Are You Making Routine Water Changes Easy and Enjoyable?

Making routine water changes is an important part of successful fishkeeping. Once you make a habit of carrying out this chore, it shouldn’t seem as much of a bother. In fact, the task can be far more pleasant if you do it more frequently, with smaller amounts of water involved each time.

Whenever you succumb to bouts of laziness, just imagine the suffering you are putting your helpless fish through. Just as we humans will find it difficult to breathe heavily polluted air, even for a short while, it must by most uncomfortable for your fish to live in a sewer-like environment. What’s worse is they have no way of escaping their situation.

Change the Water Or Else…

Dirt and debris will accumulate in the substrate, the levels of pollutants like nitrate and phosphate will increase and turn toxic, and the pH level will deviate from the safe optimum. Essential trace elements necessary to maintaining your fishes’ health will be depleted too.

By keeping the water as clean as possible, you keep your fish in the best of health; fish with healthy immune systems are able to resist disease better and survive longer.

5 Tips on Making Routine Water Change a Bliss

When and How Much Water to Change? This would depend on the water quality parameters and bio-load of the aquarium.

1. Amount of Water. Under normal circumstances, making a 10 per cent change once a week to a 25 per cent change once a month should be adequate. If you notice that the water quality is not improving, you can increase the amount, the frequency, or both. However, try not to exceed a 50 per cent change at any one time, as this will disrupt the bio-system that is already established in the aquarium,

2. Frequency. If your aquarium is less than six months old, the risk of ammonia buildup should be your biggest concern. Because the aquarium’s biological systems is not cycled, or mature, as yet, fish waste containing ammonia can quickly build up into toxic by-products like nitrate and nitrite.

3. Filtration System. If you have installed a good mechanical and biological filter system, and your aquarium bio-system has been established, the water needs to be changed less often than for a newly set-up aquarium.

4. Size of the Tank Matters. A small but heavily stocked tank may need half of the water changed every three days, whereas a large tank with just a few fish may only need a smaller fraction of the water changed every week, or every other week.

5. Emergency Cases. Change all the water should an emergency, such as a disease breakout arise.

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