[AquaticLife] Question about salt?
While I agree with doing “massive water changes”, I don’t think one should do it in a single phase as you could drastically change the water parameters of the tank resulting in unnecessary stress and/or pH shock or water temperature shock. pH shock can be fatal to some fish.
If you do want to do a “massive water change”, I would recommend doing a series of 25% PWC’s, one every 2-3 hours, this way you would only have a chance to alter the water parameters by only 25% giving the fish a chance to acclimate to the new water parameters with each 25% PWC. You would still want to match the temperature as closely as possible, within 1-2F, with each PWC.
Here are what the numbers would look like.
Old Water - 100% After 1st PWC (25%) - Old Water - 75%, New Water - 25% After 2nd PWC - Old Water - 56%, New Water - 44% After 3rd PWC - Old Water - 42%, New Water - 58% You could continue with 25% PWC’s or jump up to 50% PWC’s at this point since the tank is over 50% New Water so a 50% PWC would only result in a 25% change in water parameters. If you continued with 25% PWC’s, these would be the resulting percentages which as you will see, result in diminishing returns. Old Water - 31%, New Water - 69% Old Water - 24%, New Water - 76% Old Water - 18%, New Water - 82% If you jump up to a 50% PWC after the 3rd 25% PWC, these would be the resulting percentages. After 4th PWC (now 50%) - Old Water - 21%, New Water - 79% After 5th PWC (50%) - Old Water - 10.5%, New Water - 89.5%
By doing your “massive water change” this way, you would accomplish a 90% water change through the course of one day, giving the fish and their osmoregulatory system a chance to acclimate to the changing water parameters, rather than the possibility of putting your fish into shock or causing undue stress to the fish.
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
