Why Do Fish Need Water Changes?

The most essential part of keeping up on your fish tank is doing water changes. You can not get away with doing water changes and you must do water changes at least once every two weeks. If you go any longer than that amount of time you will run into problems. The main cause of fish illness is when the fish get stressed out. Poor water quality will stress out your fish which will lead to your fish getting sick. It's hard to treat fish that are sick. Sometimes, the illness has progressed for so long that it's impossible to save the fish.

If you want to keep your fish alive you will need to do water changes. You cannot simply place a filter on the tank and avoid doing water changes until the water is so dirty that you cannot see your fish. You must keep up on the fish tank or you will no longer have fish. Eventually the water quality will get so bad that the fish will suddenly die. Changing the water in your fish tank is part of the hobby. If you don't want to change the water in your fish tank you should avoid getting a fish tank all together.

When it comes to water quality there are many levels that can go up. The two most important levels that you want to keep down is the nitrate level and the ammonia level. The nitrate level will rise because there is decaying material in your fish tank. The decaying material might be from uneaten food or from parts of your plants that have broke off and started to decay in the water. Dying plants will also cause the nitrate level to go up. If the nitrate level is really high you will need to do a water change.

The ammonia level is also another level that you want to keep down. You have to keep up on water changes in order to keep the ammonia level down. Ammonia is created from fish waste. If you overfeed your fish, this will create more problems. Extra food in the water means that the nitrate level will go up sooner than normal. Excess food also means excess waste which will cause the ammonia level to go up in your fish tank. The only way to get the nitrate level and ammonia level to go down is to do a water change and keep up on the water changes.