How often do you do water changes?

[lachrimae]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to know how often the majority of maastards do water changes...

I've got a 135g with 30ga fuge & 20ga sump. I change 12ga twice per week.

I should say that I'm considering a change to only one 12ga water change per week since my nitrates are at or near 0 and I'm getting a little tired of the high maintenance.

On another note, do any of you automate the process? If I could set up a system where a water change consisted of only the flick of a switch, I'd be a happy man :)

Please include any details about your system that you think are relevant.

i.e.
I have a mostly soft corals and the following fish:
6 very small chromis
2 very small occ clowns
2 small pajama cardinals
1 LM blenny
Salt used: Instant Ocean (yeah, I'm a cheapo)
dKH/Calc maintained through homemade 2 part system (dowflake/baked baking soda)
Fuge has: Grape Caulerpa and some chaetomporpha (sp?)
Skimmer: EV180 using 900GPH pump

Mark

[Richard]

12 gallons twice a week is more than is needed IMO. I usually recommend 5% weekly and maybe an occasional larger water change.

On my 215 I do 40 gallons every few weeks. My maintenance habits are not dependable enough to do the 5% weekly routine.



Salt used: Instant Ocean (yeah, I'm a cheapo)


It's a good salt even if it is cheap.

[LoneStar]

Weekly water changes with Instant Ocean. I change out roughly 8%.

[::pete::]

I do weekly changes as well.

[NaCl_H2O]

Instant Ocean + a little Turbo Calcium, 20% once every two weeks

[bigdscobra]

I do about 10% every week and dose nothing. I would do yours onece a week instead of twice you will be letting the minerals/stuff in the salt be used up and replenshing every week.

[bigdscobra]

I use to do 10% every couple of weeks but now do 10% every week, have been doing this for over a month after seeing Petes tank and already notice a difference.

[gjuarez]

15% water changes every week

[Henry]

35-40gal every three weeks on a 180. I don't dose anything. I don't even have a calcium reactor yet.

[GaryP]

I should say that I'm considering a change to only one 12ga water change per week since my nitrates are at or near 0 and I'm getting a little tired of the high maintenance.
Water changes are an extremely poor way to control nutrients and not really the reason we do them anyway. Remember that if you are doing a 10% water change, then you are only reducing the concentration of the "bad stuff" by 10%. We need to stop thinking of water changes as a method for nutrient export and more of a means of nutrient import (the good kind such as trace elements).

For example: If your Nitrates were 10 ppm, they would be 9 ppm after the water change.

By the time you do another water change your nitrates would be back to 10 ppm again and you would not have made any real impact.

[MikeyBoy]

I do about 15% once a month............as an import as Gary states.
I feel like I am using good nutrients faster than I am removing the bad by skimming, carbon, etc.

[jason]

25% per month.

[MikeP]

I do 10 percent (30 gallons) once a month. May occasionally do 20 % every 3 - 4 months.

[hobogato]

30 gallons (10%) every three weeks to a month.

[mathias]

Hmmmm never..... unless I see its needed....


don't keep to many corals just some zoo's and such

but I do dose..... and test my water...

[Shark_Bait]

Your supposed to change it??? just kidding.
I do not do regular water changes (though I know I should). But I do add calcium and trace elements to my make up water. I do 20% changes when it starts needing it. Don't know if it's just me but I can kinda "read" the corals.
but not a SPS keeper either. LPS and softies.

[lachrimae]

There are some interesting trends here. Fewer water changes than I would have guessed & that's not a bad thing.

For those of you that do water changes not to remove the bad, but to replenish the good: Do you test for each of the trace elements that a water change provides in order to decide when it's time? I don't currently test for anything beyond the norm (phosphate/nitrate/nitrite/ammonia/SG/calcium/dKH/PH etc..). I don't even have test kits for Iodine/Iodide/Iron/Myoblendium/etc...

Mark

[JeffCo]

I do 50 gallon water changes every 2 weeks. Use instant ocean and add turbo calcium.

I don't think most people test for Iodine/Iodide/Iron/Myoblendium.

[GaryP]

A lot of it has to do with how much filtration equipment you have. Some of these guys have skimmers that suck everything but the salt out of the water and a fuge as big as most tanks. Someone with a Nano with little or no filtration is on the opposite end of the spectrum.

I do 15% every 2 weeks. If I stretch it to 3 weeks I will do to 20-25%. Every 3 months or so I will do a series of 25% water changes. These larger changes are to restore ionic balance due to the additives I am using.

[brewercm]

I agree totally with Garys points on the ideas of water changes with a little different thought. I only change about every month or two with a good 25% to 40% change. My thought is if I do smaller changes in the 5 to 10% range every week I'm not really replinishing nearly as much but on a more regular basis true.

In other words every time I were to do a gallon (5%) change a week on a 100 gallon tank you would say that I replace 5% of the water and the good stuff from the salt. When I change another 5gallons for five consecutive weeks I'm not putting nearly as much good stuff from the salt into the system as if I did a 25 gallon change. This is because of the 5 gallons I put in the week before I'm pulling some out also with the next change.

Just my thinking and the way I do it. Of course you can look at it that the corals are using up that 5% per week so each week I'm keeping the levels up also I suppose if your tank demands that much.

[z28pwr]

I do a water change whenever it seems necessary. I've gone 6 months without a water change with no problems, but I do have 350 lbs of LiveRock and 11 fish in a 380 gallon aquarium.

[NaCLreefer]

how does topping off evaporated water affect the tank? are we still adding trace nutrients when we are adding ro/di water?

[bigdscobra]

Topping off evaporated water keeps the salinity constant, ro/di has no nutrients in it thats why the salt has so much if you have a good Ro/di unit your water will only have ~.001% of trace elements left in it, at least thats what my 6 stage unit claims.

All I know is from experience and my system is ~105g or soo and doing a 10g water change every week has made a difference. My softies are bigger than ever, my open brain is huge and I have noticed greater polyp extention in SPS. I have no fancy equipment just a 20g fuge, seaclone 100, and some filters to add carbon. :D

I use to do the water changes when ever maybe twice a month, but the last 2 months I have been doing them every week and thats why I notice the difference.

I plan on doing the same this summer when I get the 180g reef setup but with sump, fuge and prop tank ~400g system, I am looking at 40g every week water change.

[NaCLreefer]

thanks for the answer!