# Water Change for Low Tech



## iKine (Aug 4, 2011)

I do 50% every week. But you can get away with 10-25%. Depends on your water parameters.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Never, top off only.

Well, not entirely true, if do a rare rework, I'll do a 50-70%.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

50 percent once a month when I clean the canister filter.
Heavily planted fish tank.


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## Coursair (Apr 16, 2011)

I do 25% weekly. 
Some Shrimp breeders only top off with R/O or Distilled mineralized water. BUT Shrimp are low bioload.


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## BBradbury (Nov 8, 2010)

*Water Changes*

Good morning green...

Here's a good "rule of thumb" for how much and how often to change the tank water. Just think of your tank as an unflushed toilet. How often would you want the water changed???

I have large, heavily planted tanks and change half the water every week.

The best advice I can give you is, "the more, the better".

B


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Water changes keep me from buying more stuff for the tanks. If i get the urge to buy more fish and plants, i do a water change. My 10 gallon usually runs less than 10 ppm nitrates so I change that less frequently, maybe 20% once every few weeks, lots of plants very low bioload. My 75 gallon has fewer plants, a much higher bioload and driftwood that is still leaching, so I change about 50% of that once a week.


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## kamikazi (Sep 3, 2010)

I do 50% water changes once a week, sometimes stretches out to once every 2 weeks if I get busy. The reason is I do EI dosing. If I wasn't dosing ferts I'd probably do once or twice a month with top offs.


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## PaulG (Oct 10, 2010)

50% a week.


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

Do monthly change of 30% and rinse out canister filter at same time. Tank is heavily planted 29 gallon. Filter is a small Ecco canister filter. The larger the filter the less water changes needed.


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## mjbubbles (Aug 26, 2011)

50% to 75% a week. I have goldfish who are notoriously dirty, so the water needs to be changed more frequently. Thank goodness for my waterchanger gadget!!


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## green_valley (Sep 14, 2011)

thank you for the response everyone. So what's really the goal on water changes? I know that when I was keeping oscar, it's because of the water parameter, and I was trying to keep the Nitrate to 0 ppm. Does this also apply to plants? because I thought plants will the the nitrate to be low.

More questions, what is bioload, top-off, Excel, and IE. From what I understand Excel and IE are ferts? 



plantbrain said:


> Never, top off only.
> 
> Well, not entirely true, if do a rare rework, I'll do a 50-70%.


WOWW....never? do you have fish and plants?


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## DishyFishy (Jul 17, 2011)

I do it about once a month, but I also have a low bioload. I keep a good eye on my params too.


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

BBradbury said:


> Good morning green...
> 
> Here's a good "rule of thumb" for how much and how often to change the tank water. Just think of your tank as an unflushed toilet. How often would you want the water changed???
> 
> ...


So the rule of thumb is change your water whenever you poop in your tank... I think that seems to make quite a bit of good sense. ; )

In looking into the water change issue, I suspect there is a chance that there are organic compounds in the water which bio-filtration and plants might not sufficiently remove. I've been reading in Redox, and I suspect that the use of either an ozonizer or UV sterilizer oxidizes those compounds and reduces them to harmless forms. Their use also raises Redox levels, which is one of the major things that water changes accomplish. Regular carbon filtration doens't hurt either.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I do 30-50% every 2-3 months on my 90gal and 46gals. 25% about once every 6 months on my 29gal.

They also all are heavily planted, low light, and relatively low bioload at this point. When they're more heavily stocked I try to hit a water change once every other month.

My nitrates are always under 5ppm.


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## aman74 (Feb 19, 2007)

green_valley said:


> I was just curious what is your Water change like. 25% everyweek? 50%, 75%? does it depend on any plants?
> 
> Thanks


If you mean low tech as in non-CO2, then the idea is to not change your water very often at all.

http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/433-Non-CO2-methods

Focus on the plants and low stocking levels to achieve this.

If you want to use C02, the easiest dosing method is EI (estimative index), with this you need regular water changes and can stock a bit more.

There's also some leeway between the two methods, but this may be a bit trickier to find to keep algae at bay.

I'd decide your goals first. How much maintenance do you want and can you live with low stocking levels?

It sounds like you need to get the basics down first, so I'd suggest the stickies in the various forums here and at the link I suggested in the articles section. Also, google is your friend.

Whatever you do, I'd start with high planting levels with some fast growers mixed in and low light levels, also low stocking levels. This will give you lots of breathing room and greater chance of success.


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## Madfish (Sep 9, 2007)

I do a water change on my 28 gallon cube about once every 3-4 months. But topoff with RODI once a week.


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Mostly top off. Every couple of months I do 20-30% and rinse out the filter.


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