# 3 Times A Day Water Change



## RB 32 (Mar 2, 2005)

Does 3 times a day water change STRESS the fish.


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## 33truballa33 (Oct 18, 2004)

i think that is far too much. it can mess with ur water chemistry.. 3 times a week is more reasonable than 3 times a day


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## Ex0dus (Jun 29, 2005)

RB 32 said:


> Does 3 times a day water change STRESS the fish.


Any reasons you think you have the need to change the water that often?


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## ben2957 (Sep 17, 2005)

thats way too much


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## RB 32 (Mar 2, 2005)

Ex0dus said:


> Does 3 times a day water change STRESS the fish.


Any reasons you think you have the need to change the water that often?
[/quote]
No reasons,there are 11 big piranhas in a 300 gallon I know I can get away with doing just 30% once or twice a week but I love keeping the water in perfect condition plus water changes for me are very simple and I enjoy doing it.At the moment I do only once a day but if it won't stress the fish I will be more than happy to do it 3 times a day.


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## Ex0dus (Jun 29, 2005)

water company must love you!







I think that once/twice weekly water changes are more than enough. If you want perfect water, invest in an auto drip system possibly.


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## 33truballa33 (Oct 18, 2004)

instead of excessive water changes load up on good filtration i.e. wet dry filtration or cannisters or maybe even a fluidized bed filter


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## RB 32 (Mar 2, 2005)

33truballa33 said:


> instead of excessive water changes load up on good filtration i.e. wet dry filtration or cannisters or maybe even a fluidized bed filter


The filtration that I got can do easy 800 to 1000 gallon saltwater tank. That's not the question,you know that there is noting that can replace a water change,water changes are something else.


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## 33truballa33 (Oct 18, 2004)

yes i kno but doing that many water changes is border line retarded. and 800-1000 isnt all that much for a 300 gallon tank.. usually i got with 10 times the gallonage of my tank i.e. my 100 gal has a lil more than 1000 gph filtration but that is just me. but thats my advice


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## RB 32 (Mar 2, 2005)

33truballa33 said:


> yes i kno but doing that many water changes is border line retarded. and 800-1000 isnt all that much for a 300 gallon tank.. usually i got with 10 times the gallonage of my tank i.e. my 100 gal has a lil more than 1000 gph filtration but that is just me. but thats my advice


oh I didn't put down the (gph) I got 4400 gph on the 300.


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## 33truballa33 (Oct 18, 2004)

oh ok thats coo but yeah like exodus said if u want constant replenishment of water go with a drip system if not just do 3 20% changes a week..


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## Ex0dus (Jun 29, 2005)

33truballa33 said:


> oh ok thats coo but yeah like exodus said if u want constant replenishment of water go with a drip system if not just do 3 20% changes a week..


^what he said. And when you find a cost effective auto drip system let me know.


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## RB 32 (Mar 2, 2005)

I know but what's wrong with doing 3 times daily,if anything I just give them the best quality water possible that's all,good for growth and everything else you know.I personally think that it's perfecty fine, you only going to get great results from it.


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## 33truballa33 (Oct 18, 2004)

too many frequent water changes can take benefitial bacteria out of the water causing a mini cycle which could result in a bacteria bloom and ultimately stress or death on ur fish due to spikes in certain chemical levels.. that is the worse case scenario


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

RB 32 said:


> I know but what's wrong with doing 3 times daily,if anything I just give them the best quality water possible that's all,good for growth and everything else you know.I personally think that it's perfecty fine, you only going to get great results from it.


RB 32,

You haven't said how much you plan to change, you said how often.
An example:

A) to change 30 % per week with a nitrate start level of 30 mg / liter.
This way you can reduce nitrates to 21 mg / liter.

B) to change 10 % 3 times per week with a nitrate level of 30 mg / liter.
This way you can reduce nitrates 27 mg / liter (1. water change), then to 24.3 mg / liter (2. water change) and finally to 21.87 mg / liter (3. water change).

So as you can see (asssuming the level of nitrates does not increase between water changes) one big makes more difference than many small ones.

But tell us how much you would change per week (total), if you plan to change something 3 times a day.

You said you want your fish to have the best water quality possible.
Well is the quality of the tap water the best possible? No it is not.
How do you plan to regulate pH, if at all?
How do you plan to remove the chloramine (or clorine + ammonia)?
How do you plan to remove the metal ions of tap water?

Regards,


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## RB 32 (Mar 2, 2005)

harrykaa said:


> I know but what's wrong with doing 3 times daily,if anything I just give them the best quality water possible that's all,good for growth and everything else you know.I personally think that it's perfecty fine, you only going to get great results from it.


RB 32,

You haven't said how much you plan to change, you said how often.
An example:

A) to change 30 % per week with a nitrate start level of 30 mg / liter.
This way you can reduce nitrates to 21 mg / liter.

B) to change 10 % 3 times per week with a nitrate level of 30 mg / liter.
This way you can reduce nitrates 27 mg / liter (1. water change), then to 24.3 mg / liter (2. water change) and finally to 21.87 mg / liter (3. water change).

So as you can see (asssuming the level of nitrates does not increase between water changes) one big makes more difference than many small ones.

But tell us how much you would change per week (total), if you plan to change something 3 times a day.

You said you want your fish to have the best water quality possible.
Well is the quality of the tap water the best possible? No it is not.
How do you plan to regulate pH, if at all?
How do you plan to remove the chloramine (or clorine + ammonia)?
How do you plan to remove the metal ions of tap water?

Regards,
[/quote]

I want to change 5 to 10% each time so that's 15 to 30% every day,
and how amI going to remove everything else from the water is I am going to use a good water conditioner called aqua safe.


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

RB 32 said:


> I know but what's wrong with doing 3 times daily,if anything I just give them the best quality water possible that's all,good for growth and everything else you know.I personally think that it's perfecty fine, you only going to get great results from it.


RB 32,

You haven't said how much you plan to change, you said how often.
An example:

A) to change 30 % per week with a nitrate start level of 30 mg / liter.
This way you can reduce nitrates to 21 mg / liter.

B) to change 10 % 3 times per week with a nitrate level of 30 mg / liter.
This way you can reduce nitrates 27 mg / liter (1. water change), then to 24.3 mg / liter (2. water change) and finally to 21.87 mg / liter (3. water change).

So as you can see (asssuming the level of nitrates does not increase between water changes) one big makes more difference than many small ones.

But tell us how much you would change per week (total), if you plan to change something 3 times a day.

You said you want your fish to have the best water quality possible.
Well is the quality of the tap water the best possible? No it is not.
How do you plan to regulate pH, if at all?
How do you plan to remove the chloramine (or clorine + ammonia)?
How do you plan to remove the metal ions of tap water?

Regards,
[/quote]

I want to change 5 to 10% each time so that's 15 to 30% every day,
and how amI going to remove everything else from the water is I am going to use a good water conditioner called aqua safe.
[/quote]

harrykaa has a good point, that more frequent water changes are less efficient than one big one (with the same %).

On the other hand I think that more frequent but smaller water changes, have advantages too. It will not as easily cause fluctuations in temp, pH, etc. as with one big water chagne. Also if the water you are puting in your tank contains chlorides then the effect will be a lot less whenyou do a small water change. So the risk of a mini-cycle as mentioned above would be less I'd think

RB 32, when you say that it's very easy to change water, what do you mean? I imagine you have some kind of system with an overflow so the water flows directly in the drain or sthing? Because I can image that going in your tank with a gravel vac (just an extreme example) three times a day would stress your fish a lot. But if they don't even notice when you're doing water changes, why shouldn't you do multiple water chagnes a day. I wouldn't change 30% daily that would be a bit too much. Go for 10% or so.

I myself change 5% daily.


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## hemptation88 (Jun 9, 2005)

kinda off topic but u said how easy it is for u to change water, i was just wondering how u fill the water back up in your tank. It takes me forever to drag my hose into my room from outside and then gettin it back and now that its winter the water is so much colder.


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## Phtstrat (Sep 15, 2004)

As it has been said, it is more practical to do one big water change per week.

Some people also siphon a little bit out after each feeding.


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## Serygo (May 17, 2004)

I say... IF it doesnt stress out your fish, and they are doing fine as is, just keep doing it, until one of them shows a sign or two that they are in major stress.


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

33truballa33 said:


> too many frequent water changes can take benefitial bacteria out of the water causing a mini cycle which could result in a bacteria bloom and ultimately stress or death on ur fish due to spikes in certain chemical levels.. that is the worse case scenario


Can't take something out of the water that isn't there. The bacteria is not free floating.

That said, 3 times a day is not worth the effort. Do 30% every other day if your that concerned about water quality.


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

When do you find time to change water 3x? Don't you have to work or something?



hemptation88 said:


> kinda off topic but u said how easy it is for u to change water, i was just wondering how u fill the water back up in your tank. It takes me forever to drag my hose into my room from outside and then gettin it back and now that its winter the water is so much colder.


I fill my 20gal buckets with R/O water and put boiled water to in to balance temp. Then I use a 900gph pump to pump water back in my tank, no mess no lifting.


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

RB 32 said:


> I want to change 5 to 10% each time so that's 15 to 30% every day,
> and how amI going to remove everything else from the water is I am going to use a good water conditioner called aqua safe.


OK,
Tetra AquaSafe (US product) can take care of chloramine too, the European product does not.
Anyway, look for pH too.
In Finland, Helsinki I have a tap water of pH 8.2. So I have to see also that too much water changes do not make my tank water (pH 6.8) too basic. That would mean algae.

Regards,


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## Lector (May 6, 2005)

dont ask the questions if you dont want to follow the answers.


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

harrykaa said:


> In Finland, Helsinki I have a tap water of pH 8.2. So I have to see also that too much water changes do not make my tank water (pH 6.8) too basic. That would mean algae.


I don't get it how an increase in pH causes algae. Can you explain?


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

boontje said:


> I don't get it how an increase in pH causes algae. Can you explain?


Well boontje,

All the water plant species (incl. algae) have a specific pH range where they grow best.
Almost all the green algae (Chlorophyta) and blue-green bacteria (Cyanophyta) favour slightly basic water. Most algae stop growing at pH 6 or under.

The other thing which is important in combatting the algae is the light.
Algae greatly favour yellow-green portion of visible light. In fact this is the wavelengt, where sunlight has a peak. There are light bulbs (built for aquatic photosynthesis) that emit only a little this yellow-green light, but that have emission peaks on the red and blue side of the visible light.
Only red algae (Rhodophyta) and some brown Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) and Golden algae (Chrysophyta) can grow well under this light.

Regards,


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

harrykaa said:


> I don't get it how an increase in pH causes algae. Can you explain?


Well boontje,

All the water plant species (incl. algae) have a specific pH range where they grow best.
Almost all the green algae (Chlorophyta) and blue-green bacteria (Cyanophyta) favour slightly basic water. Most algae stop growing at pH 6 or under.

The other thing which is important in combatting the algae is the light.
Algae greatly favour yellow-green portion of visible light. In fact this is the wavelengt, where sunlight has a peak. There are light bulbs (built for aquatic photosynthesis) that emit only a little this yellow-green light, but that have emission peaks on the red and blue side of the visible light.
Only red algae (Rhodophyta) and some brown Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) and Golden algae (Chrysophyta) can grow well under this light.

Regards,
[/quote]
Thanks


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## alan (Mar 11, 2004)

i wish i had the time to do 3 water changes a day..its a bit extreme though.


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## hemptation88 (Jun 9, 2005)

rchan11 said:


> kinda off topic but u said how easy it is for u to change water, i was just wondering how u fill the water back up in your tank. It takes me forever to drag my hose into my room from outside and then gettin it back and now that its winter the water is so much colder.


I fill my 20gal buckets with R/O water and put boiled water to in to balance temp. Then I use a 900gph pump to pump water back in my tank, no mess no lifting.
[/quote]

hmm sounds like a good idea, how much is it for a pump like that n where can i get one??


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

RB 32 said:


> Does 3 times a day water change STRESS the fish.


Sounds like something Nicholas Cage would do in the movie: "Matchstick Men!"
"One... two... three..."


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