Any better or no different?

[judijetson]

I'm currently doing 50% water changes every other day on my tank (135 gallon, bb, 11 discus all over 5-1/2") and was wondering if it would be better to do 25% water changes daily with 2 or 3 50% changes during the week? I do siphon debris daily with one of those battery operated eheim gravel vacs but that it a real pita to use.

I would love to do 50% every day since I recently ordered one of those Jehmco super safety siphons thinking it would make the job easier and it does, in some ways as it is much faster than the python method for draining but my tank is almost 50 feet away from my sink unfortunately so that means I have to drag out 2 50" hoses (python for siphoning debris then a hose hooked up to the Jehmco for draining) for bigger water changes and run them though the house from one side basically to the other.

[judijetson]

Bump :p

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[nc0gnet0]

Is the tank near a window? Get your self a self priming pump and toss out the python. Much easier and much less wasted water IMO.

[judijetson]

Unfortunately, no, it's in the basement.

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[seanyuki]

Imo I would do 50% every other day as yr discus are already semi adults.....provided you are not giving them homemade foods cos foul water easily and requires water changes daily.HTH.

[YSS]

50% every other day. Check the water parameter. How about 75% twice a week?

[judijetson]

Awesome, thanks...no homemade foods...they don't like my cooking ;)

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[OC Discus]

I may be wrong, but 25% daily plus 80% 2-3 times a week would be much better. Since it is such a pain to get everything out, larger water changes alone could help tremendously. Not much more trouble to remove and replace 80% than 50%, but huge difference for the fish if done 2-3 times per week.

[OC Discus]

Small water changes don't equal large ones. For example 20% x 5 days is not 100% because dirty water from each previous change is left behind. I think 2x80% is better than 7x25%

[judijetson]

I may be wrong, but 25% daily plus 80% 2-3 times a week would be much better. Since it is such a pain to get everything out, larger water changes alone could help tremendously. Not much more trouble to remove and replace 80% than 50%, but huge difference for the fish if done 2-3 times per week.

I'd love to do 80 but with a 135 gallon tank & 38 gallon sump that's almost 175 gallons and I only have room for about 90 gallons of aged water. Now don't get me wrong, if there were an emergency and I had to do larger changes I could set up extra barrels temporarily.

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[judijetson]

Small water changes don't equal large ones. For example 20% x 5 days is not 100% because dirty water from each previous change is left behind. I think 2x80% is better than 7x25%

Yes, I'd never expect to do 7x25% but was just wondering about something like 25/25/50/25/25/50/25 instead of 50% every other day.

At this point I'm just going to stick to my 50% every other day with poop siphoning in between.

I figured out I could use the python to remove debris then where it couples, unscrew the siphon tube section, insert the jehmco safety siphon into the tank, attach it to the python and drain the remaining water.

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[YSS]

It's not the percentage of water being changed. It's the amount of water being changed. If you are changing 90g of water each time, twice a week is more than enough.