Am I changing to much water???

[Shive]

Hi I was recently talking wit a local breeder who says that I'm changing out to much water! I'll list my schedule below tell me what you think!

20gl....10gl in morning....10gl @ night 12 1 inch juvies
40gl....15gl in morning....15gl @ night 5 3 inch juvies
75gl....25gl @ night 7 4-5 inch juvies

P.S. I spot clean before every feeding and I feed 4 to 5 times a day.

Thanks
Shive

[John_Nicholson]

As a breeder my opinion is that you can never change to much water...............

-john

[ronrca]

John is right however there is a point where changing water doesnt really do anything. If you are performing daily wc's and your nitrates do not rise above 5ppm, your doing good. You can be doing 100% daily wc's but maybe 75% daily wc's will also keep the nitrates down.

I would suggest experimenting with your wc's, trying different volumes/frequencies and at the same time testing the nitrates. Keep a log book and you will be able to fine tune your wc schedule. ;)

In your case, I do not think you are changing too much water. Everyones water parameters are different, stocking density, feeding schedules, type of food, etc therefore you have to experiment and test to achieve the best wc schedule for you.

HTH ;)

[Carol_Roberts]

AS long as the water parameters are the same frequent water changes may be hard on your pocketbook, but are not bad for discus. Your water changes look good to me.

[Valik]

Gotta be careful with those "local breeders" When I was first getting into Discus a few years back I was told by a local discus breeder that if you aren't breeding you shouldn't change water more then 30% twice a week because it was too stressful on the fish.
Matt

[Shive]

Thanks everyone for the replys really appreciate the affirmation ;). I still have a tank full of fish in the 75 that get spooked by the water changes. I'm thinking on backing off those just for their sake! To 25gl every other night. It's not easy to add water in buckets with out being disruptive to the tank. But I'm working on a water storage an pump system. So it should get better but these fish have always been skiddish from day one. My water checks out fine every time I test. I think they are just skiddish they were fish I inherited so they all came with baggage but they have grown quite nicley. I'm going to stick with them maybe they'll adjust to the water changes who know's ::). All my fish that I have grown from babies are fine thay could care less about the water changes I guesse their just used to them !

Shive