How often is a water changed required!!

[wonder bread guy]

I'm fairly new to the fish scene and have two tanks running.

I do water changes every week or every second week.

Is this too much or do I have to be more specific on when i do them??

I usually do about a 10 to 15% water change.

I also have been using "Cycle" is this effective or is it a waste of my money?

[DiscusKeeper403]

I'm fairly new to the fish scene and have two tanks running.

I do water changes every week or every second week.

Is this too much or do I have to be more specific on when i do them??

I usually do about a 10 to 15% water change.

I also have been using "Cycle" is this effective or is it a waste of my money?

Cycles junk and a waste of money, as is all "bacteria" products with the exception of Bio-Spira which I have heard good results on. Problem with it is, it needs to be frozen even during shipping. Is your tank new?

Normally you want to do 20-30% weekly as a minimum, so you should definitley step those water changes up. If you have plants though, you can tend to get away with a little less as they will use nitrogen as food.

Edited September 1, 2009 by DiscusLova

[KTK]

The 10-15% a week is GOOD. Depending on the fish you can do more if you like. For the most part 25% at most. NOT ALL "bacteria" products are a waste of $. Cycle is for the most part.

Use Stability!! It works great and it was the longest shelf life and does not need to be kept in the fridge. Chang for cycle to stability and keep doing what your doing.

[Baos]

I don't use bacteria products and I've cycled a 10g with a blue ram colony. If you monitor your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels they'll tell you when you need a water change. Just make sure you have something that breaks chloramine.

[RD.]

The amount & frequency of water changes are entirely dependent on the bio load of the tank.

One of my tanks receives a 50-60% water change every 5-7 days, others receive smaller less frequent water changes.

Without knowing the number of fish, the size of the tank, the filtration, and even how much one feeds, there is no way to give any type of definitive answer to your question.

[gobies et al]

I agree with RD.

Think of their water conditions as the air you would like to breathe. The water in a heavy bio load would rapidly become like the smog ridden cities, desperately needing a refreshing wind and rain.

Many of our fish come from fast flowing waters and are intolerant of contamination. They must have pristine water conditions or stress and become ill. They must have frequent and often large water changes to be maintained in good health.

My 90 gal. tank gets ~50% water change every 7 days. My 10 gal. tank was getting 2 gal. change every 2 days when I had the Cana snails in it. My brackish tank gets ~25% every 2 weeks. There are no hard and fast rules but you do need to treat every tank as individual.

Incidentally, I haven't used bacteria products for years.

[Ishkabod]

Cycle for the most part is worthless because of it's short shelf life i had bought it to cycle my first tank and it took 3 months with a growing Koi in it. Now once the tank is cycled you can go without the bacteria BUT you might want to wait a few months to be sure the bacteria has innundated the substrate and all the decorations. At that point the tank is well established and you should be able to easily get away without the bacteria. Stability is the one to go with. I have it and i just started a new tank and wanted to test it out. It's been two weeks and i haven't seen a trace of nitrite or ammonia in at least a week so it does work. On my other tanks i don't even toutch the bacteria bottles UNLESS i have something disasterous happen like a long time power outage. After an outage of 13 hours with no water flowing through the filters and my HOB's(hang on backs) run dry A couple of caps of stability over the next two days and not even a hint of an ammonia spike was seen(or nitrIte)

Petsmart seems to push Cycle as the one to use but that is most likely because the company pays them and the employees are fed their propoganda disguised with fact(i suspect this but i don't know it to be true as a fact but it's the only explaination for the few good fishkeepers i've seen and their defence of this product). Stability and Prime get their sales from word of mouth on their excellence(NLS too).

Good luck

L

Edited September 2, 2009 by Ishkabod

[BettaFishMommy]

i've never used 'bacteria in a bottle' and have read, as others have said, that they are a waste of time and money. invest in a good liquid drop testing kit such as the API freshwater master kit (if you have freshwater tanks) or the saltwater version if you're a saltie. It's one of the best 30 to 40 buck investments you'll ever make for your finkids.

my tanks get at least a 50% change and gravel vac every week to two weeks, depending on how much/what foods i've fed and what the current stocking is in the tank, and depending on how busy i am. i clean filters at least once a month. my planted tank does not get gravel vac'd.

Sherry.

Edited September 5, 2009 by BettaFishMommy

[Parachromis1]

Cycle for the most part is worthless because of it's short shelf life i had bought it to cycle my first tank and it took 3 months with a growing Koi in it. Now once the tank is cycled you can go without the bacteria BUT you might want to wait a few months to be sure the bacteria has innundated the substrate and all the decorations. At that point the tank is well established and you should be able to easily get away without the bacteria. Stability is the one to go with. I have it and i just started a new tank and wanted to test it out. It's been two weeks and i haven't seen a trace of nitrite or ammonia in at least a week so it does work. On my other tanks i don't even toutch the bacteria bottles UNLESS i have something disasterous happen like a long time power outage. After an outage of 13 hours with no water flowing through the filters and my HOB's(hang on backs) run dry A couple of caps of stability over the next two days and not even a hint of an ammonia spike was seen(or nitrIte)

Petsmart seems to push Cycle as the one to use but that is most likely because the company pays them and the employees are fed their propoganda disguised with fact(i suspect this but i don't know it to be true as a fact but it's the only explaination for the few good fishkeepers i've seen and their defence of this product). Stability and Prime get their sales from word of mouth on their excellence(NLS too).

Good luck

L

Where do you get all your info from? Propaganda? It sounds like your saying they're "brainwashed", like get real.

No chemical is needed, Cycle and Stabilty are both garbage. The only product I would use is beneficial bacteria by Marc Weiss, it's superconcentrated and works well. Ya know, there are other products out there too, best thing to do is ask around, and hit up the different petstores!

[Natures Corner Store]

No chemicals are needed but a bacteria is. I am happy that the Mark Weiss product is the ONLY product YOU use. If that works for you GREAT. Seachem Stability has worked FANTASTIC for me over the many years I have used it. I used others too that work, but I have never seen Cycle perform as per directions on the bottle. Once my tanks are established I very seldom find the need to add any more bacteria from a bottle.

I do agree that Cycle does not produce results the way it says on the bottle. Stability does, Mark Weiss's product does, Fritzyme does, and so do a few others I have used on the many hundreds of aquariums I have been keeping over the years in this hobby. I have also done the "fishless cycle". A bottled bacteria is WAYYYY faster though. Many products that work are not easy to find at the stores. Some don't even make there way into Canada. Seachem Stability is reliable and easy to get in most places in Canada.

[DiscusKeeper403]

No chemical is needed, Cycle and Stabilty are both garbage.

Agreed. I have used Cycle once to no success and have never heard of Stability working (except mentioned by the members here on this thread.) They should all be called snake oil if you ask me If you can get some Mature media this is the easiest way. For anyone cycling their tank I will even give you my mature media if you can get me replacement filter foam You could also always overdose prime and do a few more water changes. I have Discus in a cycling tank right now with no issues, all I do is water changes

Edited September 5, 2009 by DiscusLova

[hybrid]

I change 15-40% depending on how stocked the tank is,

only product i use is PRIME

[Natures Corner Store]

I'm fairly new to the fish scene and have two tanks running.

I do water changes every week or every second week.

Is this too much or do I have to be more specific on when i do them??

I usually do about a 10 to 15% water change.

I also have been using "Cycle" is this effective or is it a waste of my money?

Hey wonder bread guy, if your aquarium is cycled properly then maybe this article may help a bit to explain a few things even though it is written about ponds. :thumbs:

A Word About Water Changes - by E L Johnson DVM

this one is about "The Cycle - Probably the Core of Water Quality"

Edited September 6, 2009 by Natures Corner Store

[Medicdude]

I agree 100% with Henry. I used Stability and / or Microbe Lift Special Blend to power cycle all my tanks when I relocated my store and also when I expanded and with little or no losses. I would also be cautious with overdosing Prime as you risk depleting the oxygen supply in a tank without sufficient biological filtration (and yes I know it's recommended to overdose in emergency situations).

[DiscusKeeper403]

I would also be cautious with overdosing Prime as you risk depleting the oxygen supply in a tank without sufficient biological filtration (and yes I know it's recommended to overdose in emergency situations).

Never heard this before. Do you mind explaining why?