How often can I do a water change safely?

How often can you change the water safely without stressing out the fish? I am trying to lower my nitrate lvls. I was out of town for a week and a half and my girlfriend was supposed to do a change, but failed to along with changing the biobag. Now my nitrATE lvls are incredibly high.

 

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I don't put any conditioners or chemicals into my aquarium I just believe that isnt safe. What I do is scramble the gravel or rocks in the bottom which will expose your fishes waste and uneaten food... once i do that i turn on my powerhead to the highest pressure which will rotate the algae, fish waste, uneaten food.. and leave it like that for a minutes or maybe even hours until the tank is clear. I do this every 2-3 weeks. also with a sponge you can wipe the inside glass if there any algae build...

 

You could probably do 25% water changes every day until the nitrAtes are under control. A little stress from water changes isn't as bad as the stress from poor water quality.

-Chelle

 

regulair waterchanges is not stressfull for your fish they actually will feel better every time. i depends on the filtration but 1 would give a 30-50% change every 1-2 weeks so they always have fresh water..

 

50% water change everyweek does a nice job!

 

I've read that water changes are very good for your fish. I had been doing 30% to 60% water changes everyday. They really seem to love it ! It will keep your 3 N's in check. But I wonder why your nitrates are high to begin with? I'm not sure, but could algae or live plants be causing your nitrates to be so high?
caj1968

 

also another thing with that being so high. is your tank in direct sunlight?

 

Hi papastew, A lot depends on what your tank PH and your tap water PH are. If your tank is neutral at 7.0 and your tap water is at 8.4 you can't do as much of a change as if they were both at 7.0. I believe in keeping things as natural as possible but I have become a strong believer in using Amquel and Novaqua whenever I do water changes. Amquel removes Ammonia, Chlorine and Chloramines. Novaqua buffers the PH. My best suggestion would be to do a 50% water change while removing debris from the bottom of the tank and dose with Amquel and Novaqua at the recommended amount for a full tank. Wait 3 days and do a 25% water change and dose with Amquel and Novaqua at a level of 25% of the tank dosage. Wait 3 more days and repeat the 25% water change and dosage. In doing this you will have changed roughly 100% of the water in 6 days without putting too much stress on your fish or throwing them into PH shock. After that just continue to do your normal water changes. Good Luck.

 

i do a 25% change every 2 weeks, i also have 2 aquaclear 500's and a Magnum 350 canister fillter with a micron filter,

 

When my ammonia levels went up a few weeks ago I was doing 20% water changes every 12 hours for about 3 days then once a day after that 'till they were back down. Make sure the temperture of the water is close to the temperature of the tank to prevent much stress on the fish.