no water changes... ever!!

[Ca Nguyen]

i went over an older friend's house in sugarland to check out his military marcaws, and i noticed his 55 gallons long aquarium. i was shocked by the sheer numbers of guppies in it. there must've been anywhere between 300 to 500 guppies. his filter seem to be an old tetra filter. i don't recall ever seeing a transparent one, so it must be pretty old. inside is a cutted open media filled with active carbon.

i asked him how often does he have to do a water change, and he said never! in fact, he only change the media 4 times a year, other wise he just replace the carbon and fill the amount of water that have evaporated. he said this aquarium started with 6 guppies back in 1999.

i don't think he would lie, but if you look at it like this, all those guppies are pretty much inbred. then there is the water issue, how is it even possible that these guppies haven't die from nitrite or nitrate yet?

[TaTeR ToT]

Guppies for the most part are fairly hardy, and adding the evaporated water back is like doing a small wc.

[myjohnson]

adding the evaporated water back is like doing a small wc.

That's not true....unless evaporation removes nitrates somehow.

[TaTeR ToT]

Adding water that has evaporated is like diluting isn't it?

[Mzungu]

Are there any live plants in the tank?

Regardless. . . I'm sure if he did a WC now, everything would probably die! Stability is the key.

[Ca Nguyen]

no plants, just home depot gravel, and not alot of it neither

[Sea-agg09]

1. he probably doesn't clean it alot, so there is a ton of nitrifying bacteria in the substrate.

2. Guppies can live through pretty much anything. I've seen a tank that there is literally more guppy than water... I bet he never tests his water either, and if he was to put any other fish in there, it would die very quickly.

3. He needs to cull those babies because they are imbred. That is just common decency.

4. There are alot of things that "work", but are not the best. You "could"never do a water change as well, but you are risking the fish and your sanity. If one thing goes wrong, the whole tank crashes and he will come home to a terrible mess.

In summation; Has it worked? Yes. Should you try it? No

[CichlidFan]

I've done the same thing 25 years ago.....only difference was, I was using a under gravel filter system and a clear plastic carbon/cotton filter with two air pumps and I had mollies not guppies.....

however, i never did have that many fish, maybe close to 100, but I doubt there was over 100....who knows...

CF

[Ca Nguyen]

i have a "5 gallons" tank that house 15 guppies for a long long while now. but i'm in the process of moving them to a bigger aquarium and use the old one for fries. i'm really amazed how die hard those guppies are. they're not all that pretty, but man, it's like living in piss ain't it?