A Water Change A Day...

mcarroll · Oct 10, 2013

Measure water of a known specific gravity (Preferably your tank's) and mark the hydrometer accordingly.

A buddy or LFS with a refractometer can measure any sample or they sell so-called reference standard solutions and you can get one for 35 ppm salinity.

You use one fluid or the other to calibrate your swing arm.

Hope this helps!

-Matt

mcarroll · Oct 10, 2013

Water change #10!

I can't remember running my 44-gallon brute can dry this fast.

LOL

Now to make more!

-Matt

P.S. There were exactly five gallons left!

Connie · Oct 10, 2013

Can you tell a significant difference yet? I bet you have PE all over the place!

mcarroll · Oct 11, 2013

I've never really had issues w/polyp extension, so no difference to notice there.

If I were testing, I'd probably have some parameter improvements to reports...

I manually removed a few little patches of algae and cyano, so I guess I would like to see those not return.

I also blasted out detritus from my rocks - probably a few more rounds of that, maybe followed by some siphoning to get the last bits off the bare bottom.

Other than that, things are visually about as they were.

-Matt

mcarroll · Oct 12, 2013

Water change #11.

Late on posting it again! Aah!

-Matt

Reef Fever · Oct 13, 2013

i may do 2-3 gallons a day, which is equal to the 10 gallons a week i do now, might help keep things more stable. system is 104gal

glb · Oct 13, 2013

mcarroll said:
Water change #11.

Late on posting it again! Aah!

-Matt

Any difference yet?

FaviaFreak · Oct 13, 2013

I do this on my acro system at work, I do a 5% WC daily to maintain alk since I don't dose or use a reactor

mcarroll · Oct 13, 2013

I wouldn't be expecting dramatic changes in a reef tank unless something was wrong. Nothing was really wrong, and it's only been 10 days!

Remember: "Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank."

I'm looking at this as a marathon, not the sprint a traditional water change regime would be.

Had to take a break yesterday, for example, but the pace I set for myself is 5 changes per week. I'd still be ahead of the pack..if there were a pack. LOL.

Will be back on-schedule today.

-Matt

mcarroll · Oct 13, 2013

Reef Fever said:
i may do 2-3 gallons a day, which is equal to the 10 gallons a week i do now, might help keep things more stable. system is 104gal

May as well "splurge" for a whole 5 gallon bucket unless that's totally overkill for the stage your system is in.

(And remember that 10 gallons broken out this way is more equivalent to probably 7-8 gallons done all at once.)

Post back here and let me know how you like it at first. Took me a few tries to get a smooth and quick system worked out.

-Matt

mcarroll · Oct 13, 2013

Water change #12!

Biggest change so far is that I'm starting to get a little more inspired about the future of this tank. Don't hold me to it, but I think it may be time to tear down all my big colonies (skeletons and all) and re-seed. Okay, it's way past time..but for some reason I hate to do it!

More to come...

-Matt

Reef Fever · Oct 13, 2013

mcarroll said:
May as well "splurge" for a whole 5 gallon bucket unless that's totally overkill for the stage your system is in. (And remember that 10 gallons broken out this way is more equivalent to probably 7-8 gallons done all at once.)

Post back here and let me know how you like it at first. Took me a few tries to get a smooth and quick system worked out.

-Matt

when i get my new RO unit i will probably do 5 a day, right now im getting water from the store so its a bit of a pain to make constant trips lol

mcarroll · Oct 13, 2013

Reef Fever said:
when i get my new RO unit i will probably do 5 a day, right now im getting water from the store so its a bit of a pain to make constant trips lol

That is a pain...totally understand!

Obvious answer is to get more buckets, but maybe hard to justify if you just wanna try this out and you have near-term plans for homemade water.

Still post back here and lemme know when you start with your 2-3 gallons! The upside is that 2-3 will be super quick and super easy to pull off.

-Matt

Reef Fever · Oct 14, 2013

mcarroll said:
That is a pain...totally understand!

Obvious answer is to get more buckets, but maybe hard to justify if you just wanna try this out and you have near-term plans for homemade water.

Still post back here and lemme know when you start with your 2-3 gallons! The upside is that 2-3 will be super quick and super easy to pull off.

-Matt

Will do!

And most definitely, should be able to do it without having to turn any pumps or powerheads off!

-Jeremy

revhtree · Oct 14, 2013

Following!

ReefPiracy · Oct 14, 2013

Really think this will help trace elements by dosing daily. I find my mag starts to drop and trace elements go bye bye by the time I get to my water change. Which only happens when I have time. Nothing that crashes the system but longer term growth/calcification may be better.

bknapp · Oct 14, 2013

I used this method when I first started in the reefing hobby, I was doing anywhere between 5-7 water changes a day. This was on a smaller zoa dominated 29 gallon, no sump set up and had what I thought (at the time) was good growth.

After seeing this thread I decided to try it on my new set up (one year old) that is 110 gallons and is SPS dominated. I started last Saturday (10-5) and did two five gallon water changes on that first Saturday (10-5) and that Sunday (10-6) and have done a single five gallon water change a day since. I had been doing two five gallon water changes a week since this tank was set up. I also run bio pellets, an algae scrubber and use a SRO skimmer.

I will report back to this thread with any results and findings I find/have.

Deinonych · Oct 14, 2013

Eienna said:
I know. It'll be in my next set of purchases. Any you recommend?

I use the Milwaukee digital refractometer. Definitely more pricey than the prism refractometers, but it's extremely accurate and foolproof. I had a Marine Depot one before this one. It worked pretty well, but after a year or so it wouldn't calibrate properly. Maybe I just had a defective one.

K_red_raider · Oct 14, 2013

I usually do a 15 gallon change on my 120 SPS dominate tank weekly but have been thinking about building a water box out of acrylic with two big chambers and doing a 2 gallon change every day or just continuos slow change with using a dosing pump to see if that would make the water more stable before and after changes.

I will be watching this thread to see your results.