I know this seems like a silly question because I have had my oscar for a year now, but here it goes!
I do water changes about once a week. But I am worried that I get a little carried away and take too much out.
What is the RIGHT way of doing water changes? If I don't take enough out, then ammonia is still high.

If you have Amms (ammonia) in ur tank tara then ur tank is not fully cycled. Can you post a reading of ur water for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates and Ph. When your tank IS.... fully cycled the only thing that should rise is ur Nats (Nitrates). This is taken away with water changes and u will know urself how much needs to be taken out. usually about 25-30% do this tara when the Nats reach 40ppm's

Good luck...... Call me Jamie by the way
Also, how big is ur tank, what do you have in it and what is the filtration system u have also?

Hey Jamie,
My tank is a 55 gallon with a 75 biowheel filter. My lutino is the only fish I have in this tank.
Right now my parameters are (I JUST did a water change and JUST tested) pH 6.8, nitrates are 10 ppm, nitrites are 0 ppm, ammonia is 0 ppm and temperature is 79 degrees F.
I know that when fish produce waste ammonia builds up. So you have to do water to keep it at 0 or very close to 0.

Not quite tara. If your tank is cycled then the ammonia and Nitrites are dealt with basically with the BB's (biological bacteria's) in ur filter medium. These two toxins Amms and Nits are very toxic to ur fish the BB's build up in ur filter and kill tehm of turning them into nitrates which are no where near as harmful. These are taken away with a partial water change of say 25-30%

Ur water seems fine and in very good condition wait until ur Nats reach 40ppm's and then do a 25% change .... good luck ... jamie

hellofromtara wrote:

Ooooh okay! Thanks!

When u clean ur filter...... DO NOT CLEAN IN TAP WATER.. this will destroy all ur BB's in the medium, all u r doing is making sure the filter is not clogged. Take a bucket of TANK..... not tap..... water and just give it a shake to clear any of the large debris from it.
That way you will protect ur BB's again good luck.... Jamie

In an established aquarium your ammonia and nitrite should be zero and no higher. So in theory, this is something you shouldn't have to worry about. The main reason you are carrying out water changes are to reduce nitrate levels. We recommend nitrate doesn't get any higher than 40 ppm, obviously the lower it is, the better your fish will be in the long run. In my opinion it's easier to carry out water changes according to your nitrate levels. When I come to do my water change my nitrate levels are never above 40 ppm so I know something like a 35% water change will be perfectly okay. After a water change, I probably reduce my nitrate levels to around 20 ppm, actually a little bit lower and because I have got a very large aquarium, they do not rise very quickly. So carry out water changes according to your nitrate levels.

If your filtration system is healthy then you shouldn't cause any problems, even if you carry out quite a large water change, just make sure you always use a water conditioner.

hellofromtara wrote:


Looks real good to me, btw ever test your ammonia right out of the tap? If it reads a lot of ammonia then your local water municipality is likely using chloramine rather than just chlorine so your ammonia might spike right after a water change which seems anti-intuitive. If you use Prime it can break the chloramine chlorine/ammonia bond, dechlorinate the chlorine and change the ammonia temporarily into ammonium which is safer for your fish while still being consumable by your biological filtration. The water will still test as having ammonia for awhile.

that is a real bit of info there jimw... cheers..

Thanks for all the info everyone!
I have had 0 ammonia for a long time but I thought it was because of the water changes. Now I know that just means my tanks is cycled. YAY lol
And I get all my tank water straight from a sink. We do not have tap water in our house. Everything is filtered perfectly, but do still add conditioner.
Thanks again!

Ok, here's my question. How often should you vacuum the gravel? Is it ok to do this when you do the water changes? I lose a lot of water when I do this. If I were to do biweekly vacuumings and maybe change 20% of the water, would this be ok?

How big is ur tank then brichter? I do a water change in my little tank and by the time I have vacuumed all the the bottom I have taken about 25% out and my Nats are down to about 15-20ppms which to me is spot on.
I would Vacuum gravel EVERY ... time you do a water change and if you are taking too much water out then dont do all the bottom. That way your water is really clean and clear and getting the cr*p out... lol