Some of you are like this, and some are not but the bottom line is that you need to perform water changes when you keep a planted aquarium. Sounds simple right? Well I know a lot of folk who don’t perform many water changes, because…
I did a 20% water change the other week – that’s enough right?…
That’s not enough I’m afraid. If I’ve kept you attention, read on.
Water changes are needed to remove pollutants that plants produce – you can’t see them, but they sure are there. When plants grow, they like everything else that grows they produce waste. These waste products (organics) need to be removed, otherwise they build up, become more concentrated and then cause you problems and normally show up in algae form. In many CO2 infused aquariums, your turbo charged tank is really motoring and plants are growing like weeds, so it’s important to stress that the quicker your plants grow, the more waste they produce and this is why it is essential to:
perform 40-50% water changes every week.
It’s a bit like flushing the toilet if you catch my drift. Imagine not flushing the toilet…YUK!!
How often do you perform water changes?
50% every week in combination with the EI over here 🙂
That’s perfect Gilles. And how is your tank getting on?
blimey! 50% every other day! It takes us about 3 hours to do it but we have to change just over 2000l per water change!
Now that’s what I call a water change!
I couldn’t agree more. I don’t think you can change too much water in a planted tank personally. 50% per week is definately a good amount though. Every so often 50% twice weekly won’t do any harm either, but in my opinion 50% weekly minimum.
I’m with you on that Matt. There’s really no limit to water changes.
Have you always done large water changes?
No I haven’t. I have only done them since dosing EI about 9 months ago. I had many problems with algae before I did large water changes. They definately help keep algae at bay.
That’s living proof that water changes are essential and work!. Make note people 🙂
Thanks Matt.
No problem Richard. It’s good to see you are posting more things on your blog again.
Does a larger water change have a negative effect on the Fish?
Nope
Yep, pushing the blog as much as possible 🙂
I’m doing YouTube clips too – have you seen any of them yet?
Hi there,
I have Planted Aquarium setup with size of
80cm Length x 45cm width x 46cm Height
IWAGUMI Design
Substrate:
Ista Aqua Soil w / ADA bactris100
– Planted
foreground
Hemianthus callitrichoides
Dwarf Hair Grass
Moss Tress= Moss tied on Driftwood
filtration: Hydor Prime 20 Canister(external)
Co2 : ISTA 3L with 1bps
with diffuser
Temperature: 28 Celsius
Light: Pin Light – 2 x 55 watts = 110 watts total
8 hours a Day
– Number Days since planted: 23 Days
My problem is that HC and Dwarf Hair grass seems nor carpeting at all and no runners. The HC turn somehow yellowish and stop growing, some browning on its stem.Any idea how to result this, this is my current Headache.
My instruction is not to apply fertilizer until 1 months coz the substrate is potent in nutrients.
-Also some few algae are evident on Plants but not much.
Please help somehow. Thanks a lot
If your plants are not growing as expected and are showing yellow – they couldn’t be clearer to you that they are starving. Yellowing means they need more nutrients.
Your instructions provided are clearly wrong as if the substrate provided everything, then you would see no starvation of plants. Trust your gut, and not the instructions!
I would also reduce the temperature if you can.
Hi,
Should i start Dosing fertilizer coz i have them complete also,
– Micro Nutrients
-macro Nutrients
– Potassium
-Iron
-Liquid Carbon
But im not sure with the dosing, since i ony see at that back that 1Ml for every 10 gallons, and im not sure how many gallons i have based on this dimensions
80cm Length x 45cm width x 46cm Height
Also i just heard that when dosing micro and Macro it should be alternate by Day, like today is micro and tomorrow is macro Nutrients. Thanks for the reply.
Also,
How do i process aeration and agitation on My tank coz whole 24/hours i make sure that the surface somehow have agitation where i put my filter outflow, is this wrong..?
co i worry if not movement at the top the diffuse bubbles of co2 accumulates at the Top if i point the outflow to the ground, what should be the best setup somehow please. Thanks
You can use an airpump. But I don’t recommend running CO2, 24/7 as there is no need. Only use CO2 when lights are on.
Dosing lots of bottles separately is always confusing but you can do one day micros, one day macros in your case if you want. That’s not what I would do as plants want nutrients every day, not every other.
What wastes do plants produce?