How often do i need to do a water change??

Question

I have a 49 gl. bow front tank with about an inch of gravel....4 potted plants and a large collesium decoration in the middle...there is a bubble wand in the back of the tank and ive got a whisper power filter (one size bigger than i needed).

Ive just started the tank 2 weeks ago...i have 2 silver dollars and 2 clown loaches right now. I plan to make this an angel fish tank.

How often do you think i need to do water changes on a tank like this? I plan to add more plants (amazon swords & etc).

Thanks!!

yes, the tank went through the cycling process. All the levels in the tank are stable and its ready for fish.

Putting a school of tetra's in with 4 or 5 angels is probably not a good idea seeing how angels prey on tetra's. If the clown loaches get too big i have a place that will take them for me. The silver dollars ive heard are good with angels....i dont know..we'll see i guess.

thanks for all the answers!!

Answer 1

One way to discover how often to change the water is to use nitrate tests - you pretty much need to do water changes frequently enough to keep them at reasonable levels - under 50 for most common tropicals. This and visible signs will give you an idea, and you'll get to know your own tank as you go along. Every tank is different.

I would agree with once per week as the best recommended advice for the simple reason that it's very frequent, and so a safe number. You may find it overkill, but you'll discover that as you go along.

Don't forget to check out the adult size of fish before you stock them. Clown loaches should have a much bigger tank to grow into, so they're a temporary addition.

Answer 2

Did you cycle the tank properly before adding your fish? In the wild, and in established tanks, there are nitrifying bacteria that break down toxic ammonia from fish waste and excess food into less toxic nitrates. In a brand new tank, these bacteria don't exist, so any fish in the tank will produce ammonia, which, not being broken down by bacteria, will kill or weaken the fish.
If you didn't, then it's too late to cycle it now, and your fish will be the source of ammonia that triggers the development of these good bacteria. It'll take about 2-5 weeks before enough bacteria develop and in the meantime you should do small daily water changes (like 10% a day or 20% every other day) to lessen the effects of ammonia poisoning on your fish.
Once your tank is fully cycled (ammonia and nitrites levels are at ZERO), a weekly 30% water change would be just fine.

Note that your plants will have little to no effect on the cycling process. They will absorb some nitrates, but will have no effect on the ammonia or nitrite.

A note about your stocking plants: 2 silver dollars and 2 clown loaches is more or less the stocking limit for your tank. Silver dollars are sort of the equivalent of an angelfish, but clown loaches can grow to 10" (or more) and no one with anything smaller than 80 gallons should entertain ideas of keeping them. If you want it to be an angelfish tank, I suggest you return the silver dollars and the clown loaches, and get a group of 4 young angelfish. You can compliment them with a small school of tetras or / and a small school of corydoras or of a smaller loach (ie zebra loach, burmese loach, yoyo loach).

Answer 3

i have the same tank but i have smaller fish. i also have the same set up. first of all, with a tank this big, you will only be doing partial water changes. i use a gravel siphon to clean the rocks and make sure i clean all of them. that usually takes out about a 1/4 of the water and that's what i put back in. the bigger the fish, the more you will have to clean it. keep your eye on it, if it looks dirty, clean it, if not, leave it alone. changing water too much can hurt your fish and plants. also, live plants are hard to keep with bigger fish. the fish tend to eat them and uproot them, but real does look very nice, been there, done that, now i have fake.