How often do you change the water in your aquarium ?

[guppyguy]

Water is essential to life for our fish. But the water gets dirty quickly and quality drops fast. In aquarium keeping we change the water to keep our fish happy and healthy !

I change 25-30% of the water every week. I find that if I go any longer, I see a drop in the vitality of the fish, a slowdown in the growth of young fish and an increase in unwanted algae. With routine water changing, fish have healthier, more colourful lives. This hobby isn't work, so if we give our tanks a little more attention, it won't kill us. But if we neglect water changes, we may kill our fish.

[gabor129]

I do 25% a week myself, except on the pleco grow out tank I do twice or three times a week, depending on how insane my week is!!!

[phish]

I do about 15%-20% a week. It really depends on the stock. I'd like to do more but I really don't have the room to store the water. I like to let it age for 3 or 4 days and put a heater in the buckets so that the temp doesn't drop in the tank. I don't use any chemicals to make the water safe, which is why I just let it sit in the bucket.

[Xander]

Based on my nitrates and stocking, I change out far more water than necessary right now with my 25% weekly - however, I consider it practice for when I'm at the stocking level that I want. I believe that the nitrate level is what should dictate when and how much you change, but also that there's no such thing as changing too much water.

[jeffyguy]

I do 30% weekly water changes. I do find the fish fair far better that way. I have neglected tanks in the past and the results are obvious. Fish don't do so well without weekly water changes no matter how big your tank is. A clean tabk is a happy tank?

[Andre]

i do between 50-70% water change weekly. been using this method for 5+yrs and has been working out really well

[freshwater]

I do 30% to 50% every 10 to 14 days on my main tanks. I have a couple of grow out quarantine tanks that are some times a little over stocked I do 50% on these tanks every week.

[zenins]

I do half my tanks one week and the other half the next week.
I spend about 3 hours Saturday mornings changing 20-35% of the water, depending on the aquarium, the activity of the inhabitants, and whether other maintenance has to be done, like canister filters, top glass cleaning, and so on.

[lesfromlakeshore]

Try to change 20 to 30% a week , doesn't always work out . If I get behind it's a ton of work to catch up due to the amount of tanks I have but I plug along . When I'm growing out cory fry I change 50 to 75 % a day once they are free swimming . Nothing makes cory's happier then water changes .

[tropics]

I usually do 50% on Sunday's. I only have 2 tanks running at the moment..... So it doesn't take much time.

[gabor129]

Mar 12, 2016 21:44:42 GMT -5 tropics said:

I usually do 50% on Sunday's. I only have 2 tanks running at the moment..... So it doesn't take much time.

Onse you have two they start to multiply, in no time you have 5 or 6!!! 

[tropics]

Ohhhh trust me I know. The most I've had is 4 at one time.which is nothing compared to a lot of you lol

[gabor129]

Well some of us can't even remember when we only had 4 tanks......

[guppyguy]

4 tanks was long time ago for me in a distant memory.