Well, every situation is different, and, like I said, whatever works works.
:-) FWIW, have you ever considered getting a large vessle (say one holding
a couple hundred gallons) and getting the new water conditioned first? Then
it would simply be a matter of putting it into your tank(s) when needed. If
for some unforseen reason you did find yourself needing to do a large
"emergency" change then you could feel safe knowing good water was at hand.
Just a thought. Not knowing your situation, this may not be feasible.
I have a number of tanks in my fishroom that have even lower stocking
densities than the 29 with the 3 adult Coen trifasciatas. I have a coulpe of
20 gallon "longs" that house only one pair of Apistogramma -- well, most of
the time they do. Sometimes they also have fry if I am lucky. :-) I can
easily go a month or more between needing to do any sort of water changes on
these tanks, but I will often change water more often anyhow as I think it
contributes to getting them to spawn, especially if I do a really big one
(60 - 70%). Conversely I have tanks of fancy guppies that ideally I would do
large water changes on twice a week or more. They grow much faster and
larger if I do this and I can really lay on the feed. Folks on AquaBid spend
stupid-big amounts of money on these things and I have literally paid all my
fishroom expenses lately by selling guppies, so the extra work involved, to
me, is well worth it.
We are lucky here in Portland, OR (USA) in that we have really excellent
city water straight from the tap. It is soft and comes in at around a
neutral pH. Very easy to add a buffer to jack up pH for my Rift Lake
cichlids and perfect "as is" for stuff like discus and Apistos. Only
downside is that we have chloramines, but those are easy to deal with using
de-chloinators at proper dosages.
I appreciate the kind words. :-)
Julie <'><
>From: "Matthew Stanton" <matthews at sf.nsw.gov.au>
>Reply-To: r_m_l at yahoogroups.com
>To: <r_m_l at yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: RE: [RML] This whole water changes thing
>Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 11:09:38 +1000
>
>
>Love your first two paragraphs Julie. You are pretty much right with the
>rest also.
>
>One other thing to consider...
>I am water self sufficient with a 100000 litre concrete tank collecting
>water from a galvanised roof. I also have dam water to use when we are
>not in a drought. Both these water sources have issues that I have to
>consider when doing water changes.
>The tank water is high in metals, mainly zinc I hope. Vertebrates seem
>to deal with zinc pretty well but invertebrates and some plants seem to
>hate it. Also this water is quite alkaline (if we have not had recent
>rain) but is actually low in kH (no buffering). The result is that if I
>do a 30% water change my inverts tend to die and I get a flush of
>nitrogenous waste in the tank. Also the pH can swing unpredictably all
>over the shop for a day or two until (presumably) the substrate
>buffering kicks in. Usually the fish end up with ragged fins for a day
>or two before things come back to normal.
>If I use the dam water, it usually has a high BOD, coming in from full
>sun to indoor aquarium positions. The fish seem to deal with the
>situation but I usually end up with a Blue-Green Algae bloom about a
>week later.
>
>This is my 'excuse' for being tardy with water changes but the low
>density approach seems to work for me. I get healthy fish most of the
>time and I feel that their behaviour is a bit more natural.
>
>Later
>Matthew
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: r_m_l at yahoogroups.com [r_m_l at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
>Julie Zeppieri
>Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2005 3:50 PM
>To: r_m_l at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [RML] This whole water changes thing
>
>
>'Ello All,
>
>So I have been mulling over what has been said here about water changes
>and,
>well, about *not* doing them, and have some of my own pennies to toss
>into
>the well...
>
>
>Firstly, I do not think there is only one way to do anything in this
>hobby,
>and whatever works for someone works. The proof is right there in
>healthy,
>long-lived fish and thriving plants, right? This is one of the most
>important things we all can learn and I believe can never be stated
>often
>enough.
>
>BUT (and of course we all did know this was coming, didn't we?)...
>
>I also do not feel that this whole, "one does not need to do water
>changes
>hardly ever to keep thriving healthy rainbows" is a safe topic to just
>put
>out there, carte blanche, for all and sundry. I believe there need to be
>
>some serious caveats to this. Some were expressed, tho not well-defined.
>
>Others were not. Joe-Beginner could get into some real trouble
>otherwise.
>;-)
>
>So, 6 large bows in a 26 gallon tank, planted, and water changes only
>once
>or twice per year, huh? Yikes! I only keep 3 large Coen Tris in my 29
>and it
>is planted with low-light faves like Java Moss, Fern and such. I do
>water
>changes about monthly, plus little ones here and there since I use this
>tank
>as my change-water for all the various cups and tubs of fry and eggs
>scattered about the fishroom, then I top up the tank with FW as it gets
>low
>from this. Believe me if I had 6 of those fish in that tank I would do
>more
>water changes. Done properly they never hurt. Ever.
>
>And, as I said before, plants do help a lot with H2OQ, but the plants
>themselves enjoy water changes and (I believe) need them even when the
>fish
>do not -- mine just do better when I make changes regularly, even
>smaller
>ones.
>
>The biggest thing to stress when saying all of this, tho, is you don't
>know
>how good/bad the water is until you test it. Each tank is going to be
>different, and each person is going to have more/less success with each
>method (or philosophy, if you will). Sure, real old hands at this, such
>as
>Ron Bowman, can maybe do these kinds of things without testing because
>they
>are so practiced they can "see" how things are at a glance. But most
>folks
>can't and before anyone goes and just stops doing regular partial water
>changes, please, run tests for awhile to see what is really going on.
>You
>might be surprised.
>
>As for me, yes, I do practice this (testing), and that is why I know
>that in
>my heavily planted tanks (that are lightly stocked, and even more so
>than
>has been explained on this list BTW) the dissolved wastes that I can
>test
>for are always at low-to-nothing levels. I also know that despite this
>the
>plants respond positively when I make the water change anyhow. ;-) In
>
>many other of my tanks (No one mentioned fry tanks now did they? Totally
>
>different situation -- do the water changes on those kids. Trust me!)
>this
>infrequent water change thing just will not cut it. I do them, I do them
>
>large and I do them often. The tests tell me I need to. So do the fish,
>but
>I have been doing this all awhile myself. ;-) Not as long as Ron
>maybe,
>but I have a few decades of practice under my belt now.
>
>OK. Well, seems like I emptied my entire change purse into this well
>here,
>so I guess I'll quit before I have to go break a dollar. :-)
>
>Hope for any newbies out there this helps some. Better safe than sorry
>and
>water changes are a REALLY easy and inexpensive way to keep all your
>fish
>and plants healthy if done correctly.
>
>As I said tho, there is NO one way to do anything in this hobby, so all
>methods and practices discussed here have some merrit. Just know that
>not
>all of them work for all people and for all fish/tanks. This whole thing
>wuz
>getting to sound too "generalised" for my comfort, so hence the
>mondo-logue.
>That and Gary lit a fire... so blame him if you have to. ;-P (couldn't
>
>resist, Gary - no willpower!)
>
>Ciao, Darlings!
>Julie <'><
>
>Down off the soap box and back to the deep end of the pool. :-)
>
>
>
>
>