Water Changes

[240ric]

I've kept Neos and Amanos in a community aquarium in the past, and scheduled my water changes based on Nitrate level.  

 

About three months ago, I started up a CRS/TB shrimp only tank.  I am doing 20% water changes every two weeks based on research I have done prior to getting my CRS and TBs.  Prior to each water change, I check the Nitrate level with an API test kit and each time the test shows 0ppm of Nitrates.  This is in a 10 gallon tank with ~20 juvenile/sub-adults and a medium planted tank.  

 

Question is, do you guys do water changes based on Nitrate level, or do you just stick to a fixed schedule even though the tank shows zero nitrates.

 

Also, I see people dose their tanks with some kind of beneficial bacteria in shrimp only tanks.  Should I be doing this to keep my bacterial colony intact due to the small bio-load of these shrimp?

[nuri]

if im correct the nitrate will be most of the time at 0 when we are using reversed osmosewater....... (i never had NO3 above 0 with my tanks)

 

i do every week a water change to speed up shrimp molting and speeding up the shrimp breeding, it always worked and still works for me

 

if you have succes with every 2 weeks stick with it

[Louie]

I don't test for anything .  The reason I do not test is because I'm not going to wait till something is high to do a water change.   I had saltwater fish in the late 70s when the only filtration for salt was under gravel filter or box filters and simply got in the habit of weekly water changes without waiting for anything to spike .

 

I simply do a 10 percent water change every week  for shrimp and 20 for fish .

 

I love Shield by Borneo Wild which I add with new water and this is coming from someone who finds most products a gimmick .  I found the baby shrimp just seem to grow faster and no losses .

[gillznglass]

Nitrates are not the only reason to perform water changes. Water changes will replace nutrients used up by aquatic life.

[240ric]

Thanks for everyones input.  I think I'll stick to my current water change schedule since everyone is doing OK and breeding.