How often do i chang the water and filter bag the in my tank? ?
Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at
5:33 pm
I have a 20 galloon tank and i want to know how often do i do a partial water change and how often do i change the filter bag?
I dont have that many fish in it at the moment only 6 guppies.
When i do the partial water change how much of it should i change.
Thank you for your help:)
Filed under: Fish Tank Supplies
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It kind of depends on stocking, but generally, you should do a 20% percent water change once a week and replace your filter cartridge once a month, as the carbon will be around adsorption capacity.
For 6 guppies in a 20 gallon, you could probably get away with doing water changes every two weeks and replacing the filter cartridge every 6 weeks. I don't like old carbon to sit in a tank for too long because after it's reached adsorption capacity, the chemicals may leach back into the water. Rinse the filter cartridge in used tank water when you do a water change, but not in the tank itself or you'll murk up the water. Never use faucet tap water to rinse the cartridge as the chlorine will kill the beneficial bacteria inhabiting your filter media.
But if you plan on adding more fish, you'll have to perform the water changes and change out your filter cartridges more often.