How much per water change?
- Thread starter Crayzeeforinverts
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PatW
2500 Club Member
Most people go with about 10%. Some people change water weekly. Others change water every two weeks. Some change water every month.
It really depends on your system, your nutrient export system and your dosing.
If you have a fish only, your system will probably not deplete anything very quickly. So here, the major need is nutrient export. But if you have systems in place to handle nutrient export, you can probably get by with modest water changes.
If you use water changes for nutrient export and have a bunch of fish in your system, you might need to do large and frequent water changes. This approach can work very well for small systems like 40 gallons and smaller. It might be more cost effective to just make massive water changes rather than invest in elaborate nutrient export.
It really depends on your system, your nutrient export system and your dosing.
If you have a fish only, your system will probably not deplete anything very quickly. So here, the major need is nutrient export. But if you have systems in place to handle nutrient export, you can probably get by with modest water changes.
If you use water changes for nutrient export and have a bunch of fish in your system, you might need to do large and frequent water changes. This approach can work very well for small systems like 40 gallons and smaller. It might be more cost effective to just make massive water changes rather than invest in elaborate nutrient export.
Biokabe
Valuable Member
There really isn't a hard and fast rule. I see anywhere from 0%-30%. A lot of it really depends on the reason for your water change. Some reefing systems virtually eliminate water changes - protein skimming and a refugium take care of the export needs, dosing and feeding do for nutrient replenishment. The more aggressive your active export measures and dosing schedules are, the less frequently you'll need to do them and the smaller you'll need to make each change.
Everything Aquatics
Well-Known Member
I do 15 percent per week
mike550
Valuable Member
@Crayzeeforinverts Here is a link to a similar question I had.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/whats-the-magic-of-10-weekly-water-changes.725978/
Hopefully, I copied the link right.
Personally, I do 10% weekly water changes. Nice way of refreshing the tank without changing so much volume that I have to worry about big parameter swings. etc.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/whats-the-magic-of-10-weekly-water-changes.725978/
Hopefully, I copied the link right.
Personally, I do 10% weekly water changes. Nice way of refreshing the tank without changing so much volume that I have to worry about big parameter swings. etc.
piranhaman00
5000 Club Member
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I’m about to do 50% on fish only.
I do 10% a week religiously until the tank is well established. This can take 6 months to a year. Then I can go 10% at up to 2 weeks or more depending on how busy I am. But I generally still try to keep it once a week.
These are the two biggest polls on R2R related to this. Hundreds voted.
Most do weekly water changes between 10-20 percent(choices were voted really close)
I personally do weekly 20-25 percent water changes.
water change frequency source R2R
How much water do you change source R2R
Most do weekly water changes between 10-20 percent(choices were voted really close)
I personally do weekly 20-25 percent water changes.
water change frequency source R2R
How much water do you change source R2R
The first couple years when I was running a skimmer and other filter media I was doing 10% every other week. Now I do not run skimmer or any other mechanical filtration I do larger 40-60% changes once every 4-6 weeks.
