# large water changes



## paul_28 (Jan 20, 2011)

i think large water changes are good.. i mean all the goodness it at the filter and not in the water. some people do 80percent water change to keep all the waste down or dilute the waste. really its like fish are living in their own toilent Lol its true though and i think large water changes make fish more happier.


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## raeven (May 12, 2011)

I dunno about that. I've always been told that smaller changes are best, especially when they're done more often. Every five or six days we do a 20% water change in our 45 gallon, and our fish seem perfectly happy. Although I also clean out the filter every time I do this, so maybe that helps?


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## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

When you do a large % WC in a large tank, do you put tap water directly to the tank? Otherwise, where do you get he space the store the water. How do you do that? Using some device to help you to the WC?


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

prime ...................................


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## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

I do daily 50% water changes with a python and all I do is to add prime in accordance with directions just as I turn the tap on to refill the tank


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## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

How about water temp? I guess you need to turn a bit hot water from tap, right?

I am having a 20g so the WC is just a small bucket of water but want to know how it is done when I upgrade it to a larger tank.


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## paul_28 (Jan 20, 2011)

how about with these 100gal plus tanks, they are massive and can u skip to every 2 weeks for water change? from what i read here and from my experience the smaller your tank, well say 20gal its going to need more attending to than say a 5footer 125gal that stays more stable and looks fine for longer.


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

For my 90 I do a 70-80% change once a week. Trying to find the time to do it twice a week. When I refill I turn the python on, adjust the water temp to match the tank, then let it fill the tank, adding my prime at this time.

When you have a larger tank you can go longer between changes IF you aren't overstocking the tank. But since we almost always overstock, the schedule should be kept.


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## hondas3000 (Apr 22, 2010)

Water change is good but I think cleaning your filter is better and I just notice how bad my sump is. My setup is a 600G with 180G wet/dry and I have a drip system that doing 8gph so I thought it will take care of my tank fine with small water change like that every hours. So two days ago I have to clean all my filter media and the bottom of it is like solid dirt at least 2 inch of it, that is how bad it is and no wonder my ammonia is so high . I end up clean all my filter media with tank water and do 30% water change I would do more but my hot water tank can only handle 30% max. I no longer add prime either because the fact that the chlorine from our tap is very very low and it will not harm the fish. As long as the tank temp and the water tap temp is the same then is all good.


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## hgi (Jun 13, 2010)

I do 50% once a week in my large tanks, no prime or anything, right from the tap matching the temp with a digital thermometer. I add salt while filling the tanks up leaving the powerhead on, then turn the filters back on 30min after the tank has be filled.

Never had an issue.


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## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

I do 25-30 % weekly on my 65 gallon, but that is mostly tetras, so no massive bio-load. Same method as *target*, use python, adjust tap temperature to match that of the tank, and add prime.

When the 110 is set up, probably have to do larger changes, as it will be overstocked (surprise!!) with African cichlids..


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## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

I heard different opinions regarding adding water conditioner. Some said that it is more the chlorine we need to treat so water conditioner is a must. But it seems you can do it without it. I will continue to go with the safe side and add Prime during water change.


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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

IMHO If you going to do a water change you may as well do a large one!  I use a python too and just add water conditioner as I'm refilling...


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