Water changes?

I am getting a 10 gallon tropical tank or i might get fancy goldfish instead. I was just wondering how often to do the water change/tank cleaning, and if i do a 100% water change, 50%... And also, do you reccomend i get freshwater tropical fish(tetra ect...) or freshwater fancy goldfish?

I change %25 weekly all depends on the bio load of your tank.
When I used to keep pirhana I did %50 a week due to the mess they would make.

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Originally Posted by bamf64

I am getting a 10 gallon tropical tank or i might get fancy goldfish instead. I was just wondering how often to do the water change/tank cleaning, and if i do a 100% water change, 50%... And also, do you reccomend i get freshwater tropical fish(tetra ect...) or freshwater fancy goldfish?

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You change 20% of which will be 2 gls for you once a month.Well since most goldfish can reach 2ft and are nasty fish i would go with tropicals.If you remember 1 inch of fish(at the size they will reach when full grown) per 1 gallon of water you should be ok.So if you have 4 fish that will reach 2inches each when grown you have the correct amount for your 10gl :gj:

IMO it all depends on what you are keeping.
African cichlids and Piranha require more upkeep than most due to the mess they will leave depending on your setup.
regular tropical fish are not as severe, but a healthy schedule must still be maintained.

i keep Piranha currently with another community tank.
i do a 25% change in both tanks strictly once every other week.
i only do such a low amount of changes due to the way i have my tanks set up, and i have few P's.
once i get more, i will make the changes weekly.
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Edit below
You never want to change 50-100% of the water, it is not good for the filter and beneficial bacteria in the water and gravel.
you also need to treat the water with de-chlorinator so that it does not kill the bacteria in the gravel.
the filter is what you should be most concerned with, i normally turn mine off while i change the water, let it settle with the treatment, and turn it back on 30 mins later.

i change 10% a week. smaller more frequent water changes are better than big ones.
i wouldnt change more than 75% of the tanks capacity in a month 50% would be more ideal.

my african cichlids are not real dirty, but many ppl overstock them.

10g is way to small for a gold fish- deff listen to the rule of thumb that Joe has told you! - when i had gold fish- they would get almost a 50% water change twice a week because they are wiked messy. If you do only one water change a week then do one thats almost 50 because the tank ca get pretty gross with too many fish- if its only 1 or 2 small fish then a 30% water change a week would prolly be good enough.

u can do a 10g setup but it will be more problems in the longrun.I would go with a 29g or a 55g if u can it will be less work and you can keep a fish longer then a mounth.Goldfish make a lot of wast witch you dont want. go with the tetra or go saltwater.

I believe it all depends on the bio load you have and the filtration set up.. Its true that its never recommended to keep any goldfish in a 10 gal and they are messy, but you also need to consider the extra amount of work for you..

I do my water changes monthly or bi monthly. Due to the fact that I have a 55 gal with 2 canister filters (total 150 gal capacity) and plenty of bio filtration. The gravel in the tank is important as well as having a filtration unit with a bio filtration and a chemical filtration set up.

My aquarium looks empty being a 55gal, but its stocked to capacity when you consider how different types of fish are. I have a school of adult bala's (5), one rainbow and 2 plecos.

Just make sure you research the types of fish you want. They all have different needs and temperments. Some need harder water. Some softer. Some higher PH, some lower. Some dig and will move everything around. Others just sit there. Some are agressive and will pick on the others. Even some small ones.. Barbs for example. A great strater fish for small tropical tanks but they are fin nippers. A school of 6 will do good in a 10 gal. They do not generally do well with other types of fish though. Especially if the other fish have big, bright or flowing fins.

Just google the different fish you like and you will find a lot of sites with all the stats for each type of fish.

Here is a great beginners page but there are many more out there..

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/a...cfm?c=830+2855

Doesn't the fish go into shock if you do a 100% water change because it doesn't have any of their old water that they are used to being in?

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Originally Posted by CoolioTiffany

Doesn't the fish go into shock if you do a 100% water change because it doesn't have any of their old water that they are used to being in?

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They can but more due to the sudden temperature change than anything. Plus you have to consider the PH. Some decorations will buffer the PH over time. Like driftwood or coral. If you then do a huge water change, the PH will be different and that can throw them into shock as well. Tap water can be tricky. Mine is well water and is VERY hard. I cant get the water stats correct no matter what I do so I just use bottled water for every change now. If you have city water it will be more stable and better for water changes.

Another thing is some people think they should clean all the gravel and filters with every water change.. Thats a no no. If you do that, you remove all the good bacteria. In essence you will begin to "cycle" the water every time you do a water change. The cycle is the initial amount of time it takes for the nitrites to turn into nitrates from building a healthy amount of good bacteria. If there is any amount of nitrItes in the water, it will kill the fish or shock them so bad they may not recover.

So alternate water changes, gravel cleaning and filter cleaning, leaving at least a couple weeks in between each one. Gotta keep the good bacteria in there to keep the tank healthy.

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

They can but more due to the sudden temperature change than anything. Plus you have to consider the PH. Some decorations will buffer the PH over time. Like driftwood or coral. If you then do a huge water change, the PH will be different and that can throw them into shock as well. Tap water can be tricky. Mine is well water and is VERY hard. I cant get the water stats correct no matter what I do so I just use bottled water for every change now. If you have city water it will be more stable and better for water changes.

Another thing is some people think they should clean all the gravel and filters with every water change.. Thats a no no. If you do that, you remove all the good bacteria. In essence you will begin to "cycle" the water every time you do a water change. The cycle is the initial amount of time it takes for the nitrites to turn into nitrates from building a healthy amount of good bacteria. If there is any amount of nitrItes in the water, it will kill the fish or shock them so bad they may not recover.

So alternate water changes, gravel cleaning and filter cleaning, leaving at least a couple weeks in between each one. Gotta keep the good bacteria in there to keep the tank healthy.

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quick ph changes will kill many fish and plants! which is why you do not want to change 100 of the water at one time. many of us with city water has buffers in the water which after they are spent then the ph will crash. driftwood sometimes lowers the ph a little. coral or any high calcium/lime rocks will raise the ph. if your having to use bottled water i would spend the $ for a reverse osmosis unit they are typically around 250-300 (look at preminumaquatics.com )

when you clean gravel you should be cleaning no more than half of it per week. do not change more than one pad at a time on your filters.

I own a pet store and we do 20% water changes on all the tanks weekly. This keeps our losses to a minimum and our fish healthy it is what I suggest to all fish tank owners. However you can go longer if you have only a few fish in your aquarium. In a 10 gallon I would do small tropical fish like neon size.

My roomate has a 10 gallon that I set up for him almost a year ago when I bought the store. He has 3 of the glow in the black light fish (altered danios), 2 random tetras, a pleco and a cory cat. He has a hang on back filter rated for a 30gallon tank and we do a gravel cleaning and 20% water change almost every week. One thing you can do to help your tank maintain it's levels is to always use distilled or R/O (reverse osmosis) water.

You local LFS should be sell this fairly cheaply. You can also only feed your fish every other day(most people grossly overfeed fish) and they will stay healthy and keep your ammonia and nitrite levels down. Check out your local fish/pet store and watch their tanks. If there are dead fish or algae galore in their tanks leave. Knowledgeable fish people are nice to have and a little easier to find than knowledgeable reptile people. They can also test you water for you so you know when your tank has gone through it's cycle and is stable enough for fish to be added.

Sorry for the long post. Good luck PM me if you need any more help.

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Originally Posted by nixer

quick ph changes will kill many fish and plants! which is why you do not want to change 100 of the water at one time. many of us with city water has buffers in the water which after they are spent then the ph will crash. driftwood sometimes lowers the ph a little. coral or any high calcium/lime rocks will raise the ph. if your having to use bottled water i would spend the $ for a reverse osmosis unit they are typically around 250-300 (look at preminumaquatics.com )

when you clean gravel you should be cleaning no more than half of it per week. do not change more than one pad at a time on your filters.

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It doesnt cost me much because I take three 5 gal jugs to the grocery store and fill them at their water filling station. Its only a few dollars per jug that way. The water where I go is reverse osmosis filtered and I check my water stats weekly. Have never had any fluctuations since I started using that water. Plus I have such an immence filtration set-up with 2 Eheim canisters (each with different filtration compounds inside), I simply dont need to change water very often. This also allows me to only clean one canister at a time to leave the bio load high in the other while the clean one recycles.

But many people who only have a 5 to 30 gal tank dont use canisters so they just cant get that type of filtration without having a huge OTS filter or 2 smaller ones. My personal rule of thumb is filtration rated for at least 2x my tank size. That way the natural bio load takes care of the rest.

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

They can but more due to the sudden temperature change than anything. Plus you have to consider the PH. Some decorations will buffer the PH over time. Like driftwood or coral. If you then do a huge water change, the PH will be different and that can throw them into shock as well. Tap water can be tricky. Mine is well water and is VERY hard. I cant get the water stats correct no matter what I do so I just use bottled water for every change now. If you have city water it will be more stable and better for water changes.

Another thing is some people think they should clean all the gravel and filters with every water change.. Thats a no no. If you do that, you remove all the good bacteria. In essence you will begin to "cycle" the water every time you do a water change. The cycle is the initial amount of time it takes for the nitrites to turn into nitrates from building a healthy amount of good bacteria. If there is any amount of nitrItes in the water, it will kill the fish or shock them so bad they may not recover.

So alternate water changes, gravel cleaning and filter cleaning, leaving at least a couple weeks in between each one. Gotta keep the good bacteria in there to keep the tank healthy.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

It doesnt cost me much because I take three 5 gal jugs to the grocery store and fill them at their water filling station. Its only a few dollars per jug that way. The water where I go is reverse osmosis filtered and I check my water stats weekly. Have never had any fluctuations since I started using that water. Plus I have such an immence filtration set-up with 2 Eheim canisters (each with different filtration compounds inside), I simply dont need to change water very often. This also allows me to only clean one canister at a time to leave the bio load high in the other while the clean one recycles.

But many people who only have a 5 to 30 gal tank dont use canisters so they just cant get that type of filtration without having a huge OTS filter or 2 smaller ones. My personal rule of thumb is filtration rated for at least 2x my tank size. That way the natural bio load takes care of the rest.

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what works is what works.

anymore you really cannot go by a filters rated tank size or the gph rating of it. there is way too many that are rated way higher than they should be. heck the xp4 is nothing more than an xp 3 with an extra basket! there is no increase in flow. unfortunately they are not the only ones to do this. if you look at ehiems site they have the ratings with media, but this is also brand new media, so you have to leave a big margin of error.

for those with smaller tanks its more important to have perhaps a undergrave filter and a hob filter. try to say away from those bag types they do not allow for anything when you change the bag! i stick with aquaclears.

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Originally Posted by nixer

what works is what works.

anymore you really cannot go by a filters rated tank size or the gph rating of it. there is way too many that are rated way higher than they should be. heck the xp4 is nothing more than an xp 3 with an extra basket! there is no increase in flow. unfortunately they are not the only ones to do this. if you look at ehiems site they have the ratings with media, but this is also brand new media, so you have to leave a big margin of error.

for those with smaller tanks its more important to have perhaps a undergrave filter and a hob filter. try to say away from those bag types they do not allow for anything when you change the bag! i stick with aquaclears.

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I completely agree. Which is why I have different types of media in both of my ehiems. I also did notics the flow is not as great as I would like it. I have a sizable pump that I believe was designed for ponds. Im thinking about rigging it to one or both of the canisters to relieve the stress on the canister motors while increasing my flow. My power heads seem pretty worthless for anything other than moving the water and taking up space. The reverse flow option is not powerful enough for true undergravel filtration either IMO.

But I bet it would work wonders on a smaller aquarium to have a reverse flow power head/undergravel filtration and an aquaclear. I have used aquaclear before and I like them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

They can but more due to the sudden temperature change than anything. Plus you have to consider the PH. Some decorations will buffer the PH over time. Like driftwood or coral. If you then do a huge water change, the PH will be different and that can throw them into shock as well. Tap water can be tricky. Mine is well water and is VERY hard. I cant get the water stats correct no matter what I do so I just use bottled water for every change now. If you have city water it will be more stable and better for water changes.

Another thing is some people think they should clean all the gravel and filters with every water change.. Thats a no no. If you do that, you remove all the good bacteria. In essence you will begin to "cycle" the water every time you do a water change. The cycle is the initial amount of time it takes for the nitrites to turn into nitrates from building a healthy amount of good bacteria. If there is any amount of nitrItes in the water, it will kill the fish or shock them so bad they may not recover.

So alternate water changes, gravel cleaning and filter cleaning, leaving at least a couple weeks in between each one. Gotta keep the good bacteria in there to keep the tank healthy.

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pH shock?

I thought it had been proven that fish can survive a rapid ph shift and that the causative agent was rapid differences if TDS.

http://www.mtfb.com/MTFBJUNE/MTFB2%2...bsarticle2.htm

A sudden change either way causes osmotic shock.

I used to swap apistogramma panduro with a breeder from Shasta County. His ph was slightly hard (7.8) but his TDS levels were actually low. My ph was barely above 6.0 and my TDS levels were low in my planted tank due to peat being run in the filter. Never lost a fish.

I shipped some apistos to a guy in Nevada who dip tested the pH in the bags and found that his planted CO2 tank's ph was equal to the water in the bags. He dropped the fish in and lost 3 out of 5 almost immediately to "shock". The remaining two went into shock and eventually recovered.

He phoned me and explained the problem. I shipped my fish with instructions on acclimated - stressing the need for a TDS test. He ordered one from Dr. Foster's Smith.

6 days later he calls and tells me he got the meter and tested his water which came in over ppm. I tested mine and it came in around a buck fifty. That change is what killed his fish.

A number of years ago I worked on the new construction of a local aquarium and got to talk at length one afternoon with the person in charge of the fresh water exhibits. She told me point blank that there is no such thing as pH shock and that when acclimating new arrivals they shot for a 15 to 25 ppm window for TDS and no more than a 2 degree temperature change.