No Water Changes for 6 Months!

[JardiniBoy]

Let's say the idea got flamed , not you.

Thanks!

Jardiniboy - If you really want to find out the truth behind all of this firsthand, why dont
you try to do an experiment between 2 equal tanks with equal monster fish with same diet and filtration. The only difference would be that one system gets a waterchange while the other one just gets a topoff. Try to write down what you observe, what you expect will or wont happen.

Do a two month experiment and post your observation here.

I'd love to do that

... but getting my project manager to approve even my one new tank (my first real monstertank) was quite an accomplishment. There's not much spare room in asian apartments

Maybe one of the guys posting in the empty tank thread can help us out..

 

[redtailfool]

I used to think water changes were very important....then I saw a tank in Singapore...it was around 150g. The tank had 4 inhabitants: One of the nicest Red Aros I've ever seen, and 3 white giant gouramis. The Gouramis were the best looking whites I've ever seen, maintaining the red / orange / pink sheen they have as juveniles. He only fed they shrimp eggs. The Aro got whatever he found around the house...geckos, bugs etc... The tank was completely bare, and the tank bottom was a 4" layer of poop...he never took out ANY of the fish excrement.

The tank had a corner box filter (the kind that runs off an airstone) filled with floss and some ceramic rings. There was a drain near the top of the tank, and piping that led to a funnel on the roof of his house. Whenever it rained, it would funnel the rain water into the tank, and overflow the extras out into the garden. He had it running as such for the last 5 years!!!

Turns out, many fish keepers there keep tanks in near the same way, only topping off the water. Their fish all were some of the nicest I've seen...was it diet??? One can only speculate.

We have a lot of fishkeepers from singapore here. And i can tell you with a straight face
that people do that because they dont know any better.

This reminds me of how i was telling my mother in law how smoking is bad . She then proceeds to tell me how she knows a 80 year old man that still smokes half a pack a day.

 

[Nic]

i think regardless i will still do water changes every week or other week as i normally do. my fish seem to be real happy that way. as with keeping any other pet being lazy and not doing something always ends up in the long run with bag results.

 

[majestic]

I think if regular water changes works for you, there is no need to change the way manage your tank. Ive read the original post from arofanatics and he does mention that it is impossible to copy another setup. and his setup might work for him but not others.

 

[Ranchu85]

what about evaporation? no way can his water levels still be the same.

 

[doubledragon]

Try not flushin your toilet for 6 months to a year and consider spraying air freshner to the equivilant of top offs or filter cleanings. Not to pleasant!!! I'll stick with water changes, I mean you can obviously see the diff. in your fish, the only time water changes have hurt me is when I waited too long and tried to do to much at one time. I've lost a few that way and have drastically changed my patterns since, now my tanks all strive and love wc day!!!

 

[wizzin]

just a good coil denitrator article. Scroll down a little to "DIY coil denitrator". Well written, and VERY well documented.

http://www.thekrib.com/Filters/denitrator.html#1

 

[TheBloodyIrish]

I think it largely depend on the fish.

One of my friends kept a goldfish that have not been touched for 5 years because she felt guilty about killing it. One day she decided to stop feeding it and eventually it died.

She tried to the same with her neons as a test, but they ended up exploding a couple weeks later.

 

[pirahna1950]

JardiniBoy


Most of the heavy metals and harmfull chemicals you worry about come from your faucet. Mother nature renews water with a very simple system. Water evaporates into the air leaving trace minerals behind. As the humidity cools, water droplets form and fall back to earth as clean, pure water.

Removing a percentage of water from the tank and heating it to cause rapid evaporation will clean and sterilize it. Condensation back into a holding tank will allow you to cool it and return it to the original tank. This is where the tricky part comes in. You have to remove an equal amout of water from the main tank to accomodate the scrubbed water. One ther thing, you will lose a certain amount of water due to evaporation in the main tank. adding that to the distilled water will help temper any negative effects of the tap. In effect, your tank is now that many gallons larger! You also may need to add a supplement to the water to put back the good trace elements. I have found distilled water is not good for plants, therefore not great for fish by its self. One way to be sure you don't have certain trace minerals is by checking the conductivity. False readings of conductivity can be aquired with trace salt. Distilled water removes salt. After 7 years of distilling tank water, my fish are happy, heathy, productive. Good luck with your experiments and have fun. If the cities can purify sewer water for us to drink, I think we can do better for our fish.