Do you need to do water changes in your planted aquarium? 🤨

Do you have to do water changes in your planted aquarium? Well, I guess that depends on who you ask! Follow along today while I unpack the topic of water changes and give you the definitive answer to the question. 🪣💦
Chapters 📖
00:00 - To change or not to change
00:54 - Advantages and disadvantages
05:20 - Do you need to do water changes?
07:39 - What's a low maintenance tank?
09:57 - Tanks that need water changes
13:34 - Nitrate tolerance table
14:38 - How much water to change?
16:01 - Finishing notes
Check out some other videos on planted aquarium upkeep ⬇️
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• 7 most common types of...
• 3 Best Practices for K...
Let me know if you have any questions! 💬
#aquarium #plantedtank #plantedaquarium #fishtank

[@freshflowaquatics]

What's your water changing routine? Do you dread water change day?

[@volcanixthanksyoufortheviewz]

I like changing the water, but I normally only change it 10% every other month

[@RenacitoRamos]

Weekly 10-20% water change

[@freshflowaquatics]

@@volcanixthanksyoufortheviewz Nice, that's a good routine and pretty manageable!

[@SMariaKS]

My tank is only 3 months old so I’m still keeping a close eye on it. I’m doing 1/3 water change weekly after water testing. Though I’m happy my ammonia and nitrite levels have been a 0 for a month. I have lots of live plants that are doing well and I have understocked my tank purposely with tetras, corydoras and three swordtails. My only fault was over feeding but I’m being more careful now. My tap water is very soft. 6.5 so I had to add crushed coral and now it’s testing 7 ph. I quite enjoy the water change as I try to check the filter ( I have a sponge filter and airtime as well as the juwel filter that was included in the tank) and remove any leaves that are brown. I have had lots of advice from the small aquarium shop that was recommended to me. I can phone them if I need advice, which I find helpful.

[@theTimatoHouse]

Very helpful, thanks!

[@freshflowaquatics]

Glad it helped, thanks for watching!

[@dixsigns1717]

Blank screen at 14:00

[@freshflowaquatics]

Thanks for letting me know. Guess I should spend more time proofing eh? Sometimes screen shots get dropped from my videos. I'll put a link in there to the table after I get the blog up.

[@SMariaKS]

My potted plants indoors and in the garden are definitely improved since they’ve been getting my fish tank water poured over them.

[@freshflowaquatics]

Liquid gold, they love it! 🌿

[@TheThistleWitch]

I try to do one every 7 to 10 days. It's usually 25% or less. I siphon out debris or use a baster. I have 2 tanks up right now. An empty 10 gallon recovering from massive plant melt/new tank syndrome and a 5 gallon full of ramshorns and 1 female assassin snail, Derps. I'm new to planted tanks and setting up a 20gal. long. I plan to sort of utilize some aspects of the Walstad method in set up, but I'm definitely doing water changes. I'm not experienced enough with live plants to be close to comfortable with only top ups!

[@freshflowaquatics]

The turkey baster is a great way to get all that gunk out! A couple of my favorite plants for removing nutrients are water lettuce and Pogostemon stellatus octopus. They grow sooooo fast. Good luck with the Walstad!

[@TheThistleWitch]

@@freshflowaquatics eh....sorta Walstad lol

[@TheFurlock]

When the bio load out weights the plant load a water change is necessary. Minimally you want to do a 20 percent maximum 30-40% anything beyond that is diluting the bacteria and introducing algae food and difficult to recover from. If you’re feeding daily you need to do water changes. If you don’t feed but once every couple of days maybe once a month and if you have living food sources then you need to do nothing more than top off.

[@freshflowaquatics]

Thanks for sharing your take on water changes! I've never had a tank where living food sources were enough to sustain the inhabitants. A true ecosystem aquarium.... So cool

[@Moocow9991703]

Not done a water change in over a year all my fish seem healthy and breeding saying that my aquarium heavly planted and as been set up for two years.

[@freshflowaquatics]

That's awesome, good work! Breeding is the ultimate sign of healthy fish.

[@dixsigns1717]

blank screen 14:00

[@freshflowaquatics]

Thanks again for the heads up. I added the table to a blog here -> www.freshflowaquatics.com/blog-3/do-you-need-to-do-water-changes

[@nmeau]

If the water quality is good, why flush the tank? I believe that constant water changes and the fear of “dirty”tanks is a hangover from the past. We do it because our parents did it, they did it because their parents did it. Plenty examples of zero change tanks thriving for decades. If water quality is bad (measurable nitrogen at any level), just add more plants.

[@freshflowaquatics]

You can never go wrong with adding more plants 🍃

[@tino5621]

Your tanks are hardly planted so of course you have to do water changes.

[@freshflowaquatics]

Thanks for the comment.