Does it matter if you miss a weeks water change ?

[PARAGUAY]

Interesting that some were advocating W/Cs iin the 80s. I had set up first tank since a kid after getting married The local Aquarium store was managed by a guy who advocated weekly WCs . Sadly not there now . As I remember you didnt need to add tapsafe. The shop always had a bucket on the go .All or most cept the displays filtered by just sponge filters even the really large ones.

 

[jamila169]

Interesting that some were advocating W/Cs iin the 80s. I had set up first tank since a kid after getting married The local Aquarium store was managed by a guy who advocated weekly WCs . Sadly not there now . As I remember you didnt need to add tapsafe. The shop always had a bucket on the go .All or most cept the displays filtered by just sponge filters even the really large ones.

I got my first tank (cold water) in 1981, and the shop was very firm about weekly water changes and gravel vacuuming , pretty sure my uncle did weeklies on his tropical tanks as well, because he was very firm about it too. no such thing as water conditioner though, you had to run the water the night before to let the chlorine gas off, mum wasn't terribly happy about having buckets of water lying about every friday night, but the fish were happy about it

 

[NatalieHurrell]

And in my personal case back then, I can't say I experienced it negatively. It was simply how it should be done.

Same here. We did 50% water changes twice a year or so on our 5ft tank and changed the filter floss when it was dirty (all in one go). The tank had a reasonably deep pea gravel bed and we had sword plants and whatever was growing well in our pond that year for vegetation. Didn't ever test the water (did they even make home test kits in the 80s?) and all the livestock thrived. Bit of algae on the glass in Summer, unless we shut the curtains in the middle of the day. Our Angelfish was 11 when he popped his clogs. I really does depend on each individual tank, so missing one water change every now and again will likely be fine.

 

[zozo]

did they even make home test kits in the 80s?

Yes, we already did have the same test kits as today, titration or titrimetry (tests) is something from the mid 19th century. I remember doing some tests back in the 80s and the region I live in (Limburg) is known as the Marl Land Route since it contains huge Marl deposits and lots of ancient Marl quarries from all eras. (Roman and medieval periods etc.) Maybe someone in the UK has ever heard about ENCI (1st Netherlands Cement Industry) Big cement factory it doesn't exist any longer but that was 20 miles from my place and they were digging in a huge Marl mountain known as St. Peters mountain. This mountain (And lots of other places) also has a lot of miles of ancient Marl mining shafts which we illegally ventured into as teenagers on rainy boring Sundays, quite dangerous actually you could easily get lost but interesting and exciting. Today most are closed for the public but if there is a will there is always a way in. Some are used for tourists with guides.

sint pietersberg mergelgrotten - Google Search

www.google.com

Anyway back then we had a local groundwater supply and because of all the Marl, a Gh test went bonkers and over Gh36, at least I stopped at Gh36 because it was irrelevant to go any further it was rock hard what more do you need to know?. We destroyed quite a few coffee machines and warm water taps etc. back in the day.

Today we have Rhine River water supply from Germany with a Gh4... Back then water was a disaster but good for the teeth and bones and we still had planted fish tanks without many issues other than a bad swampy odour after a year when the hood opened up.

 

[Kerrycarp]

Way back in the mists of time (1980's) When i first started keeping fish there was a shop, literally, at the end of my road and the guy there was adamant about regular water changes.
Once a month I did 30% (200 litres) and my neighbour Alan used to cart it all down to his allotment which were/ are next to the shop.
None of my tanks were planted in those days and if I forgot then my fish paid for the poor water quality with their health.
The shop was Living Waters and the guy was Darren's dad, Steve and the things he knew then are things I am still learning.
I went over that way on Thursday and sadly the shop is still there although Daz and Steve were forced out.

 

[ElleDee]

I don't worry about missing the occasional change, but I do think the plants benefit from consistency. In a mature tank with nothing weird going on would rather change water less frequently on a predictable schedule than on a consistently random interval.