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hey its me again if my tank is cycled what would be a good way to keep a tank healty 20% waterchanges every week or less > i also read in one of the older topics that it is not nescecery to changes the filter every month just now and then because of the good bacteries and if you change the filter you have to put the new one with the old one together for atleast 2 weeks can someone give me some tips

Thanks Kaboke

Hi there,
On all my tanks I do a minimum of 35-40% of the
water changes every single week.
For filter cartridges, if you mean those little
plastic box things with floss on one side and carbon
inside, you can rinse those in used tank water (not
tap water), every 2-3 weeks, or when flow diminishes.
Most people these days reuse them till they fall apart.
If you ndo need to put a new cartridge in, just dont
do a gravel vaccuum within that week, to allow the cartridge to grow bacteria, which will colonize it from the gravel.
You can even just drop the old cartridge in the tank
for a few days, and the bacteria will migrate from the old cartridge to the new one.
If you have a canister filter, these only need to be
cleaned 2-4x yearly.


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Hi,
The amount of water that you change depends upon the type,
quantity, and size, of the fish in the tank.
Type, some fish have stricter requirements as to water
quality and want clean fresh water all the time.
Quantity, the more fish you have in a tank the higher
the bio load, the more you feed, and the faster the tank
will become "dirty."
Size, many of the larger fish will not be "neat" eaters
and will leave particles of food scattered about on the
bottom to decay. Again, the tank will become polluted
faster with them.

Generally, "we" change between 10 & 20% of the tank each
week. Others change every other week with the 30-40% range
and even others still will change the water once a month
or more, when they have the time, or remember it.
Water changes are our way of duplicating nature. Water
is naturally changed with rain storms, or melting snow
and ice. We have to do it for our tanks.

There are arguments for, and against large water changes,
say 30-50% or more. Over time, be it a week or whatever,
the water chemistries (pH,GH,KH, Nitrate) will vary and
the fish will acclimate to that change as it is a gradual
change. When you change large amounts of water, your
chances of duplicating the values that are in the tank
(which by the way, you want to dilute in most cases) is
slim to none. You generally wind up replacing the water
with water of different values, and you could stress the
fish leaving them open to various diseases.

The safest thing to do is to stock the tank lightly, and
make frequent, small water changes so you do not stress
the fish.

That being said, large water changes will stimulate the
breeding urge in many fish as they breed during the
rainy season, for instance.
The key is the word REGULAR. Do the changes at some
interval and continue doing it for a clean stable tank.

As far as the filter is concerned, THE main source of
the bacteria that regulates the Nitrogen Cycle is in the
gravel of the tank. The colonies inhabit every nook and
cranny on every grain of gravel. They also live on the
sides of the tank, on the hard scape (rocks & driftwood),
ornaments, and inside the filter. Generally when
performing maintenance on the filter, you will rinse out
(in old tank water) the media of the filter. If you have
a sponge in the filter, simply squeeze it out in a bucket
of old water a couple of times and then replace it back
into the filter. Over time the sponge will become worn
and not fill the area in the filter allowing water to
bypass it. Then it is time to replace the sponge. But,
don't replace everything at the same time. If you are
doing it monthly, replace one form of media, and then the
next change replace another form of media.

Likewise, when draining the tank for the water change
mentally divide the non planted sections of the tank into
four sections and with each draining, vacuum a different
section. That way, over a month (if done weekly) you have
vacuumed the entire tank but given each of the sections
three intervals to recover from the vacuuming.

Hope this helps...
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I do about a 30% on the 5ft tank and 40% on the Betta tank both done every week. When I go on a fishing trip for about about two weeks the wife changes about 2lt of prepared water every day and when I get back home everthing is perfect.

Filtration 5ft Eheim Pro11 this is completly pulled down once a month all the filter materials are washed in the old tank water.
Betta tank small internal Eheim this has a large foam filter and is cleaned every week the filter is also cleaned.

I also add 10ml of Sera Bio Starter at every water change to both tanks this keeps the good bacteria inits origional state.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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As was wisely stated above, The amount of water you change and the frequency greatly depend upon two factors. Number one being tank size and two being your stocking level. The larger the tank, for example, the easier it is to maintain a constant nitrate level. Smaller tanks however, spike very easily. Say 15gal and under. As was also stated above water changes is our way of duplicating nature's filtration. Many fish come from ponds, streams, lakes etc with a potentially limitless source of water, which is constantly changing over and washing the harmful elements away, or simply diluting them greatly. In your tank though, you have a very limited amount of water and the only way to flush the harmful elements is by changing the water. I have 3 tanks, a 5g, a 10g and a 29g. The nitrate levels in the 5 and 10 will spike very easliy, and so I do about 40% change usually twice a week. The 29 will remain much more stable and so only 25-35% weekly.
The other factor is your stocking level. All my tanks are light to moderate. A lone betta in the 5, a female betta in the 10 plus some neons and a school of rasboras, a pair of yo-yos and a dwarf pleco in the 29. One or two of these may be messy eaters. The point is the more fish equals more waste equals more nitrates equals more water changes!
What you do with your filter may depend on the type of filter. I have one HOB that I change the filter cartridge every other week (it clogs up quicky). I also have two HOBs on the smaller tanks that don't take cartridges, so I clean the sponges in the old tank water every week and strip and clean the filters completely about every six weeks. The reason for cleaning in old tank water is because you don't want to clean it in fresh tap water which may contain harmful chlorine, chloramine or even ammonia which may interfere with the bacteria colonies therein.