WATER CHANGES

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Cute fish turtlemommy!

I try and do weekly 50% water changes on my goldfish tanks. Sometimes it's not possible though and I end up doing a larger water change but I don't like to do it routinely.

With a twenty gallon tank a 50% weekley water change shouldn't be a huge deal for you.
 

Mmathis

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bettasngoldfish said:
Cute fish turtlemommy!
Thanks! They are a couple of "pond mutts," but I think I got lucky! There were 2 other babies that I've already turned loose: one was Shubie-patterned, and the other was "natural" olive. I think the salt & pepper is unique, and the little fantail is the cutest little guy -- he has a double black banding at the base of his tail that looks like it was painted on. Can't wait to see them grow up.
 

JohnHuff

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That's a very interesting wiki entry, written by Ms. Walstead, which happens to support the hypothesis espoused by her book, which is referenced when you click her name, sold by Amazon.

I've written and read my fair share of technical articles. The wiki entry does not seem to be written by someone familiar with technical writing, the writing more resembles an article written for casual magazines. Even the Walstead method, "...a natural planted tank with a substrate containing a soil underlayer" has already been independently done by aquarists ever since someone invented the tank.

Having said that, it appears she has done her due diligence on her research. I'll take her at her word since I'm not going to check out every one of her references to look at the studies. She is correct in that the mantra has always been plants take up nitrates. Shakaho, you might do well to quote that wiki page and her book every time the question of plants and nitrates come up and see what the others say.

I do see a few flaws in her wiki entry, but I don't have any problem in the idea. By lower plants, I mean ones like duckweed and algae, which is in line with what she said. Higher plants would be the more complex ones, and it is already the general consensus that bacteria colonize the leaves.

I suspect that everyone will have their own story. My own experience is that I have massive amounts of media, duckweed and hornwort. I've never found ammonia or nitrites in my testing but I've never been able to get rid of that 20ppm nitrate despite the number of plants. By that wiki entry, surely the plants would have taken up nitrates after all the bio media and plants have exhausted the ammonia or nitrites, but the nitrates are still there.
 
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Our aquariums (and ponds) are constantly trying to obtain equilibrium. ( I thought I would highlight that)

The more we have to intervene, the more something is out of whack. I'm in favor of letting the water, fish and plants tell me what is needed.
I'm constantly looking at methods to reduce my intervention being a necessary part of my aquariums.
I try to automate as many things as I can, and reducing the amount of fish I keep plus letting plants grow (within reason). Too much plant growth can be a problem in itself.
Definitely something I enjoy observing. :)
 

addy1

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I am one of those that build it, leave it alone, so far has worked well for my pond and inside tank. The inside tank has a bunch of anarcharis and hornwort, I only change the water now and then because it seems like I should, every few months. the water tests do not change i.e. from good.

The pond, filtered by a ton of plants, also gets no real attention, rain water water changes, no filter cleaning, the pond stays in great shape.
 
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I do weekly 20% changes in my 65 gal. Even if the water quality tests good you still have to remove their waste. The smaller the tank the quicker water quality can get out of hand. Good luck with your tank:)
 
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It is true that some people can heavily plant a tank or lightly stock a tank and do less frequent water changes. I have big fish and they will tear those plants right out of the substrate or if planted in a pot simply tear the plant to shreads. In such a case, large water changes are needed. There are also things in the water that cant be measured with a conventional test kit.
 

addy1

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mine is heavily planted, light fish load, now, don't need to do a lot of cleaning.
When I had the shubbies in it, with two filters, (one a 5 gallon bucket full of filter material) I had to clean and change water weekly, esp once those suckers started growing.
 

Mmathis

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Of course, first rule of siphoning a tank -- never walk away! Yesterday about 1/4 of the tank went in the bucket, and 1/4 went on the floor. Was wondering why I heard running water sounds -- and cats showing interest in the den floor was the give-away!

Other than a mess to clean up, no problems. That was a 50% change, so WNL :)
 

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