Big volume water changes

[KcMopar]

Here is some info about big water changes, many people seem afraid to do more then 25% or so.
I just wanted to post a pic of the water change I do weekly to my 75G African tank. I change about 60 Gallons at a time. This is perfectly fine to do if you are able to keep the temp about the same as well as treating the water for chlorine and or chloramine. I have to do this because my nitrates build up to 40-ish PPM in a weeks time. Yes the tank is over stock but thats the only way to keep African cichlids from killing each other. I do this every weekend but, on new tanks with fish in them big water changes might need to be done every day unit the cycle is complete.

This may also need to be done to prevent fish from dying in a newly set-up tank due to the ammonia spiking during the tank starting its cycle however, I would stick to about a 50% change instead of an 80% change as I do. Once you are familiar and comfortable with adjusting the water for water changes you could take on bigger changes.
In newly set-up tanks its usually/sometimes necessary to do daily 50% water changes if the tank is cycling with fish in it. There are products out there to that help treat water change water and the ammonia in the tank, one of these is Prime.
I only post this because I read that people are doing 10% daily water changes on a newly set-up tank and they are still having fish die. This could be due to the ammonia is building up faster then its being taken out.

 

[OrangeCones]

I agree that there is seldom any harm and great benefits to doing large water changes. Most diseases can be prevented by clean water.

The only time I would advise only a 10% change daily or 2x daily is when the tank has developed extremely low pH due to neglect. Sometimes it can cause a huge swing in pH that can be harmful to fish. But clean water is needed by all.

 

[KcMopar]

I thought about posting about pH but I figured the ammonia spike is worse then the pH. Also if its a new tank the pH from the tap should not have changed much in just a few days hopefully.

 

[OrangeCones]

Exactly my thoughts. If its a new tank, and the tap water should nearly match tank water for pH values, I'm all for whatever volume of water you can change out, just as long as it doesn't freak out the fish (have seen tall fish like angels laying sideways as they can't be upright in the shallow water, to me, that's too much!).

pH shock is quite serious in a NEGLECTED tank, however. I've 'rescued' my share of aquariums full of fish to see the affects of going from 5.8 (neglected tank) to 8.2 (tap water) all at once. The end result of a large water change was a killer many times.

What I do now is just drain 50-75% of the tank's water (put in sponge filter with powerhead laying on its side if necessary in the now shallow water for water movement to aid in oxygen exchange...or an airstone). Then put a 5gallon bucket higher than the tank and drip new water in at 1 drop per second. If that didn't fill the tank, repeat the next day. Ammonia and nitrite, while serious problems, can be managed for a few days with products like Prime.

Once the pH is closer to the water you will add, go for 75% daily water changes if necessary! Fish LOVE clean water!

 

[metsrangersfan15]

thats like a 90% water change. im impressed, most of the time only discus owners do a 90% change. i ran into problems with ph shift when i had driftwood lowering my ph and my tap being so much higher, messed up my fish with a 50% water change

 

[KcMopar]

This is all good info, I was hoping others would have input like this as well. I think the people new to keeping tanks and/or the ones that bring home a new tank and fish the same day need to know this type of info about larger needed water changes after they realize the tank water is going bad because the pet store didn't offer any info or the purchaser didn't know to ask. If anyone else had any tips about emergency or large water changes please share them as it may help someone now or in the future.

 

[djm761]

This is a very important thread and I think in time some one some how should put together a thread including all the does and don'ts of water changes and then give it a sticky, some are using hot tap water, some have no idea what they are taking out of the tank and know even less about the water going back into the tank. The reason I am going to make this post is to hopefully stop someone from making the same mistake I did.

Some of you know I was absent from the board for awhile, the reason is I was very depressed and ashamed of what I did to my fish, this was so bad that I was having nightmares about my fish being burned alive. So please don't post just to make me feel worse than I already do.

So this is how it all started, when I setup my water change station, I used 2 55 gallon drums added a air wand and a heater to each, I then purchased a water filter and used a 5 micron carbon wrap cartridge, when I started using this setup I could see that the fish where really happy, they would swim under the hose and chase each other every thing was going good. then I decided to order some filters on line, and they sent me the wrong ones instead of the 5 micron carbon wrap they sent a me a case of .5 carbon block restricted.(I'm sure some of you know how this is going to end) what I read about the filters online told me these where a much better filter than the one I was using so I decided to give them a try.

I do a 33% water change in all my tanks twice weekly, a day or so after I did the first water change I could see my angel fish where looking stressed so my first thought was to do another water change the next day the angels looked horrible, they look so bad I'm thinking they must have some kind of disease affecting only the angle fish. so I filled my two QT tanks using water from my drums and put all 26 angels in the two tanks, and that was the beginning of the end I was loosing two or three angles every day. and at that point I still didn't know what was going on, so I call my son and he came over with his test strips and a TDS meter, the first thing was the test strip and it showed the ph had dropped below 6.2 our tap water is between 7.2 and 7.8 then he tested with the TDS and it show a reading of 90 and our tap water always reads 140 and 150.

The next thing we did was call his friend who breeds angle fish and his advise was that at this point I had to ride it out, the fish where already to stressed to survive any more changes. I lost 25 of the 26 angles. My son and his friend have given us some angels to help fill the void but I still cant allow myself to buy any more angels.

PS: Some of you may remember when I came back to the board I made some postings about ph this is why. And if I where to give any advice on water changes it would be keep it simple and consistent.

 

[lauraf]

That must have been really difficult for you djm...so sorry to hear it.