I'm so glad now that I have a gravel vaccum. I was going without one for two weeks and I was worried about Melanie. She is fine though.
I know that I should change the water in my 5 gallon tank about 25% once a week. Would a 50% water change every two weeks okay, or is that a no no? I do leave the filter on most of the day, but I turn it off at night so it doesn't disturb her.
I was asking about the 50% water change every other week because when I use the gravel vaccum I notice that it sucks up a lot of the water before I finish with all the gravel, so I figured it might make more sense to do a 50% water change every other week. How often should I vaccum the gravel? Once a week including the 25% water change? Or once every other week along with a 25% or 50% water change?
Thank you :)
Last edited by 4everaspirit; 01-08-2012 at 09:34 PM.
Haha. I have a vaccum for my 2 gallon. It sucks up about 20-30% of the water, so I just do it whenever I'm changing the water. It plays out perfectly, actually. It might play out differently for a larger tank, though. What size is your tank?
By the way, I like your signature. I adopted Beau from someone who got him as a present from her sorority sister and didn't want him. I think it's a good idea to remind people, so I just modified my signature!
Last edited by agent89201; 01-08-2012 at 09:44 PM.
In my post I noted that I have a 5 gallon tank. I was asking if it was okay to do a 50% water change every other week (every two weeks) along with vaccumming the gravel as that would be more convenient for me since the gravel vaccum takes up like 50% of the water before I finish vaccuming. A 25% water change once a week along with gravel vaccuming seems impractical. :P
You should leave the filter on all the time, even at night. 50% every other week will not do, you honestly should try to do a 50% water change once a week. Since the gravel vac sucks out water, just keep vaccuming until 50% of the water is removed. :)
Are you sure it's necessary to leave the filter on all the time JKfish? I just want to make sure.
Okay so if a 50% water change won't do, I will do a 25-50% water change once a week. Does that include vacuuming the gravel along with the weekly water change, or should I do the vacuuming of the gravel every other week along with that weekly water change?
Filters should always be kept on unless you are taking out water, same for the heater, unless it is malfunctioning. The filter houses a colony of good bacteria and that is one of the things that will actually filter the water along with the carbon. What you are doing is making it where the filter dries up so the bacteria will dry with it. I would keep the filter on all the time.
Kfryman is right. The reason you only have to do a 50% every week on the 5 gallon is because you have a filter running 24/7 to house benificial bacteria which convert ammonia to nitrItes to less dangerous and slower to build up nitrAtes. If you turn off your filter and the bacteria dies every night, you'd have to do 50% water changes and 100% water changes to get rid of the ammonia
nuts. I don't leave my filter on all the time because it freaks my Betta Girls out so much. After reading this I guess I need to turn it on and leave it on. I have a baffle but it still creates too much of a current and I'm worried about stressing them out. I can't afford a different filter, maybe I can modify the baffle.... Thanks for the tip
kmylan: most petstores sell sponge like stuff as filter media for about a dollar a box (like this ). if you have a rubber band, you can attach one to the outflow. It'll slow the current. If you don't want it to be on the outflow, you can cut it down to a size you like, cut a hole in the middle, and then stick the intake part of the filter through it. That'll also slow the current.
kmylan: most petstores sell sponge like stuff as filter media for about a dollar a box (like this ). if you have a rubber band, you can attach one to the outflow. It'll slow the current. If you don't want it to be on the outflow, you can cut it down to a size you like, cut a hole in the middle, and then stick the intake part of the filter through it. That'll also slow the current.
Wow. Great idea! I am definitely trying that out next time I can make a trip to Petsmart. I once tried using an unused dish-washing scrubber as a blockade for the filter, and I think that was the reason why my betta fish went into a dire state the day after. :[ (Currently using a large soda bottle to block)
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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