Water change in nursery tank

cenak

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Aug 22, 2018
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Hi -
I have bn pleco eggs in a cave in a 15- gal nursery tank with the male being very attentive and fanning away. The tank has a cave, a plastic plant, some large rocks, a piece of wood, and a scattering of ¼ inch gravel. I have an external filter and a bubble-bar airstone.The male comes out to nibble on zucchini and then returns to the cave to resume fanning.
The spawn occured 3 nights ago and all seems well. The water is clear with a faint algae smell; no off-odor. My question is: when and how often should I do a water change and how much? Right now the tank has only 1 small male (approx 2.5 cm) and 40 or so eggs.
Any suggestions/advice are appreciated ...thx!
 

dw1305

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May 5, 2009
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Hi all,
Hi -
I have bn pleco eggs in a cave in a 15- gal nursery tank with the male being very attentive and fanning away. The tank has a cave, a plastic plant, some large rocks, a piece of wood, and a scattering of ¼ inch gravel. I have an external filter and a bubble-bar airstone......... The water is clear with a faint algae smell; no off-odor. My question is: when and how often should I do a water change and how much? Right now the tank has only 1 small male (approx 2.5 cm) and 40 or so eggs. Any suggestions/advice are appreciated ...thx!
You definitely need to change some water.

I'd probably go for 20% immediately, and then 20% changes every couple of days. You might be able to do fewer larger water changes, it would depend upon your tap water. You may need a de-chlorinator that treats chloramines as well as chlorine.

Because you don't have any live plants, and you have a gravel substrate, you aren't going to get any nitrate depletion in the tank and nitrate level will build up.

You may have some denitrification in the filter, but I don't recommend attempting to have simultaneous nitrification/denitrification in a filter as a viable long term proposition.

Have a look at our article, <"Aeration and dissolved oxygen in the aquarium">, it covers water quality and biological filtration and well as oxygenation.

cheers Darrel
 

cenak

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Aug 22, 2018
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Thx for the info...I'll take a look at the link, too! So far I've been doing about 20% water change every day. I'm using tap water with NovAqua as a de-chlorinator and conditioner. So far, so good...we've reached the wiggler stage and one has managed to escape from the cave! I'm hoping they'll all be out in a couple more days. What do you think of feeding softened algae-wafers to the fry?
Regards,
cenak
 

dw1305

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Staff member
May 5, 2009
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Wiltshire nr. Bath, UK
Hi all,
Thx for the info...I'll take a look at the link, too! So far I've been doing about 20% water change every day. I'm using tap water with NovAqua as a de-chlorinator and conditioner. So far, so good...we've reached the wiggler stage and one has managed to escape from the cave! I'm hoping they'll all be out in a couple more days. What do you think of feeding softened algae-wafers to the fry?
Yes, the water changes sound fine. I haven't used it but I think the Kordon NovAqua conditioner is a good one.

I'd try Algal wafers and some vegetables, something soft like <"zucchini">. You don't need to blanch it, just leave it in long enough to soften.

If you start with a thin slice it won't have to serious an effect on water quality.

cheers Darrel