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Re: Why am I changing so much water?
> I don't want to start a religious war, but I have an honest
> question. Why am I changing so much water every week?
It's a very good question. Let me share my personal experience.
I used to live in Berkeley, CA, where I had nice softish water.
(KH and GH around 3) I also had a bathroom nice and close to
my tank, which meant that water changes were fairly easy. So I
did them, 20% or so, every couple of weeks.
About 7 months ago, I moved to Fremont, CA. I now have the hardest
water I've ever experienced. I haven't measured it, because my
test kit has gone missing, but just a little of this water left in
the bottom of a glass will leave the most amazing deposits as it
dries up. When I moved, I was concerned about changing the water
parameters too quickly, and I brought most of my Berkeley water with
me. (40 gallons, in 2.5 gallon water bottles, out of a "70 gallon"
tank with an actual water capacity of ~55-60 gallons!)
After slowly topping up the tank with Fremont water, I have really
not wanted to change a lot of water, partly because the new water is
so hard, but also because the tank is a long way from the nearest
sink and I am lazy. So I've done precisely 1 water change since I
moved, plus topping up evaporation a few times. I feed pretty
heavily, remove duckweed every couple of weeks, clean out the filter
once a month or so. Result? My fish and plants all seem perfectly
happy and healthy. While my swords seem to be languishing a bit, my
crypts are growing like I've never seen, and my ferns and anubias
are going strong. (I think the problem with the swords is probably
lighting, since the bulbs are getting older and I tend to thin out
my duckweed less regularly than I used to.) The last time I measured
nitrates (which was admittedly a few months ago) they were reading 0.
YMMV and all that, but I've become convinced that water changes are
not really necessary in my case.
BTW, does anyone in the SF Bay area want some black mollies? Home-
grown and oh-so-fertile!
David Ozenne
Fremont, CA