

 

[Twinbot]

Now, that's a good answer!

 

[tetra girl]

Thanks - I really like your signature, whats it off?

 

[Twinbot]

My favorite flick ... Jaws. Quint says it just after Hooper chastises Chief Brody for carelessly causing some scuba tanks to fall onto The Orca's deck, and bounce across the cockpit. BTB, I just added three lemon guppies to the 10g, and a green sailfin molly to the 30. I think my fish-buying days are over until I get another tank.

 

[pyackel]

Water changes with certain tap water can introduce nutrients that certain bacteria thrive on - hence the "post water change bacteria bloom". The water will appear as slightly milky white for at least several days until they use up the nutrients. Just try less frequent water changes. Keep an eye on your nitrates as time goes by. I have the best luck performing small frequent water changes (10% a week) or infrequent changes are fine as long as you have some de-nitrator (i.e.: Live Plants). An important reason for doing routine water changes is not just for nitrate reduction. It is just as important to keep the water from becoming highly mineralized which is what happens if you just replace the water that has evaporated. If it wasn't for the latter, and you had plenty of live plants as a de-nitrator, you would probably be better served doing only 4 water changes a year - if that.