# Confused over water changes



## BarryH (23 Feb 2020)

Reading a UK Facebook page today, it seems that regular (weekly) water changes are a stressful thing for shrimp. Some with shrimp only top up their water while others only do water changes monthly.

On my cold water tanks I do weekly 50% water changes and had started doing the same on the tropical tank with the shrimp and Harlequin Rasboras in, now I'm not sure if I'm doing right. Is this too often or do the people doing no or less frequent changes only have shrimp in their tanks?

Any help or advice would be most welcome.


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## Zeus. (23 Feb 2020)

I do 50% WC on all my high tanks tanks without an issue, on my 50l planted tank with RCS I did a 95% WC yesterday and no problems


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## Sammy Islam (23 Feb 2020)

You can do less water changes in a shrimp tank or just do top ups, but water changes are good as long as you match the temp as best as you can. 

I've been doing 2x 70/80% water changes a week for the past 3 weeks with no problems, if anything the shrimp seem more active afterwards.


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## Tankless (23 Feb 2020)

I currently do three thirty percent water changes a week as my tank is just over two weeks old. I currently have 3 species of shrimp which are amanos, cherry shrimp (some blue ones as well) and the green babaulti. They do not require any special care from what I've found. The image below has a babaulti on the left and the cherry shrimp in the middle. I would continue with your normal maintenance routine.

My shrimp might not make it as I will be introducing a GBR within the next hour.


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## Jayefc1 (23 Feb 2020)

I think it depends on what the shrimp are used too if you do weekly the water parameters are always going to stay roughly the same as said before getting temp as close to the tank temp is probs most important


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## Siege (23 Feb 2020)

2 X 75% water changes for me, one right after the other. Prime added on the 2nd one.

filter media cleaned in tap water!

cherries and amanos are rock hard!


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## Conort2 (23 Feb 2020)

I do a 70percent water change every week on my tank which is full of tangerine tiger shrimp and cherry shrimp. Doesn’t seem to affect them at all. Started with a few and now I have hundreds. May be a different story if you have some of the more picky line bred bee shrimp.

cheers

conor


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## BarryH (23 Feb 2020)

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. I feel a lot more reassured now I've seen and read them.


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## BarryH (23 Feb 2020)

Sammy Islam said:


> I've been doing 2x 70/80% water changes a week for the past 3 weeks with no problems, if anything the shrimp seem more active afterwards.


Funny should mention that Sammy, I did my first change with the shrimp in yesterday and within an hour or so, I had more shrimp out grazing than I'd ever seen out before.


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## Keith GH (23 Feb 2020)

BarryH

I had Shrimps in my tank and never stopped breeding and I did 2x30%-40% twice a weekly for many years.

Keith


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## Witcher (23 Feb 2020)

Zeus. said:


> I do 50% WC on all my high tanks tanks without an issue, on my 50l planted tank with RCS I did a 95% WC yesterday and no problems





Sammy Islam said:


> I've been doing 2x 70/80% water changes a week for the past 3 weeks with no problems





Conort2 said:


> I do a 70percent water change every week on my tank which is full of tangerine tiger shrimp and cherry shrimp. Doesn’t seem to affect them at all. S





Keith GH said:


> I had Shrimps in my tank and never stopped breeding and I did 2x30%-40% twice a weekly for many years.





Siege said:


> 2 X 75% water changes for me, one right after the other. Prime added on the 2nd one.



Guys, I must admit that your percentage amount of WC is quite shocking for me, apart from alert situations (sickness, ammonia, quick correction of water parameters etc.) I've never changed more than 10-25% weekly. What's the reason for that massive amount of WC in your tanks? Huge DOC/ferts build up ?


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## Sammy Islam (23 Feb 2020)

Witcher said:


> Guys, I must admit that your percentage amount of WC is quite shocking for me, apart from alert situations (sickness, ammonia, quick correction of water parameters etc.) I've never changed more than 10-25% weekly. What's the reason for that massive amount of WC in your tanks? Huge DOC/ferts build up ?



Mainly because:
1) EI dosing calls for minimum change of 50% per week to dilute any left over ferts, also to remove/dilute detritus and organic waste/DOC the plants produce from growing so much.
2) i'm on my 6th week for my scape and have been doing lots water changes from the beginning, starting with every other day and working down to one 50%+ a week. I don't even have any diatoms yet so it must be working.....


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## Jayefc1 (23 Feb 2020)

Yeah I do 80% on my 45p a week plants love clean water and helps clear organic waste resets the tds and clears out unused ferts 

The 60p will have 100% water changes every day for the first 10 days the down to 50% for 5 days the to a 80% weekly regime


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## Gill (24 Feb 2020)

If You have a Heavily planted Shrimp tank, then Yes they like it a little dirty. As they will graze on the mulm and detritus. An overly clean tank means less Biofilm for them to graze on and less Algae. 
When setting up a new shrimp tank I leave the lights on 24hrs for 2 weeks. That way algae has a chance to grow and a Biofilm is able to grow on the Surfaces. Which in the long run is beneficial to the shrimp and fish, as the fish will also graze on the Biofilm/algae. 
If you really want to do weekly water changes, then have plenty of grazing for them. Like Indian Almond Leaves, Nettle Leaves, Oak Leaves, Banana Leaves - All Dried. Alder Cones( but not from along a main road). And give them a varied and interesting Diet. I use 8 different feeds just for my Shrimp and they get something different every day. As well as Blanched Veg. 
I also Leave Rocks and pebbles in buckets of old tank water in the sunny spots in the garden. So that these get covered in algae and Biofilm. And just alternate them in the tanks each week. The algae eating fish love these aswell. 

Have a look at Marks Shrimp Tanks, Scottish gut living in Norway. He provides some of the most comprehensive info on shrimp. And does not go too technical with them.


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## Conort2 (24 Feb 2020)

Witcher said:


> Guys, I must admit that your percentage amount of WC is quite shocking for me, apart from alert situations (sickness, ammonia, quick correction of water parameters etc.) I've never changed more than 10-25% weekly. What's the reason for that massive amount of WC in your tanks? Huge DOC/ferts build up ?


I dose near another EI, so is to remove excess ferts and reset the parameters. However even when I have had low tech tanks or tanks which aren’t planted I’ve removed at least 50percent a week. The fish love it and to be fair if I had time to do more I probably would. I believe Keeping on top of water changes removes a lot of issues people have with fish. 

cheers

conor


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## Protopigeon (24 Feb 2020)

I have 2 shrimp only, planted tanks of about 60L each, with lots of botanicals in there (mulberry leaves, alder cones, etc). I change ~10% water per week with remineralised RO water (GH/KH+) up to about 150TDS

I dose ferts very slightly if at all (just have easy plants like rotala, java fern and mosses, etc), so this might be why some here are doing massive WCs - to get rid of excess ferts. 

That said, I'm skipping this week's WC as my Crystals just they just had their first babies and I don't want to stress the little ones out too much


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## Gabriela Valdivia (29 Feb 2020)

Hello,
I have stoped the 50% water changes because every time I do them my population of shrimps is reduced or they all die.
 I have the Fluval Flex 9 gallon tank, fully planted. One betta, five Neons and Tiger Placo. All my plants were doing great and growing. I went away for ten days and the people who were supposed to take care of the tank left the lights more than 10 hrs/day. When I came back, the aquarium was full of algae. The 6 Amanos were alive.
So I did a 50% water change to and cleaned the acuario and next day I noticed a dead shrimp. Put it out and kept observing the tank every day and at night and was not seeing shrimps. There used to be very visible and they would always come up front when I was feeding the fish. After a week I realized the were all dead.
I bought 4 Amanos and 3 Cherry shrimps and they were doing great for a month. 
One week I did another 50% water change because cleaned the filters, etc. And again next day 4 Amanos dead.
I am very careful with the water that I put back, I make sure the temperature is the same and I I use Prime to remove chlorine, etc.
So in my case I am only doing 10 to 15% water change every week. So my water is not crystal clear but , so far , the new Amanos are alive.


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